MELBOURNE | After a brief break and a generous renovation, South Melbourne Market‘s cooking school is back as The NEFF Market Kitchen. Through a partnership with kitchen appliance manufacturer NEFF, the new look school offers facilities at home in professional kitchens, and with professional chefs.
For those unfamiliar with the area, the kitchen is located on the Cecil Street side of the market and is easily accessible via the 96 or 11 trams, or the local railway station. Like its next door neighbour, South Melbourne Market Dim Sims, the cooking school has long been an institution within the area.
Purposely and thoughtfully redesigned by the team at Adele Bates Design, the kitchen is modern, bright, and welcoming with the aesthetic designed to feel both residential and a commercial. It’s a little bit intimate too, at least when compared to something like a school classroom, but this seems to make it right at home within the market. Based on reports from the instructors we met, the new design boasts a significant change from the original, with darker woodgrains replaced with a more elegant light wood-look.
Launched with a ribbon cutting by the mayor of the City of Port Phillip Amanda Stevens and Councilor Andrew Bond, the NEFF Market Kitchen launch also boasted the skills of Coda and Tonka chef, Adam D’Sylva who made himself at home in the kitchen making his signature curry. The kitchen is also supported by some of Australia’s finest chefs such as Daniel Wilson from Huxtable, Luke Croston from The Press Club, and Jesse Gerner from Bomba, Anada, and Green Park Dining just to name a few. You can read about our experience at The NEFF Market Kitchen with Jesse Gerner later this week.
As noted by South Melbourne Market general manager Ross Williamson, “South Melbourne Market is a quintessential village market – a place where people come not only to purchase fresh food, but to meet, eat, drink, shop, discover and connect.” The connection between the market kitchen and the market was further highlighted with the launch organiser’s decision to choose the always excellent South Melbourne Market favourite Sarah Carnegie to provide the music for the evening.
Looking beyond the launch and to the school itself, the available classes cover a wide variety of cuisines such as Peruvian, Vietnamese, and of course dumplings, with the latter is run by the excellent Lou Wang of Dumpling Mania. These are run in day, night, and on weekends, depending on the session.
In the end, the NEFF Market Kitchen is shiny, elegant, and filled with some of the finest chefs Australia has to offer. Whatever cuisine you want to learn, I suspect you’ll find out how here.
The NEFF Market Kitchen
Stall 90
Cecil St
South Melbourne Market, South Melbourne
Victoria 3205
Australia
Website: http://southmelbournemarket.com.au/cooking-school/
Open for day and night sessions. Please see individual sessions for details.