The Agrarian Kitchen is a sustainable farm-based cooking school situated in a 19th century schoolhouse at Lachlan, 45 minutes from Hobart in Tasmania’s Derwent Valley, Australia. The Agrarian Kitchen was established by Rodney Dunn and his wife Séverine who moved from Sydney to Tasmania in July 2007 to transform the schoolhouse into Tasmania’s first hands-on, farm-based cooking school. Cooking classes commenced in January 2009.
Set on five acres, The Agrarian Kitchen is a working farm and incorporates an extensive vegetable garden, orchard, berry patch and herb garden, all grown using organic principles. Also in residence are Wessex saddleback pigs, Barnevelder chickens, two British Alpine goats and a flock of geese.
The Agrarian Kitchen grows and uses heirloom varieties of fruit, vegetables and rare breed animals in its cooking classes and also sources ingredients from local farmers, fishermen, gardeners and artisanal producers.
Cooking classes are led by Rodney Dunn, former food editor of Australian Gourmet Traveller magazine and one-time apprentice to Australian Chef Tetsuya Wakuda, as well as a supporting cast of Tasmanian cooks and producers.
