Sylvia is passionate about helping those who cannot cook and inspiring those who can.
In her highly popular Hands-on Cooking Classes, which reflect the informal warm-friendly atmosphere of similar home-based cooking schools of Europe, Sylvia will share with you her passion, experience and skills in a diverse range of cultural cuisines and cooking styles, and assist you in taking advantage of fresh seasonal regional produce. Class numbers are kept deliberately small enabling a very personal experience where Sylvia leads you through each recipe step by step. As an extension to her career as a self-taught chef/passionate cook, Sylvia swapped her chef's jacket for a more casual and personalised approach to inspiring people about good food and cooking. Her unique ability to embrace and communicate many different cultural influences in food and cooking has enabled her to teach and share with you dishes from simple and seasonal Italian, German and French cuisine to North East European, Spanish, Tapas, Moroccan, North African, Middle Eastern, South East Asian, Thai, Chinese and Japanese. She will help you prepare fabulous food and give you practical cooking skills to last you a lifetime. Her quality recipe demonstrations and comprehensive friendly personal hands-on tuition will empower you to achieve delicious meals and her classes will also take you on a sumptuous culinary journey to places you may not yet have been!
Feel welcome and at ease. Leave inspired and confident. Embrace the exotic. Explore the unknown. Taste new flavours. Experiment with new cooking techniques and ingredients. Enjoy a wonderful time of creative cooking with a good food experience in one of Sylvia’s very special cooking classes with a difference.
Information to help you choose a Cooking Class from our Seasonal Class Calendar:
THE TABLE SERIES - Is an eclectic mix of different cuisines from around the world. All dishes in each menu are designed for everyday living. It is how we eat at home, Italian one day, Thai the next, Spanish another. In Table 1 & 2 for each cuisine you will learn about the history, culture, fundamental ingredients and cooking techniques of that cuisine. There is no need to do 1 before 2, you can join in at any stage. You can cook the whole menu, just one dish, or incorporate some of the ingredients and techniques learnt in the recipes into your daily cooking, and we encourage you to embrace the flavours these delicious flexible menus offer. After all, Australia is a multicultural country, so come and excite your palate!
SEASONAL ITALIAN - Besides Italian being part of The Table Series, these classes will encompass Italian staples such as fresh handmade pasta and dry pasta with accompanying sauces, risotto, gnocchi, polenta and more. These classes will teach you how to use these staples in seasonal ways and help you create simply delicious everyday dishes for all the family.
SPECIALTY CLASSES, something for everyone - Includes the continuing series of Tapas and Paella. Specialty Classes will be woven into the various Seasonal Class Calendars. Look out for: Deliciously Simple Meals ('stress free' cooking for busy full-time working people), Cooking with the Seasons, Baking - Breads & Pastries, Sherry & Tapas, Game Cookery, Fabulous Fish, Simply Seafood (fish and shellfish), Kitchen Garden (home grown produce to table), Vegetarian (meat eaters welcome!), Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Vegan, Fresh Herbs, Spices, Australian Indigenous Ingredients, Cheeses, and many more. Also, talk to us about Children's Cooking Classes and Parties. (Sometimes a dish may overlap from another class, but diversity of dishes & ingredients will still be paramount).
BACK TO BASICS - Cooking Classes especially designed for less experienced cooks, young people leaving home for university or work, singles, men and women, young couples, older couples, newly weds and the like. Our main goal here is to empower people to cook well for themselves, partners, friends and family instead of opting for often expensive and unhealthy fast/'junk' food or pre-prepared pre-packaged food. Classes include: knife skills, food hygiene, basic pantry, basic utensils and equipment, fresh food shopping and a variety of deliciously simple and easy to prepare dishes using fresh seasonal produce. The recipes, skills and tastes experienced here will help and inspire those attending to cook and eat well, and also realise that cooking is sociable and fun! Sylvia has been tutoring Back to Basics in Private Classes for nearly four years with great results. Please contact Sylvia to discuss a class.
If there's a cooking class you particularly would like to attend and it's not in our Seasonal Class Calendar or above, please feel free to make suggestions, if enough people are interested, we shall run the class. You can also do this via our PRIVATE COOKING CLASSES (refer to bottom of this page).
Sylvia’s Kitchen Cooking Classes also make an ideal gift for family or friends, or for those who have almost everything! Please go to our Gift Vouchers for further details.
DETAILS ON WHAT IS INCLUDED IN THE CLASS & ALL INCLUSIVE FEE: Classes are conducted mainly on Saturdays and some weekdays in Sylvia’s own kitchen at Riverside (just 5 minutes from Launceston CBD, Tasmania) where you will share the cooking and dining experience with a small group of other food lovers. They are designed for both teenagers and adults and cater to all levels of cooking skill and ability. Sylvia supplies all quality ingredients including fresh seasonal local and organic produce. Duration of classes is usually around 4 to 5 hours and includes a delicious shared lingering lunch with complimentary beverages and excellent locally roasted coffee. All Classes are casual, informative, interactive, warm, friendly and fun!
Sylvia’s Kitchen Cooking Class experience offers the benefits of:
Small class numbers where you receive personalised
hands-on tuition and partake in stimulating group discussion.
Friendly quality step by step instruction with a combination
of demonstrations and hands-on practical cooking.
Comprehensive notes with clearly-printed tried and tested
realistic recipes for you to take home.
Valuable food and shopping tips, hints and cooking techniques.
Excellent quality produce and ingredients used including organic,
with details on where to buy certain ingredients locally and how to
use them.
Advice on choice of beverage to match the class menu.
A delicious shared meal of the good food cooked in class
or generous tastings during the class.
Choose from the tempting and delicious classes detailed in the current Seasonal Class Calendar.
Sylvia is also delighted to conduct PRIVATE COOKING CLASSES for you and a group of friends in the relaxed atmosphere and comfort of your own kitchen or venue of your choice. Private Class numbers depend on the size of your chosen kitchen and can vary from four to eight per group with fees depending on the size of the group. Sylvia will assist you in planning, logistics, equipment, etc. so that the day runs smoothly.
Private Classes can be conducted as one-on-one tuition or for couples, newly-weds, cooking for one, for retirees and for teenagers or young adults leaving home. Classes can be designed to teach basic cooking skills through to more complex classes, or as those listed in the Seasonal Class Calendar. Classes can even be personalised based on your individual food interests.
Please contact to discuss a mutually convenient date and time for your Private Cooking Class. And remember, you can give a Gift Voucher to a loved one and to those lovers of a good food experience!
