Details

A passionate foodie since birth, Victoria cooked her way across the European snowfields and then in France and Holland before moving to the United States. There Victoria studied commercial cookery and graduated at the American Culinary Federation as a Certified Chef. Returning to Australia she has cooked alongside top chefs including Gabriel Gate, Guy Grossi, Rick Stein, Christine Mansfield and Stefano Di Pieri. Victoria has been studying raw food for the past five years.

Omid’s earliest memories revolve around the kitchen and garden of his grandmother’s house in northern Tehran. At the age of 17, Omid left school and began working in Auckland restaurants; this led to being mentored by some inspirational teachers including Richard Ranson. Ruth Watson’s exclusive restaurant The Crown & Castle Hotel, in Oxford, elevated Omid’s knowledge of food presentation and the techniques of modern fusion cooking to a whole new level. The word ‘fresh’ also took on a whole new meaning for him after discovering the lengths Watson’s kitchen went to in sourcing fresh, high-end produce.

Omid’s second life-changing experience was a stint at the fabled River Café in London, from which he now models the café’s exacting quality standards. Omid started botanical cuisine in 2010 believing that there are unexplored opportunities to create new and interesting dishes from nature’s bounty.

Additional Details

Please wear covered shoes suitable for working in the kitchen.

Enter the College via the main reception area, which is located near the end of Cromwell Street, and follow the signs to the kitchen.

Public transport is often a good way to get to Collingwood College, with Collingwood train station only minutes away. However, on Saturdays there is usually parking available in the immediate vicinity of the College. Other parking options are generally the north and south sides of Hoddle Street, in Gipps Street and in the parking zone at the end of Islington Street.

Please note, the Foundation endeavours to proceed with each Public Workshop as planned, however in the instance of very low numbers of registrants or other unfortunate events we reserve the right to cancel a workshop up to 48 hours before scheduled. In all cases we will do our utmost to inform registrants a week in advance of any cancellation, and a 100% refund will be made.