Men’s Kitchen: Northern beaches volunteer group helping older men cook up a storm is spreading to other parts of the city
Older men aged into their 90s are signing up in droves for learn-to-cook classes – with new kitchens opening across Sydney. See them here.
Manly
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An organisation that began on the northern beaches to help older gents learn how to cook, is turning up the heat and spreading to other parts of Sydney.
With its slogan “Old dogs, new tricks and great mates”, the Men’s Kitchen has been offering classes for blokes, aged 60 and over, at Forestville, Warriewood and Warringah Mall.
Now, the not-for-profit outfit, which started in 2016, has just opened a branch at Turramurra and has plans to expand to the City of Sydney, Randwick and Hills Shire local government areas.
It eventually wants to expand across the country.
On the northern beaches men, from retired bus drivers to chemical engineers and corporate lawyers, aged between 60 and 95, attend monthly cooking sessions.
Some are widowers, who are just getting to know their way around a kitchen after their wives passed away and having to cook full meals for themselves for the first time.
Others are carers, who’ve had to step up and provide meals for their bedridden or less mobile life partners.
And there are blokes who have cooked all their adult lives, but want to broaden their repertoire and add some variety to their daily dishes.
Men’s Kitchen is also a chance for older men, who may have lost a life partner or who need a break from caring from their elderly wives or disabled adult children, to be with other blokes for a few hours and swap a few stories as well as recipes.
And for some participants, it’s the first time they’ve had a go at cooking something “exotic” like Moroccan chicken with couscous or lamb souvlaki.
The sessions are done in groups of 10 men, with two experienced volunteer cooking instructors. A main course and a dessert are prepared under the guidance of the instructors.
When the meal is cooked, the men gather around a table for lunch. They then have a discussion about what dishes they are going to tackle at the next session and work out who is going to volunteer to buy the ingredients at the supermarket.
Each participant chips in $15 per cooking session.
Peter Rudland, 95, who co-founded Men’s Kitchen and still attends sessions at the Forestville Community Hall, explained how the organisation started.
In 2013, Mr Rudland and several other men joined a “Male Carer” cooking group run by the NSW Health Department at Narrabeen, to help men looking after partners who were ill.
“It used to be in the Narrabeen Tram Shed community Centre, but the Health Department withdrew support.
“So I said ‘bugger it” to the five other guys, and we started our own organisation out of the Forestville Memorial Hall with support from Forestville RSL and the local Rotary club.
“And it’s grown from there.”
Men’s Kitchen president and co-founder, Peter Watson, said while many older men struggled to adapt to changes in their life after retirement, Men’s Kitchen provided an opportunity to embrace those changes.
“Firstly by learning more about the preparation of food, and secondly by providing a great forum to discuss changes in your life with other ‘Old Dogs’ who are going through similar life events.
“ And having developed confidence in the kitchen, men will be more likely to remain in their own home longer, be better fed and able to do so safely with less social isolation.
“Having seen the success of the Men’s Kitchen, it made sense to expand,” Mr Watson said.
It opened a branch at Lindfield last year in St Albans Anglican Church Hall, but it ended up with a lengthy waiting list. New classes have just launched in The Uniting Church kitchen at Turramurra, with the help of a grant from Ku-ring-gai Council and the federal government via the MP for Bradfield Paul Fletcher.
To aid the expansion across Sydney, Mr Watson said Men’s Kitchen s looking for more volunteers, sponsors and venues with workable kitchens.
For more information on classes, volunteering or sponsorship, click here.
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