Cooking Demonstrations
Sponsored by GLAM Adelaide
Some of the best vegan cooks share their secrets at the Vegan Festival Adelaide Cooking Demonstrations. You don't just try a huge range of delicious vegan foods at the Festival, you can pick up tips on making your very own vegan feasts! This year's experts cook up vegan treats right in front of you in the Vegan Kitchen at the Cooking Demonstration tent.
Check out the Vegan Cookbook page for amazing awesome vegan recipes from the 2016-2020 Festivals.
The Vegan Italian Kitchen - Nadia Fragnito
Nadia Fragnito knows that Christmas is almost upon us, so what better time to start planning our vegan feast - Italian style! You will be shown how to create an indulgent main course and sides featuring classic recipes from regional Italy. This is a menu that is sure to impress!
Vegan Junkfood - Zacchary Bird
Zacchary Bird is the vegan butcher, the vegan baker and, above all, the vegan rule breaker. He’s vegan, BTW. No matter which hat he’s wearing, the job is the same: to perfect the plant-based version of absolutely every menu item known to humankind, and then some.
With a background in commercial plant-based meat development and teaching cooking classes (that go heavy on the deep-frying), Zac and his recipes alike are known for being extra AF. Flipping through his cookbooks will reveal a bounty of bold flavours, vibrant eye candy and (at times) bewildering creativity. Scrolling through his social media, you’ll find Zacchary teaching recipes as well as performing as a global dance icon (live from his living room), to kill time between tours of a croissant dough.
Zacchary’s first book, Vegan Junk Food was published in 2020 and was once used as a political prop by Jacinda Ardern. The Vegan Butcher won the PETA Australia Vegan Cookbook of the Year 2021, which Zacchary claims makes him the world’s number one vegan butcher/baker hybrid who can also do a backbend.
These days, Zac owns a Brisbane based vegan eatery and coffee bar called Archie AM PM.
Healthy Vegan! - Dr Heleen Haitjema
Dr Heleen Haitjema will prepare an array of dishes with tastings and discuss the health benefits of whole-food, plant-based cooking.
Dr Heleen Roex is a paediatrician (non practising), educated in the Netherlands (Doctor of Medicine, Cum Laude, University of Utrecht; Medical Specialist, Paediatrician, Free University Amsterdam). She holds a Certificate in Plant-Based Nutrition through eCornell University and has qualified as a Food For Life instructor with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in Washington DC. She conducts community courses in her hometown of Adelaide in this capacity.
Heleen has co-organised, presented at and attended numerous Australian, North American and European plant-based nutrition conferences, symposia, grand rounds and community events. She co-founded Doctors For Nutrition in 2018 with Lucy Stegley, and is chair of the Board of Directors.
Fresh Sourdough Pasta - Cherie Hausler
All recipes will come from my new cookbook, A Plant-based Farmhouse. I'll make a fresh sourdough pasta dough and then share with everyone the option to roll the dough into cavatelli. I will cook the cavatelli and add some Roasted Fennel and Pine Nuts for everyone to taste.
Download this year’s cookbook for delicious vegan meals and treats from our amazing line-up of cooks
Ditch Dairy for Life! - Rebecca Stoner
Dairy is one of the most unhealthy, most environmentally destructive and most unethical agricultural practices on the planet. With so many dairy alternatives on the market these days it seems surprising that not more people have made the switch. In my cooking demonstration I'll show everyone how easy it is to be dairy-free by creating an entirely plant-based 'cheeze', and a mouth-watering dessert that will make everyone ditch dairy for good!
Rebecca Stonor is a Wellbeing Officer, Plant Scientist and Plant-Based Nutrition Wellness Advocate. She has worked for nearly two decades in plant science and is certified in plant-based nutrition through eCornell University. She has used plant based eating to recover from multiple sclerosis and is now living symptom and relapse free. A passion for helping others has led her to sharing her story via workshops, plant-based cooking classes and public speaking engagements. Rebecca is passionate about showing others that nourishing plant- based food truly is medicine.
You can also join us at the Adelaide Central Market in the lead up to the festival with dates advertised on our Facebook pages.
