My Story

Bonjour!

Allow me to introduce myself – my name is Melanie Hall and I live and work in Rippleside Geelong, just one hour from Melbourne. The greater Geelong region encompasses the Bellarine Peninsula and the world-famous Surf Coast and Great Ocean Road; having such a wealth of produce close provides me with lots of inspiration for my teaching.

I worked in television, fashion and event management before moving to the country and setting up my cooking school 20+ years ago in Birregurra, home to the world famous Brae Restaurant, before moving to Geelong in 2020.

I am very keen to inspire and help home cooks discover techniques, methods and recipes to both enjoy and improve their cooking; my particular interest is in baking, both sweet and savoury.

Over the years, I have met and taught many people who profess to be good and competent cooks, but who go on to tell me that they’re not good bakers, and that, after some stressful failures, have decided that baking is not for them. The undeniable truth is that baking does require a somewhat more focussed approach than other forms of cooking; there are some scientific principles involved (not least weighing and measuring) – and many people see adhering to the rules as somehow clipping their creative wings. Nothing could be further from the truth – once you understand how to follow a recipe, and why you’re doing certain things in a certain order, then you have the Tom Daley ability to spring off the board and launch yourself into all manner of kitchen adventures.

Whilst there are millions available to use at the touch of a button, not all of the recipes we discover are reliable; there is nothing more disheartening than spending money, time and effort on a baking project to discover a poor recipe has let us down. This is where I come in – with a substantial library of cookbooks relating to all things baking, I am well-placed to make sure the recipes I share with you (some my own, some from the best in the business) are reliable and repeatable.

I love my vintage and hand-written recipe books in particular; they speak not only of days gone by, but also of a time before we had access to the entire world for ingredients and equipment our grandmothers would have found bewildering. These recipes instead rely on fresh flour, sweet fresh butter, free range eggs, gentle spices and seasonal fruit, herbs and vegetables.

I aim to share with you my foundation recipes, the ones I return to time and again – from a sponge cake, to the dream chocolate birthday cake, to biscuits, pastry and seasonal treats so that you don’t have to figure out which are the best…you will have the confidence to leave the recipes as they are or, once you’ve made them and understand the how and the why of them, to explore a whole world of baking; I hope you’ll join me…

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