MERCY Community Services Romero Centre has launched the “The Long Lunch” cooking series to offer a taste of international cuisines and to support its work with refugees in Brisbane.
The Romero Centre supports refugees and asylum seekers living in the city.
A spokeswoman for the centre said it was hosting The Long Lunch series to help and encourage people to share recipes, create delicious food and to engage in hospitality.
“This is an opportunity to experience and learn how to cook cuisines from an array of cultural backgrounds over six weeks,” she said.
“Each weekly session will offer a different adventure where cooks will showcase food that tells the story of their lives.”
The multicultural cooking series started on April 26 and will run every Saturday until May 31 at All Hallows’ School.
Mindy Woods, who was a runner-up from MasterChef Australia 2012, was a guest at the launch of the series.
She demonstrated her cooking skills and shared her love of food.
Ms Woods spent her youth travelling throughout Australia and abroad, and while living in Malaysia developed a strong affinity for South East Asian cuisine.
A Romero Centre spokeswoman said Ms Woods’ story tied in with a project of the centre, a cookbook developed by volunteers, staff and supporters.
The cookbook, The Story of Food, showcases Australia’s rich diversity through recipes.
It includes 32 recipes from Australia, Burma, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Columbia and Venezuela.
The Romero Centre’s multicultural advocacy and community development manager Faiza El-Higzi said, “By sharing these recipes with you we hope that you use them to create delicious food and share it with those close to you, and in so doing honour our relatives and friends who cooked for us with love.”
For more information on the cookbook and The Long Lunch series or to register for the series, phone 3013 0100 or email marcela.moreno@mercycs.org.au
