Working in the food industry always brings such joy for me. Foodies seem to share a real passion for not only food, but also the experiences surrounding food – friends, laughter, a little indulging, mixed with a little adventure – to a foodie, food is very much synonymous with fun.
My experience at Freestyle Escape was very much all of the above and as with previous experiences always leaves me with a smile on my face.
Freestyle Escape is the dream-made-reality property of Martin Duncan based high on the hills of Dulong. Picturesque is really a bit of an understatement as it is so much more than that. A rolling hillside with a picture perfect ‘arthouse’ perched halfway up the hill and the beautiful and statuesque luxury accommodation house perched on top make for a pretty extraordinary experience if you are overnighting.
But my visit was for the purpose of spending time at my favourite feature of Freestyle Escape which is the outdoor kitchen that takes pride of place at the base of the property – which incidentally still has the most extraordinary views.
What could be more wonderful than constructing a fabulous meal in the middle of nature, birds twittering, and soft breezes willowing? I will tell you, creating it with the aid of some wonderful chefs who make the experience not only informative, but fun.
You see, Freestyle Escape host some of the most wonderful cooking classes. So far they have had chef’s such as Martin Boetz (Longrain) and Bruno Loubet (on a special visit from the UK) as well as some specialist cooking classes such as jam making and even a recent workshop for the construction of a wood fired pizza oven (Myrtle).
Now I have never been a big one for cooking classes. In fact I was always of the opinion “what do I need to go to a cooking class for – I can cook”. But cooking classes are so much more than that and for me it has become more about the foodie interaction more than anything else. These classes are a hoot and you always come home with some form of hidden knowledge that you didn’t think you needed to know.
So this week my visit was to gatecrash a Jam and Relish Making class which was being led by Jamie Milverton from Jamie’s Gourmet, just in time to view the bottling process and ummm… lunch.
Lunch was a real novelty, with about 20 of us taking tutelage from Cameron the chef from Spicers Covelly Estate at Montville on how to construct our own pizzas. Cameron supplied the dough (which was fabulous) and we set about kneading, rolling and layering it with some tasty cured sausages, semi sundried tomatoes, figs, herbs and bocconcini.
Between Jamie, Cameron, Martin and David, we managed to get our pizzas baked to perfection in Myrtle (the woodfired oven) who was performing beautifully for us all. Needless to say the wine flowed freely, as did the conversation and a fantastic afternoon was had by all.
So cooking classes have now become a bit of a favourite pastime for me, as long as I get to eat at the end of it, I am a happy girl 🙂
Freestyle Escape has a number of specialist classes coming up. Amongst them a breadmaking class led by Richard Cotton, an artisan bread maker and owner of Brewbakers, a quirky local bread shop and cafe in Brisbane.
Then there is always Jamie, who actually comes to your home to conduct in-house classes for a bunch of friends. I don’t think cooking has ever been so much fun.
For more information about the Freestyle Escape Cooking Experiences visit:
http://freestyleescape.com.au/experience
This post was written by Petra Frieser – Local Harvest
Author: Local Harvest
About the Author: Local Harvest
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