The little cooking school with big dreams and a bigger heart

The popular food-making and dining experience recently pulled back the curtain on an exciting renovation at their new licensed Byron Place location, formerly The Parking Lot Cafe in the Town Hall Arcade.

Tamara Howarth is the mind behind the school and its recent transformation and said she couldn't be more excited to welcome keen foodies to the new space.

Tamara grew up in Eugowra where she completed a chef's apprenticeship straight out of highschool after which she spent a number of years working in restaurants, resorts and the catering business, always leaning more into the organisational aspect of the job.

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Tamara and her family moved to the region in 2009 to open a restaurant in Gulgong for three years before the simultaneous juggle of kids and running a business got too much. They sold up and later opened the Little Cooking School on Henry Lawson Drive.

"I like taking tasks and taking procedures and just coming up with the plan and that ended up getting into training, when my kids started school, coming up with the idea for the little cooking school was a great way to fit around their lives as well as incorporate all the things that I've ever done through my working life," Ms Howarth said.

For five years the Little Cooking School thrived at its sunny location just out of town, but Tamara said she knew it was time to move after the business had outgrown its apron.

"We decided to reinvent ourselves like Madonna, I suppose, and be a bit more visible in town and offer some other bits and pieces," she said.

"We were at Henry Lawson site for five years and had outgrown the kitchen, so it it was a choice of stay as we are and continue at that lovely little spot or give myself a bit of a shakeup and expand and take a new direction.

The new space will offer the same cooking classes people know and love with room for a few more as well as a commissary where diners can come in and dine or take away with a menu that changes on Tamara's weekly whims.

"People know my style now and what sort of style of cookery I do so that's what will filter through the commissary with the take home meals as well as the offerings available to dine in."

Tamara reflected on the way the business changed during the pandemic, admitting that the intimate nature of the classes worked in its favour.

"COVID was actually very kind - certainly the Mudgee Region with people confined to NSW and Australia - which then made people really crave the shared table and the shared experience," she said.

"... in hindsight it was brilliant. It got to the point where it seemed like I was saying the the same thing all the time, but I need to remind myself that it is a new experience to everyone that comes into my kitchen so moving down here as well has forced me to look at the formula and rejig it a little bit to streamline it.

"The cooking school all came about originally with a job that I could do and not miss out on what was happening in my kids lives. If there was a netball carnival on a weekend there were no classes scheduled, in the school holidays we'd do kids classes and my kids would come along and do it as well and you know you wouldn't miss out on the school assemblies and things," she said.

"You find your spot to be and at the moment that's here for me."

For more information, keep an eye on the Mudgee Guardian What's On Guide and Little Cooking School on social media.