Bruno Loubet: Renowned French chef opens cooking school in Gold Coast Hinterland

A renowned French chef has opened a cooking school in the Gold Coast hinterland with a strong focus on pot to plate. Check out the range of workshops on offer and some of the incredible food.

Yum!

FACT: food tastes better when you’ve grown it yourself.

A new cooking school in the Gold Coast Hinterland has a strong focus on reaping (and cooking) what you’ve sewn, proving just how tasty goods from the garden bed can be.

Willow Vale Cooking School opened earlier this month and has already welcomed students keen to create dishes in a relaxed environment.

Owners Catherine and Bruno Loubet spent their careers owning and working in restaurants throughout Europe and Australia before settling on the Gold Coast again in 2017. Their new venture is located in an old Queenslander on the couple’s eight acre property.

“We’re very passionate about sustainability,” Catherine says.

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Willow Vale Cooking School is run by husband and wife team Catherine and Bruno Loubet.

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“When people come in it’s a bit of an experience. It’s a very pretty Queenslander from Brisbane, it’s 130 years old.

“They (students) arrive in the morning — it’s very boutique with only six guests.

“They go around the garden with Bruno and I, we explain our story, why we’re growing it that way, then we go back to the kitchen and Bruno cooks, and they can get involved if they want to.

“The way we set it up, if you want to get involved you can, if you just want to watch, it’s perfectly alright.
“Everybody can come here and feel super comfortable, it’s just a lovely time.”

The career change was a long-term goal for the French pair who were seeking a more relaxed lifestyle after heading a number of distinguished restaurants.

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The couple have a variety of a herbs and vegetables growing in their garden that are used in some of the cooking lessons.

“With our restaurant in London, we won restaurant of the year twice,” Catherine says.

“When we were here with our restaurant in Brisbane, we had chef of the year a lot of times with the Courier Mail.

“Before that in England he (Bruno) had a Michelin star. He’s published some books, been on TV and been a mentor on MasterChef UK.

“Bruno didn’t want to cook in the kitchen forever. It was always the idea to open a cooking school.

“It’s a nice way to give back to share your knowledge. We thought it would be semi-retirement, but it’s very hard work.”

The cooking school offers a mix of European-inspired classes and a handful of other lessons in preparing cuisine, including how to master cooking with a flame, making the ultimate picnic basket and putting on a festive spread. Bruno is also open to teaching personalised classes in other areas of gastronomy.

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Catherine and Bruno Loubet ran restaurants in England and Australia before “semi-retiring” on the Gold Coast.

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Catherine says the most popular class so far, surprisingly, has been the flexitarian session.

“It’s interesting to see that some are attracting more people than others — the biggest and nicest surprises are the flexitarian (classes),” she says.

“We thought maybe that one would be the hardest to sell, but it’s the most popular one.

“Flexitarian, it’s quite big in Europe, is a mainly plant based diet with the occasional eating of meat, fish and dairy.

“The last few years with his (Bruno’s) restaurants, he always wanted to do one focusing on vegetables.

“You have a lot of vegetarian, vegan restaurants, but you don’t have a lot of Michelin star chefs taking on vegetables.

“The big thing is not telling people you’ve got to stop eating meat, but we show you putting vegetables as a centre piece can be just as delicious and as exciting.”

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Bruno is trained in French cooking.

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Willow Vale Cooking School is located at 146 Fairview Drive, Willow Vale. Visit willowvalecookingschool.com or call 5547 5317.