Our Presenters
Our class presenters are highly experienced, food loving experts who share our passion for community and keeping the art of home-cooking alive.
Sarah Braham
Sarah is a qualified chef, certified health coach, highly knowledgeable, passionate foodie. As a resident presenter at The Community Cooking School, Sarah brings a wealth of experience and food knowledge to our kitchen.
During her nearing 30 yr food career, Sarah has worked in fine dining kitchens for notable restaurants in Melbourne and catered private parties for New York elite before turning her attentions to a more meaningful way to work with food.
As a cooking and nutrition instructor with The Children’s Aid Society, Sarah delivered educational food programs to underprivileged children in Harlem public schools in New York, before returning home to work on healthy food programs with Aboriginal and teenage mums in the Redfern community.
With a keen interest in sharing her knowledge, growing her own food (yes Sarah part-lives on a farm not far from here) and making healthy food taste great, Sarah has an infectious passion for food and a community spirit which fits right at home in our kitchen.
Lucinda Dazos
Lucinda is a long-time contributor to the food culture in the Southern Highlands having served up some of the finest, and healthiest, foods to the region for over 20 years.
A progressive thinker, Lucinda began preparing and serving vegetarian, gluten-free and healthy food alternatives long before they became trendy. And man can she pack a punch with flavour!
Her most recent food venture, Lucinda’s Pantry in Robertson is a true expression of Lucinda’s cooking, her family and experiences… a vast array of rustic, wholesome, flavoursome foods that have been shared with, and enjoyed by, the community over many years.
As qualified chef of 30+ years, complete with teaching certificate, Lucinda is passionate about sharing her knowledge and teaching practical, economical, home-cooking skills to all kinds of people of all walks of life… we are thrilled to have her as part of our presenter team.
Lisa McGill
Local Southern Highlander Lisa McGill has been involved with The Community Cooking School for a number of years and comes from a long line of food lovers with 4 chef’s in the family.
Lisa is a qualified chef and journalist, and merged these two skills to carve a career in the Food Media industry in the early nineties, working across a number of magazines and television shows as a chef, recipe writer and food stylist. From there she was poached by Unilever and became the corporate chef for Australia and New Zealand until she joined the food delivery start up Hellofresh as head of food development.
With her teaching certificate in hand, Lisa then made the exciting move to Jamie Oliver’s non-for-profit cooking schools as NSW manager; a role she loved and where she could share her passion for healthy, simple, home cooked meals with others, which makes her a perfect fit for The Community Cooking School!
Lisa is passionate about getting people back into the kitchen and cooking from scratch so our society doesn’t suffer the terrible consequences of lifestyle diseases like type 2 Diabetes (an issue very close to her heart).
Norma McGill
Norma McGill, is one of The Community Cooking School family… literally. Norma is in our kitchen often as a resident class co-presenter with her daughter Lisa or as a regular packer & volunteer feeder on our Keep Calm Kit delivery days. A Bowral local and old school British pastry chef, Norma was self-taught and in later life became a qualified chef. Over the years Norma has worked as a head chef in many local establishments, we call her the pastry queen. When you think of Norma’s cooking you think of a big warm hug… comfort food, just like nanna or grandma used to make. This warmth carries through our mother-daughter team classes… these ladies know how to feed the soul!
