Cooking classes near Adelaide

Our public classes are on the Fleurieu Peninsula: Hastwell and Lightfoot in McLaren Vale is about 45 minutes from town, Cut Hill Wall Distillery in Hindmarsh Valley is about an hour, and Bungala House and Lot 50 in Yankalilla are about an hour and ten minutes. For private and corporate groups we also run pasta, dumpling and mozzarella classes at Jackson Square, 57 Manton Street, Hindmarsh, five kilometres from the CBD. Every class is at a working venue, a cellar door, a distillery or an old homestead, rather than a training kitchen, and that setting is half the reason people make the drive.

For a class you can book a ticket to, Hastwell and Lightfoot in McLaren Vale, about 45 minutes down the Southern Expressway. It’s a cellar door, so the day comes with vines out the window and a drinks package you can add at the bar, and it hosts gnocchi, dumplings, paella and kingfish. For private and corporate groups who would rather not leave town, we also run classes at Jackson Square in Hindmarsh, five kilometres from the CBD, designed especially for the group booking. Public tickets are on the class calendar.

McLaren Vale is 45 minutes down the Southern Expressway, and Yankalilla, Hindmarsh Valley and Victor Harbor are an hour to an hour and a quarter. Yes, it’s worth it. A class on the Fleurieu is a day out rather than an appointment: you cook in a cellar door, a distillery or an 1856 homestead, then there are cellar doors, Normanville beach and coastal drives on the way home. Most of our weekend classes start at 11 or 11:30 in the morning so you can leave Adelaide after breakfast and be back before dinner, with dinner in your hands if it was a pasta class.

For private and corporate groups, Pasta Like Nonna Makes, The Ultimate Dumpling Making Experience and Exclusive Mozzarella Making at Jackson Square. They’re the same classes we run on the Fleurieu, with the same presenters and the same take-home food, in a city venue with the bar open. We don’t sell individual tickets to Adelaide classes, so if it’s just the two of you, the Fleurieu is where to book. Our sausage, pizza, hibachi steak, paella, kingfish and native cooking classes need a fire pit or a working kitchen, so those stay at Bungala House and Hastwell and Lightfoot in McLaren Vale.

To Jackson Square for a private group class, yes. Bowden station on the Outer Harbor line is a ten-minute walk, and buses along Port Road stop within 400 metres. There’s on-street parking on Manton Street if you do drive, and the Entertainment Centre car park is close by on nights without a show. Hastwell and Lightfoot is the exception on the Fleurieu: a bus to McLaren Vale and an Uber or taxi to the cellar door gets you there. The other Fleurieu venues really need a car or a designated driver.

Start with your dates, then your base. If you’re staying in McLaren Vale, look for gnocchi, dumplings, paella or kingfish at Hastwell and Lightfoot. If you’re heading further south to Victor Harbor or Normanville, the mozzarella and pasta classes at Cut Hill Wall Distillery and the sausage, pizza, hibachi steak and native classes at Bungala House are within 15 minutes of both. If you’re a group of 20 or more who would rather stay in the city, ask us about a private class at Jackson Square. Every class on the calendar shows its venue and start time, and if you’re celebrating something tell us at booking and we’ll make a fuss.

In the city, the Adelaide Central Market is the place to start, and Tasting Australia in May is the festival to plan around. Out of the city, the food is south. McLaren Vale’s cellar doors are 45 minutes away, the Willunga Farmers Market runs every Saturday morning, and a hands-on cooking class in a cellar door or a distillery is the one experience that sends you home with a skill rather than a memory. Do the class in the late morning and the cellar doors after, and you’ve covered the region’s two best things in a day.

It’s built to be one. Leave the city at 9:30, be at the bench by 11, cook until 1:30, then a cellar door, Normanville beach or the Willunga Farmers Market on the way home, back in Adelaide by five with dinner in a bag. The masterclasses with lunch push that to a full day out. Nobody needs to plan more than the class booking and a designated driver.

That’s exactly how to think of our masterclasses. For $160 to $200 you get two and a half to three hours at the bench, then a long table lunch of what you cooked, sausages, pizza, hibachi steak, paella or kingfish, in a homestead or a cellar door rather than a dining room. It costs about what a good lunch out costs on the Fleurieu, and you go home able to cook the meal again. The $125 classes work the other way round: cook, take it home, and eat it that night as dinner. If you’d like a proper restaurant meal after one of those, see the next question.

Both, one at a time. Pasta, gnocchi, mozzarella and pizza are Italian, taught the way a nonna would. Dumplings are mixed Asian, with our own fillings and flavours and several folding techniques. Paella and sangria are Spanish. Sausage making is a butchery skill with a South Australian pantry. The hibachi steak, kingfish and native cooking experiences are our own, built around native Australian ingredients like wattleseed, pepperberry, saltbush and lemon myrtle. Every class teaches a technique you’ll use again, not just a recipe.

Our pasta, gnocchi, mozzarella and dumpling classes are $125 per person. Sausage making with lunch and the pizza masterclass are $160. The paella masterclass and the native cooking experience are $180, and the hibachi steak masterclass and the kingfish are $200. The $125 classes send you home with what you made; the masterclasses from $160 up finish with a long table lunch at the venue, which is the main difference in price. What each ticket includes is on the class page and in our FAQ.

A gift voucher is the easy answer. Gift vouchers arrive by email, are valid for three years from purchase, and work on any class, masterclasses and add-on extras included, without tying the recipient to a date. For a couple, a pasta or mozzarella class is a shared afternoon with dinner to take home. For the person who has every gadget, the sausage, hibachi steak or native cooking masterclasses teach something they haven’t done.

For Dad, sausage making, the pizza masterclass or hibachi steak over the fire at Bungala House, all of which end in a long lunch. For Mum, mozzarella at the distillery, pasta or gnocchi with the food to take home. Either way a gift voucher lets them pick the date. Buy two and go with them, because the gift most parents actually want is the company.

Yes, and it’s an easy one, because the class gives everyone something to do with their hands and something to talk about. We get a lot of solo guests and they love it: benches and tables are shared, classes take up to 24, and the shared table at the end turns into a conversation more often than not. Pasta and dumplings are the most sociable classes, since everybody is rolling and folding at the same time and comparing results. Nobody is paired off and nobody is put on the spot; you just cook next to people who also like food.

A cooking class is the date that fixes the two problems with dinner: nothing to do and nothing to say. You share a bench for two and a half hours, make something together, and take dinner home to eat later. Mozzarella at Cut Hill Wall Distillery is the pick for a first or second date because it’s relaxed and you leave with cheese you made together. Pasta or gnocchi suit a couple who already cook together. Book the late morning class and you have the afternoon in McLaren Vale or on Normanville beach as well. The drive from Adelaide is part of it, so decide who’s driving.

A private cooking class is a hens day where everyone does something instead of watching the bride do it. Private groups of 8 to 24 book pasta, dumplings or mozzarella at Cut Hill Wall Distillery, Lot 50 or Hastwell and Lightfoot, with a drinks package at the bar where the venue has one, and can add the shared table lunch at Lost Phoenix Farm next to the distillery. For a hens day in town, Jackson Square in Hindmarsh takes groups of 20 and up with a bar package. Numbers, transport and what we do for the bride are in our FAQ. Tell us the date and the numbers and we’ll put it together.