City of Yarra calendar of events

This is a hands-on cooking experience with an expert cooking instructor. Learn about Korean cuisine, watch some cooking demonstrations, then enjoy eating the food with a complementary drink.

The menu: kimchi, Korean style spicy chicken; haejanggguk (beef, cabbage and spice paste stew); and spicy dipping sauce.

They will show you how to easily incorporate this little SCOBY into your daily routine. You will make some milk kefir and then move onto flavouring, making butter, labneh, catching the whey and then making a naturally fizzy and gut-loving soda. You’ll go home with: a milk kefir SCOBY in a jar and ready to feed when you get home; a whey soda flavoured with fresh fruit of your choice to finish fermenting at home; milk kefir cultured butter; and an illustrated recipe card.

This is a hands-on cooking experience with an expert cooking instructor. Learn about some bush foods, watch some cooking demonstrations, then enjoy eating the food with a complementary drink.

The menu: smoked kangaroo tenderloin or lamb racks; murray cod or barramundi steamed in banana leaf; damper ‘flatbread’ with mountain pepper; and bush pesto and goat’s cheese dip.

This is a hands-on cooking experience with an expert cooking instructor. Learn about Japanese cuisine, watch some cooking demonstrations, then enjoy eating the food with a complementary drink.

The menu in odd numbered months: sushi rolls; miso soup; tempura (mixed fried vegetables, prawn and soba noodles); and seaweed salad).

The menu in even numbered months: fish with citrus soy sauce; ramen (noodles); seafood stock; fried chicken; and fried and marinated eggplant.

Enter via O’Grady Street.

Every Saturday except during January.

No swap in December.

Open Table “take surplus food that would otherwise be thrown away, and turn it into nutritious meals to share with the community, in order to reduce food insecurity and food waste”.

It appears that there are some months when the meal doesn’t happen so check their website calendar before going.

This is a hands-on cooking experience with an expert cooking instructor. Learn about Thai cuisine, watch some cooking demonstrations, then enjoy eating the food with a complementary drink.

The menu: fish sauce dressing; green or red curry paste; fried corn fritters; green papaya salad; and green curry chicken or red curry duck.

Learn the basic techniques for bottling olives, drying herbs/fruits, jams and pickles, as well as ways to store food and use leftovers to minimise food waste.

Presenter: Maria Ciavarella. Organised by My Smart Garden.

This is a hands-on cooking experience with an expert cooking instructor. Learn about Vietnamese cuisine, watch some cooking demonstrations, then enjoy eating the food with a complementary drink.

The menu: fish sauce; mango/papaya salad; rice noodles with aromatic chicken broth; fried fish with dill and turmeric; and Vietnamese spring rolls.

Cristina Chang will show you how to make the classic Taiwanese dish, soy braised pork belly bass (aka gua bao). Learn the basics of fermentation and preserve your own mustard greens to take home, how to make and steam buns from scratch and how to make gua bao and spring onion knots. At the end, enjoy the dishes made in class at a communal dining table and take the rest of your hard work home.

This is a hands-on cooking experience with an expert cooking instructor. Learn about Mexican cuisine, watch some cooking demonstrations, then enjoy eating the food with a complementary drink.

The menu: tacos de guisado (stewed beef); tortillas; salsa rojo + salsa verde (roasted tomato and tomatillo sauces); ceviche con tostadas (lightly cured seasonal fish); and sopa de tortilla (tortilla soup).

You will learn what spores are exactly and what their prints mean before moving on to tools and techniques for efficient and environmentally-conscious mushroom hunting and correct foraging etiquette. Then you will learn how to identify wild mushrooms, the common species that you’re likely to come across, which edible mushrooms you can use in cooking, and medicinal species, as well as hallucinogenic species and the downright dangerous. Finally, you will learn about ways to cook mushrooms, preservation techniques and tincture preparation, before ending with a tasting of some wild mushrooms.

Presenter: Jess (Fraulein Fungi).

Enter via O’Grady Street.

Every Saturday except during January.

This is a fermenting ‘101’ class, where you will learn about salt, different preserving techniques, two of the most popular cabbage recipes (kraut and kimchi), a drink (kvass) and all about SCOBYs, with a focus on milk kefir. At the end, you will sit down for a chat and a bite to eat, including fermented foods and drinks to taste.

You will take home everything you make during the class: kimchi, sauerkraut, milk kefir butter, milk kefir with SCOBY, whey soda and kvass.

Open Table “take surplus food that would otherwise be thrown away, and turn it into nutritious meals to share with the community, in order to reduce food insecurity and food waste”.

It appears that there are some months when the meal doesn’t happen so check their website calendar before going.

This is a hands-on cooking experience with an expert cooking instructor. Learn about Sri Lankan cuisine, watch some cooking demonstrations, then enjoy eating the food with a complementary drink.

The menu: fried pea cakes with chutney; chicken curry; dhal lentil vegetarian curry; coconut sambol; and flavoured rice.

This is a hands-on cooking experience with an expert cooking instructor. Learn about Indian cuisine, watch some cooking demonstrations, then enjoy eating the food with a complementary drink.

The menu: chicken tikka masala; naan, mint raita; and palak paneer (cottage cheese and spinach curry).

Make four easy summer drinks. You will go home with 3 large jars full of kombucha, mead, beet kvass and water kefir with the SCOBY to be nurtured and ferment at home in your own kitchen, plus a bottle of second fermenting water kefir that will be ready the next day.

This is a hands-on cooking experience with an expert cooking instructor. Watch some cooking demonstrations, then enjoy eating the food with a complementary drink.

Depending on the month, the menu will include dishes from Japan, Korea, Vietnam or India.

This is a hands-on cooking experience with an expert cooking instructor. Learn about Japanese cuisine, watch some cooking demonstrations, then enjoy eating the food with a complementary drink.

The menu in odd numbered months: sushi rolls; miso soup; tempura (mixed fried vegetables, prawn and soba noodles); and seaweed salad).

The menu in even numbered months: fish with citrus soy sauce; ramen (noodles); seafood stock; fried chicken; and fried and marinated eggplant.

Discover the goodness of fermented soda, brimming with probiotics, compared to traditional sugary options. Learn about the basics of fermented drinks. Make three soda flavours.

Presenter: The Fermented Mumma.

This is a hands-on cooking experience with an expert cooking instructor. Learn about some bush foods, watch some cooking demonstrations, then enjoy eating the food with a complementary drink.

The menu: smoked kangaroo tenderloin or lamb racks; murray cod or barramundi steamed in banana leaf; damper ‘flatbread’ with mountain pepper; and bush pesto and goat’s cheese dip.

Learn to craft your own pizza dough from scratch. Taste a variety of topping combinations. Eat together at the end with complimentary drinks. Take home some dough balls.

Enter via O’Grady Street.

Every Saturday except during January.

Open Table “take surplus food that would otherwise be thrown away, and turn it into nutritious meals to share with the community, in order to reduce food insecurity and food waste”.

It appears that there are some months when the meal doesn’t happen so check their website calendar before going.

This is a hands-on cooking experience with an expert cooking instructor. Learn about Spanish cuisine, watch some cooking demonstrations, then enjoy eating the food with a complementary drink.

The menu: ham and cheese croquettes or salt cod croquettes; rice with seafood and chicken; capsicum sauce; and ham and manchego toast.

This is a hands-on cooking experience with an expert cooking instructor. Learn about Mexican cuisine, watch some cooking demonstrations, then enjoy eating the food with a complementary drink.

The menu: tacos de guisado (stewed beef); tortillas; salsa rojo + salsa verde (roasted tomato and tomatillo sauces); ceviche con tostadas (lightly cured seasonal fish); and sopa de tortilla (tortilla soup).

What you will learn:

• Experimenting with bread.
• The bread baking process with each step explained.
• How to replicate the process at home.

What you will get:

• 1 kilo of organic flour to take home.
• Pizza for lunch, which you make, eat and take home.
• An embroidered apron made from 100% Fairtrade cotton.

This is a hands-on cooking experience with an expert cooking instructor. Learn about Italian cuisine, watch some cooking demonstrations, then enjoy eating the food with a complementary drink.

The menu: eggplant and ricotta cooked with tomato sauce; fresh egg pasta; stewed beef chuck; and veal or pork cutlet with rocket salad.

This is a hands-on cooking experience with an expert cooking instructor. Learn about Greek cuisine, watch some cooking demonstrations, then enjoy eating the food with a complementary drink.

The menu: handmade pita bread; stuffed eggplant with lamb and cheese; lamb and chicken souvlaki; tzatziki; and zucchini fritters with feta.

The Fermented Mumma will discuss ingredient selection, starter care, and the processes of sourdough fermentation and baking. At the end, you will take your fermenting dough home to bake in the morning.

This is a hands-on cooking experience with an expert cooking instructor. Learn about Thai cuisine, watch some cooking demonstrations, then enjoy eating the food with a complementary drink.

The menu: fish sauce dressing; green or red curry paste; fried corn fritters; green papaya salad; and green curry chicken or red curry duck.

This is a hands-on cooking experience with an expert cooking instructor. Learn about Mexican cuisine, watch some cooking demonstrations, then enjoy eating the food with a complementary drink.

The menu: tacos de guisado (stewed beef); tortillas; salsa rojo + salsa verde (roasted tomato and tomatillo sauces); ceviche con tostadas (lightly cured seasonal fish); and sopa de tortilla (tortilla soup).

Enter via O’Grady Street.

Every Saturday except during January.