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Passports with Purpose: Cookery class at Freestyle Escape

30 November, 2011 By Caitlin

Do you remember the photo of that delectable dessert in my post about the Sunshine Coast hinterland? I bought it from the Freestyle Escape stall at the Real Food Festival in Maleny.

Guess what? You could win a cookery class at Freestyle Escape and raise money to build libraries in Zambia at the same time! It’s time for Passports with Purpose, the annual travel blogging fundraiser. I am proud to have been a participating blogger since the project’s start in 2008 when we raised just over $US7,000 for Heifer International. In 2009 we built a school in Cambodia and in 2010 an entire village in India. This year our goals are more ambitious than ever before. Our 2011 beneficiary is Room to Read, which aims to change the world by promoting literacy and gender equality for children. And we are aiming to raise a whopping $US80,000 to build not one, but two, libraries in Zambia. I’ve written more about the cause here.

I had not come across Freestyle Escape before my encounter at the food festival but naturally after eating such a stunning dessert, I checked them out online. It truly looks like an amazing place. It is on the ridge between Montville and Mapleton, small towns along the road that runs from Maleny up in the hills down to Yandina on the Sunshine Coast. Tourists often drive this road not to go any particular place but for the sheer joy of gazing at the views of the coast and the weirdly beautiful Glasshouse Mountains. I was too busy with twin wrangling when I was up in August to take photos of scenery but I found this lovely shot on Flickr (licensed Creative Commons) to show you what I mean.

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Freestyle Escape has luxury accommodation – either a one-bedroom studio called the Arthouse or a three-bedroom house called the Escape House. The Escape House even has a gorgeous plunge pool – just look! (Remaining photos are courtesy Freestyle Escape).

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What piqued my interest is the fact that Freestyle Escape holds art and cookery classes. I must confess I am a sucker for cookery workshops. Playing around with food and flavour is fun even at home but I always relish the opportunity to do it in a social atmosphere and to learn new techniques and ideas from experts. Taking a cookery class on location is my idea of a good holiday.

The cooking school at Freestyle Escape looks fantastic. Since you are in a beautiful part of the world with balmy weather, you get to cook in a fully equipped outdoor kitchen and dine al fresco. You drink wine while you look at the gorgeous view and you work with ingredients grown in the herb garden and orchard right on the property. (Now that’s eating local!) The roster of teachers includes some of Australia’s best chefs.

I would love to do a class at Freestyle Escape and since this blog is all about travel and food I thought that my readers might be interested too. (I know my cousin Angela would be – she already commented on my last post about how good it looked and how much she would love to do it. Now’s your chance, Ang!)

So I am absolutely thrilled that Martin Duncan, the owner of Freestyle Escape, has agreed to donate a prize for Passports with Purpose. (Psst, he is @dessertboy on Twitter, so go follow him to show your appreciation. Or ‘like’ the Facebook page for his Brisbane-based dessert restaurant Freestyle Tout, if that’s more your scene).

The prize is a voucher for a cookery class for two people at Freestyle Escape. It is valid until August 2012 and you can take any class (bookings essential). It’s valid for a full day from 9am to 4pm and is worth a total of $590.

Check out the calendar for next year and I’m sure you’ll get excited by what’s planned so far. My pick would be Thai food with Martin Boetz from Longrain, a fantastic Thai fine dining restaurant in Sydney and Melbourne. But you could try a twist on the paddock-to-plate concept with local star chef Matt Golinski. Or make yummy Italian with cookbook author Dominique Rizzo. Or spend a day with Jacques Reymond who marries classic French cookery with an Asian influence. There’s also bread making with Richard Cotton of Brewbakers in Brisbane and gluten-free, grain-free cooking with Tanya Hubbard. That’s just what is listed so far – I’m assured that there is plenty more in the pipeline.

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I know quite a few of my readers are local to this part of the world, or at least based in Brisbane, which is only an hour or so away. So please, if this is you, buy a raffle ticket and spread the word to everyone you know.

I also know lots of people from Sydney and Melbourne who holiday in Noosa each year. Freestyle Escape is very accessible from Noosa – it’s less than an hour away along beautiful scenic roads. So again – please buy a ticket!

Or perhaps you could make a special trip and stay in the gorgeous accommodation at Freestyle Escape or some of the other wonderful lodging in the Sunshine Coast hinterland.

Even if this prize doesn’t suit you, do check out the list of other awesome prizes from around the world over at the Passports with Purpose site.

Each raffle ticket costs $US10 – paid via PayPal – and directly supports the work of Room to Read. Tickets go on sale at passportswithpurpose.org/donate on the morning of November 30, US Pacific time – just a few hours away!

This is the final day of NaBloPoMo – National Blog Posting Month. I have written 30 posts in 30 days and you can read them all here.

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Related posts:

A foodie's guide to the live cattle export issue
Guest post: Hitting the language barrier in Sweden
Gallery: Floating village in Cambodia
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Filed Under: Cookery & Recipes, Featured Tagged With: activities, australia, cooking class, course, nablopomo, passports with purpose, queensland, sunshine coast

Comments

  1. spacer Annabel Candy, Get In the Hot Spot says:
    8 December, 2011 at 4.55pm

    Well done on completing your challenge! The cookery school sounds great. Lucky me, I live in Noosa:) Will check it out.
    Annabel Candy, Get In the Hot Spot´s last [type] ..Christmas Comes Early: FREE Personal Writing Magic Guide

Trackbacks

  1. New courses at Freestyle Escape | Roaming Tales says:
    13 December, 2011 at 5.41pm

    [...] schedule for next year and it looks like a fantastic program. New additions to the schedule since my prize post include a class with Alex Herbert of Bird Cow Fish on July [...]

  2. Best Odds on PwP Prizes : Passports With Purpose says:
    15 December, 2011 at 3.43am

    [...] Roaming Tales: Cooking class at Freestyle Escape in Queensland, Australia [...]

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