Relish Mama

Voted as one of the best cooking schools in Melbourne. Offering in person & online cooking classes, workshops & team building. Nellie & the Relish Mama team
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Plus +++ the incredible Relish Mama Cooking Club to cease cooking boredom & solve your 'what's for dinner' dilemma. In 2009, we opened the doors to a very special business called Relish Mama. It is a cooking school at its core and yet it is so much more than that. Relish Mama is a very special place with the values of a family and a fundamental understanding of what magic can be created when we ga

ther through food. We are proud that Relish Mama boasts a reputation as one of the best cooking schools in Melbourne. The physical school itself is beautiful and it is a uniquely inspiring and creative space. We love to help people to create beautiful food, to enjoy with the people they love, without having to spend hours in the kitchen. We delight in sharing our knowledge, skills and of course, our recipes. All cooking classes include the enjoyment of all the dishes cooked during class (whether a face-to-face class or an online cooking experience). It is all about ‘real food’ and ‘real people. Relish Mama also offer bespoke private events and classes for special groups including Corporate workshops and team building. There are two highly praised Relish Mama cookbooks available for purchase through the Relish Mama website as well as all great bookstores. We are delighted to also offer annual culinary tours overseas and predominantly to Europe and we can't wait to get back to that when it is safe to travel once more. Relish Mama is about celebrating every day. It is about learning new skills, beautiful food and sharing ourselves, our kitchen and our table with those with who we have the pleasure of cooking with. Wishing you much love and laughter always around your table.

03/09/2026

There are some people who can teach you a recipe, and others who make you understand where that recipe came from.

Nada Salah is very much the latter.

Born and raised in Cairo, Nada originally studied archaeology, spending her early career immersed in ancient cultures, history and the stories people leave behind. Somewhere along the way, she realised that food tells those stories too.

What did people grow and eat generations ago? How did migration, trade and changing cultures shape Egyptian food? Why do certain smells and dishes transport us so quickly back to a particular place?

That curiosity eventually took Nada into formal culinary training and, since moving to Melbourne, into cooking, teaching and sharing the Egyptian food she grew up with.

On Saturday 12 September, she’ll be joining us at Relish Mama for a very special three-hour workshop.

We’ll cook, listen, ask questions and then sit down together over a generous Egyptian feast including molokhia, stuffed cabbage, spiced cardamom chicken, roz shaeria and mango konafa.

It is relaxed and welcoming rather than a high-pressure hands-on class — you can roll up your sleeves and join Nada, or simply watch, listen and absorb it all.

Most of all, it is a chance to spend an afternoon with someone who understands that food is never just food. It carries memory, history, family and place.

Egyptian Cooking with Nada
Saturday 12 September | 12–3 pm
Small group
Bookings via the Relish Mama website.

https://relishmama.com.au/egyptian-cooking-class/

27/08/2026

Pasta making night tomorrow night.
5.30 - 8 pm.
Fresh silky sheets of pasta - made from scratch

In this hands-on Italian cooking class, you will learn how to make fresh egg pasta dough from scratch.

We will also make a simple egg-free semolina pasta dough and shape it by hand into rustic maccheroni, inspired by Sicilian busiati.

Simple seasonal sauces will be demonstrated during the class and then enjoyed with the pasta made together. The focus is on building confidence, understanding the feel of the dough, learning what to look for, and giving you the skills to recreate fresh pasta at home.

This class is perfect for beginners, pasta lovers, and anyone who wants to slow down, roll up their sleeves, and enjoy the beautiful ritual of making pasta by hand.

https://relishmama.com.au/cooking-classes/in-person-cooking-classes/

26/08/2026

I love having people over. I’m much less interested in spending the whole night in the kitchen while everyone else is having a lovely time.

So I’ve done the thinking for you and put together the whole dinner.

Silverbeet, spinach & hazelnut lasagne. Cheesy garlic pull-apart bread. A really good green salad. Chocolate affogato.

It feels relaxed yet special enough for friends coming over, but most of the work can be done before anyone walks through the door.

The lasagne can be assembled the day before, the garlic bread prepared ahead, the dressing made and waiting in the fridge — and affogato takes all of a couple of minutes.

Which means you can actually sit down with everyone else.

The full menu and all four recipes are now on the website.

Save this one for the next time you want to say, “Come over for dinner.”

And perhaps send it to the person you’d like sitting around your table too ♡

Nellie x

24/08/2026

I have an all-new cooking class this Friday and this one is entirely devoted to the beautiful art of handmade pasta.

We’ll make fresh egg pasta from scratch — kneading, rolling and shaping it into silky tagliatelle and ricotta-filled ravioli — as well as an egg-free semolina dough shaped by hand into rustic maccheroni.
I’ll show you what good pasta dough should actually feel like, how to roll and shape it with confidence, and we’ll make simple seasonal sauces to enjoy with all that beautiful pasta at the end.
It’s hands-on, small group and absolutely suitable for beginners.

If you’ve always wanted to properly learn how to make fresh pasta, come and join me this Friday.

Handmade Pasta Friday 28 August 5.30–8 pm

A few places are still available.

https://relishmama.com.au/cooking-classes/in-person-cooking-classes/

18/08/2026

I have been much quieter here of late.

I think I have been wintering.

It’s a new word to me, but somehow it feels like the right fit.

Feeling a little NQR, without being able to put my finger on exactly what it was. And, perhaps even more unusually for me, not trying too hard to.

Just sitting with it.

Missing my girls. Feeling some overwhelm. Missing the sunshine, while also loving the hibernation of winter, the open fires and the permission to pull inward a little.

I haven’t felt much like showing up here or posting simply for the sake of posting. So I haven’t.

And then, somewhere along the last few days, it turned.

Nothing big and obvious happened. I didn’t work ‘it’ all out. I’m not even sure I noticed exactly when it shifted.

But it did.

And there is something very reassuring in remembering that.

Things pass. Seasons change. We change with them.

Sometimes perhaps we don’t need to rush ourselves out of where we are.

Sometimes we can just winter for a while.
💛

07/08/2026

There are many ways to feel lonely.

It can happen in a quiet house, but it can also happen in a crowded room. It can arrive during a season of change, when life feels busy, or simply when we have gone too long without being truly seen.

This week is Loneliness Awareness Week (Aug 3-9), and it has made me think about the role connection has played in my life—and in this beautiful business.

When I began Relish Mama 17 years ago, I knew that I loved food and that I wanted to share the joy of cooking. But beneath that was something just as important: a longing to create a place where people could come together.

A place where nobody needed to arrive knowing anyone.

Where there was always room at the table.

Where hands could be busy chopping, stirring and passing plates, while conversation unfolded gently around them.

Over the years, I have watched strangers become friends. I have seen people arrive alone and leave feeling part of something. I have witnessed laughter between people whose paths may never otherwise have crossed, and conversations that continued long after the last plate was cleared.

Food has always been at the heart of Relish Mama, but connection has been its soul.

Community does not always arrive in grand gestures. Often, it is built by remembering someone’s name, making space for another chair, sharing a meal, asking a second question and being interested and curious enough to hear the answer.

We all need places where we feel welcome. We all need to know that our presence matters.

This week, perhaps we might reach out to someone we have been thinking about. Invite them for a cup of tea. Share a meal. Take a walk. Make the phone call.

Small moments of connection can mean more than we ever realise.

I am so grateful for every person who has walked through the doors of Relish Mama over these past 17 years and helped create this community.

You are the reason it has always felt like so much more than a cooking school.

There will always be a place for you at our table.

Nellie
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26/07/2026

Heavens to Betsy, it’s been a big and beautiful day. Could I sound any older if I tried? 😉

We kicked off Sunday with a dumpling workshop, followed by a wonderful pizza masterclass this afternoon.

We made pizzas using a longer-fermented dough, mastered the Gozneys and, of course, enjoyed eating the results together.

Such beautiful people to spend a Sunday cooking with. Thank you to everyone who joined me today. I loved it.

Nellie x

Address

81 Bay Road, Sandringham
Melbourne, VIC
3191

Telephone

03 9553 4846

Website

http://www.relishmama.com.au/

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