Australian Chef Pauline Leonard (pictured), best known for the cooking classes she runs at the Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne, has been conducting gourmet food & wine weekend tours for small groups since 2009. To coincide with the launch of a new Gourmet Tasting Tour of Healesville, in Victoria’s Yarra Valley, she has launched her new website ‘Taste Cook Travel’.
In addition to offering gourmet food & wine tours in Victoria, Taste Cook Travel publishes free recipes and a blog. Taste Cook Travel also offers Italian Tours for those who share Pauline Leonard’s ‘absolute love affair with food’.
The first Gourmet Tasting Tour in Healesville is on Saturday 15 September departing from the Healesville Visitor Information Centre at 9.30am. Bookings can be made by email via the website Taste Cook Travel or by phone (03) 5968 3963.
Pauline Leonard says of the new tours, “The tour lasts three hours, and people get to sip, sample, taste and try boutique hand-made wines, chocolates, preserves, biscuits and cheeses – at small producers’ kitchens and premises, all within walking distance of Healesville’s main street.”
Pauline has been conducting gourmet food & wine weekend tours to the Yarra Valley for small, exclusive groups since 2009 and more recently added Mornington Peninsula weekend tours to her calendar. The group is given behind the scenes access to meet the winemakers, take part in hands on cooking classes and learn about the region and the delicacies it produces.
Twice a year, and on demand, Taste Cook Travel run 10 day culinary tours to the Chianti region of Tuscany. Staying in medieval castles, enjoying cooking classes and market tours with local Italian chefs, the groups immerse themselves in traditional Italian life within bustling ancient hamlets. Next tour, chef Gary Cooper of Bella Vedere fame, will be accompanying the group and running cooking classes and market tours for the group in Italy.