South Australia Combines Food, Wine and Adventure

Destination & Tourism | James Ruggia | May 20, 2015

To outsiders, South Australia is probably most famous for the nature and wildlife experiences that are enshrined at Kangaroo Island, but among Australians that state is probably more famous for its various wine regions, artisanal food producers and the restaurants of Adelaide. The state’s food and wine heritage is rooted in its history as a refuge for German immigrants in the 19^th century. The wine regions, easily accessed from Adelaide, give visitors more than just a gourmet romp, but also an experience of beautiful scenery and cultural heritage.

Adelaide, the capital of South Australia and one of the New York Times Top 52 places to go in 2015, is a city of a million people surrounded by parks and packed with museums, cafes and restaurants. The Central Market, the largest covered market in the Southern Hemisphere, is an emblem of how seriously food and wine are taken there. And it should be; more than 60 percent of the wine that Australia exports comes from the state.

The South Australia Tourism Commission created the Epicurean Way, a self-drive journey that encompasses the state’s four wine regions: the Barossa Valley, the Clare Valley, the Adelaide Hills and the McLaren Vale. The drive goes from regional farming to coastal seafood harvests with hands-on cooking classes and immersive wine and craft beer tastings along the way. Travelers on the Epicurean Way can make their own wine blend at Penfolds or d’Arenberg; cycle from vineyard to vineyard along the “Riesling Trail” in Clare Valley or take cooking classes such as the Sticky Rice Cooking School in Adelaide Hills.

Sticky Rice shows guests how to create restaurant-quality dishes in Asian, Spanish and Moroccan cuisine. Sticky Rice has three villas, where visitors can extend their stay one or more nights. There are more than 50 cellar doors in the Adelaide Hills. Also in the Adelaide Hills, Udder Delights Cheese Maker, Sheree Sullivan, has been teaching home cheese making classes since 2007. Her Easy Cheesy Home Cheese Making Class teaches students two different styles of cheese making. The class includes an extensive cheese tasting, coffee, light lunch and wine.

The Food Luddite is run by Chef Mark McNamara in the Barossa Valley. The classes focus on where food comes from, how it grows and simple ways to prepare it. Conducted in small groups, classes are available year round at the Kitchen Studio, a bright creative space designed to make cooking and learning enjoyable.

Casa Carboni, in the Barossa, teaches a blend of Italian and South Australian flavors. The Carboni family, who moved from Parma, offers a cooking school for intimate groups to learn to make pasta and other Italian fare in a class using Barossa Farmers Market’s seasonal produce.  Jacob’s Creek Cooking Classes are held in the outdoor kitchen at the historic Jacob’s Estate Cottages in the Barossa. The four-hour experience is led by Executive Chef, Genevieve Harris.

If you’re worried about all of that drinking and driving, you can hire a service such as Vineyard Safaris, which tours the vineyards in a limousine with Master of Wine Tim Wildman leading the way from one cellar door to the next. The tours depart from Adelaide and are offered from November to April and accommodate up to four people.

While food and wine are a focus in South Australia there’s also plenty in the way of soft

adventure activities such as hiking, diving and mountain biking. You can even swim with sharks on the Eyre Peninsula or catch a sea-lion colony on Kangaroo Island.

Adventure Bay Charters’ Shark Warrior ship uses a six-seat Aqua Sub to offer a new way to view great white sharks in their natural habitat without the need to be fitted in wetsuits and oxygen equipment. The boat operates out of Port Lincoln and takes travelers to the shark-infested waters of Neptune Islands, two and a half hours off the coast of the Eyre Peninsula, where the pod is lowered into the ocean and passengers can climb down into the glass-enclosed viewing area that provides 360-degree underwater views, almost like a reverse aquarium. The Shark Warrior departs from Port Lincoln, with both “Aqua Sub” passengers and traditional shark cage divers on board.

South Australia is also home to Coober Pedy, the world’s opal mining capital. Willie Hutchison stumbled on the first opal near Coober Pedy around a century ago. Shortly after, the miners began pouring in. The town is about 500 miles north of Adelaide. Avoid it during the Australian summer when it gets well over 100°.

Adelaide will open a 32-story 250-room Sofitel hotel in 2018, and it will be the first internationally branded five-star hotel opening in the capital in nearly 30 years. In the past year, The Mayfair, The Watson, and the Ibis have also opened.

For something much smaller, the Art Series Hotel Group opened The Watson in September, a boutique hotel and residences that celebrate the creative genius of the hotel’s name-sake indigenous Australian artist, Tommy Watson. The 140-suite hotel offers art tours and features original artwork by Watson in each suite and throughout the hotel. The hotel is located in Walkerville, an Adelaide suburb about a 10 minute drive from the down town.

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9 cooking classes for the adventurous of spirit & palate-by Australian Traveller Magazine

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Wild Lime Cooking School offers its students accommodation in a Treehouse cottage

Sticky Rice Cooking School- South Australia

July 31, 2014

We’ve combed Australia’s cooking schools to find this top-shelf selection of cooking classes that are out of the ordinary in their food, philosophy and, of course, their locations (By: Greta Stonehouse).

1. The Agrarian Kitchen, Lachlan, Tasmania

Where better to learn the art of cooking wholesome food than where it comes from. The Agrarian Kitchen is a sustainable, farm-based cooking school in Tasmania’s Derwent Valley. One of the founders, Rodney Dunn, a former chef under Tetsuya, combines his passion for great cuisine with the pristine Tasmanian landscape – a foodie’s dreamland. See: The Agrarian Kitchen

2. Cape Lodge, Margaret River, Western Australia

Situated on its own vineyard and surrounded by the stunning Margaret River Wine Country, this five-star boutique resort is a blissful spot for a gourmet retreat. Cape Lodge is the kind of place where chefs such as Heston Blumenthal, Rick Stein and Adriano Zumbo stay. While cooking classes are held by some of Australia’s top chefs, they are not run regularly, which means getting your skates on and bee-lining for the River when they are. See: Cape Lodge

3. Bells at Killcare, NSW Central Coast

Bells at Killcare runs a monthly cooking school hosted by the head chef of Manfredi at Bells, Cameron Cansdell. The menu is forever changing, thanks to Manfredi’s traditional Italian cooking philosophy of only using seasonal, organic produce. Before attempting the simple Italian recipes, students handpick produce from the serene Bells gardens. The experience is then finished off by dining with the chefs while sipping on some award-winning Manfredi wines. See: Bells at Killcare

4. Chapel Hill Wine, McLaren Vale, South Australia

Chapel Hill Wine a cooking school, in the heart of fabulous McLaren Vale, encourages its students to develop the delicate taste of ‘umami’, the fifth sense of taste (corresponding to the flavour of glutamates, according to the Oxford dictionary). With classes led by the prize-winning chef Rebecca Stubbs, against a backdrop of rolling hills and expansive coastline, this is an ideal spot to get to know all five of your senses intimately. See: Chapel Hill Wine

5. Foragers, Pemberton, Western Australia

When Chris Zalokar combined his artisan building skills with Sophie’s Zalokar depth of cooking knowledge, this charming cooking school was born. Trained under Maggie Beer, Sophie was cooking around the world before she settled in the untouched southern forests of Pemberton, where Chris has built stylish farm accommodation. Classes range from hands-on cooking techniques to learning the fundamental skills of food production and, most importantly, cheese making. See: Foragers

6. Sticky Rice, Adelaide Hills, South Australia

With celebrity chefs like Poh dropping in to take a masterclass, Sticky Rice undoubtedly understands the art of Asian flavour. As well as pounding out aromatic curries and feasting on the rewards afterwards, students have the opportunity of staying in one in one of Sticky Rice’s villas modelled on Balinese, Thai, and Japanese architecture. See: Sticky Rice

7. Spirit House, Yandina, Sunshine Coast Hinterland

Nestled amongst tropical gardens and tranquil ponds, The Spirit House has the right amount of exotic ambience to transport its guests into the heart of Thailand. Home to an award-winning Asian food restaurant, this is a sublime spot for learning how to make the finest modern Thai cuisine.

8. Wild Lime Cooking School, Lamington National Park, Queensland

Hidden in the Lost World Valley in Queensland’s food basket, the Scenic Rim, is a cooking school with more than just your average view. The Wild Lime Cooking school offers snug ‘Treehouse Cottage’ accommodation, equipped with a fireplace and a balcony, so you can cook and relax all the while staring out at the World Heritage-listed rainforested mountains of Lamington National Park.

9. Flavours of the Valley, Kangaroo Valley, NSW

With a focus on locally sourced, quality produce, Flavours of the Valley offers a range of Mediterranean cooking techniques practiced against a backdrop of peaceful Kangaroo Valley. As well as classes, a ‘Tastes of the Valley’ mini-bus tour is available, going behind the scenes of the farmers, providores and makers of the gourmet food and wine on offer in this serene region.