We’ve been teaching Food as Medicine in our popular cooking school for more than twelve years so it’s no wonder that our individually tailored private classes and public Masterclasses are sought after worldwide.

Exclusive private classes are available Australia wide.  Masterclasses happen every few months in capital cities around Australia, so keep an eye out on our Facebook page for updates. Prices start from $195 per person for six people in our Byron Bay location, more for interstate events.

Next class: Melbourne June 30th

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Short notice bookings welcome Enquire

Private tuition: Download our Mentoring Menu Here

We offer the Ultimate Organic Masterclasses available Worldwide
Download our Surf Spa Food tuition brochure

With our Online Marketing and Secure Social Media Seminars we help food and health professionals become successful business owners and entrepreneurs with our proven methods of Wellness Business Mentoring. For your next conference we deliver compelling, entertaining food and wellness presentations and Keynote Address. Be sure to book us for your next Speaking event – we give  good talk. Discover Now and Zen

Lastest, most delicious project is Head Chef at the brand spanking new Cabarita Ocean Retreat just up the road from Byron Bay, 15 minutes from Coolangatta airport and right on the glorious Cabarita beachfront. The signature cuisine we have created draws together the fundamental elements of nutritional wisdom with a contemporary culinary style.

See our Surf Spa Food menu

Our philosophy has been thoughtfully designed to provide a harvest of seasonal, locally grown, pesticide free, organic and biodynamic whole foods. We celebrate the abundant produce from the farmers and suppliers of the surrounding Tweed Valley and Northern Rivers.

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The Melbourne Weekly says:
When Samantha Gowing decided to redesign her lifestyle, she never predicted that eventually she would teach other people how to transform theirs. “I always knew I had that entrepreneurial streak, it was my gut really,” she says.”This “entrepreneurial streak” led Gowing to establish Gowings Food Health Wealth, a wellness company that teaches hotels and retreats around the globe how to serve healthy, organic food with flavour.

Bringing her signature cuisine – which you’ll also find on her blog Bitter Sweet Sour – to retreats across Australia, Bali, Sri Lanka and even Zanzibar, Gowing marvels at how far she has come from being teased by food critics for being the “don’t panic, it’s organic!” lady in the ’90s. Now with singer Clare Bowditch as one of her many clients, it is clear she’s discovered the winning – and healthy – formula for success.“At the end of the day people are craving happiness,” she says. “And I can guarantee that this food brings that.” Read more

The organic shopper’s basket overflows with a collective bounty of processed food is a gourmet escalator to a disease-free longevity. The new breed drives a Hybrid and knows that N.A.A.S.A is not a space station. Much like the yoga student hell bent on inner peace, who lights up a fag in the car park in a post Shivasana haze, the pseudo-spiritual connotations that embalm high brow organic shoppers offer a new spin on fashion labels. They can be seen squinting over nutritional panels in the nature aisle or thumbing the mainstream food press for the latest organic product. 

If it’s organic it must be healthy they cry. This is not always the case. Stop to consider the food miles. Organic muesli from the U.S., which has travelled much further than a locally made in Melbourne conventional product like Flip Shelton’s muesli. Reducing the energy footprint of food distribution must also be taken into account as part of global sustainable awareness.

Being actively involved in the organic movement in Australia with an organic cooking school, a holistic nutrition clinic and the delivery of organic events for Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, I have witnessed and celebrated organic food finally integrating into the mainstream. Melbourne Foodies tease me for being the “Don’t Panic, It’s Organic” lady – the name of many successful cooking classes and events with a cheeky, yet conventional smirk. 
During this time I have watched an endless stream of diners at organic cafes and restaurants hoe into three courses and coffee with abundant enthusiasm that they can continue to overeat because it’s organic. Yet the health issues remain. The pandemic of diabetes and obesity continues and the syndrome of the irritable bowel is becoming an epidemic.

The orthorexic consumer looks to replace their previously processed pantry with organic substitutes as opposed to embracing seasonal, fresh organic produce and learning to cook with the harvest. In addition, the digestive problems stemming from a previous diet of pesticide infused conventional produce must be rectified before the benefits of a new life with organics can truly enrich one’s cellular self. Yet many consumers who purchase processed organic food are still overweight, fatigued or addicted to coffee and carbohydrates. 

The notion that just eating organic food is doing you good is a myopic view. Physical exercise is also the key to good health and eating organic seasonal vegetables should be mandatory health insurance. Consuming only organic food is not a weight loss program. Oxygenation to the brain by way of interval fitness training, reduced caloric intake and a healthy, balanced emotional life are also mandatory components for the integrity of the digestive function. Consumers with an irritable bowel will certainly benefit with a veritable bowl of abundant organic produce.

The digestion must be repaired especially the mucosal lining of the gut and the integrity of the liver restored for the healing properties of premium fresh organic produce to take hold. Whilst I am not disputing that better food is produced when there are no chemicals, we seem to have side stepped the real issues such as soil demineralisation contributing to the deficiency of essential trace minerals including selenium, zinc and magnesium, which are vital for our cellular health.

Mary Eckhardt, co-founder of The Green Grocer in North Fitzroy has always had an eye for good packaging, and spent most of her first years of business in organics pulling her hair out over the unsightly brown packaging, it now seems it has gone to the other extreme. She now sees grossly over-designed and over packaged products, many imported that have become a bit homogenised in look with much of what can be found on the supermarket shelves in conventional lines.

To any retailer, packaging and product presentation is one of the most important aspects to ‘catching’ the sale, nothing wrong with good packaging, as long as the product inside compares in taste and quality. Mary says “we have always kept our packaging and labeling to the minimum, I suppose a ‘style and look’ in itself, but one that I feel is appropriate for the product. When I look at our customers shopping baskets these days there are clearly two types of shoppers. The wholefood shopper is still in existence, buying small grabs more frequently. The other is going for house made products, huge growth for us in this area, and embellishing their basket with small amounts of fresh, mainly fruit, and well packaged treats!”

The righteous eating theorists have taken the process of organics too far. The raw food movement shouts out that non-thermal processing is indeed the only passage to longevity. The orthoplexic health attitude has created a new psychological obsession with food with its virtuous pursuit of choosing organic becoming a virtually unsustainable choice when it comes to our emotional health, which ultimately governs our digestion. Products of the organic industry are becoming the latest superficial, must-have brands.

Are organics becoming the new Prada? 



What A Nuisance, Melbourne Cup parade

Recollections of the 1985 Melbourne Cup

The Day before the running of the 1985 Melbourne Cup, my Father and I were at Gowings Restaurant. The torrential rain began around lunchtime and continued throughout the night. With every downpour, came the cry from my father, “Open another bottle of champagne!”….What A Nuisance loved a wet track. Awake at five and abundant with nervous energy, we set out for Flemington around seven that Cup morning. The car park was already awash with muddy puddles, and the Heavens were constantly dousing the track. It was going to be a great day.

We nervously watched the bookies set up and waited for their financial appraisal on the probability of What A Nuisance’s chances. Their economic judgment hovered around the 14-1 mark. Pretty good odds for such inclement weather, enough to entice my brother Chris to leave the country soon after with all his winnings. The rain subsided a little and we visited What A Nuisance. We wished him winning vibes as he stood nonchalantly in his stall, looking as if he his race was already run and won.

Soon we were ensconced in the Owners & Trainers stand – the moment had arrived. The race itself was quite a blur – my hand firmly clenched within my Father’s, his eyes half closed, mine shut tight. We could hear the call and What A Nuisance featured prominently. The roar of the crowd as they came around the home turn drowned out any hope of hearing the result. The trainer, Geoff Murphy, was sitting behind us throughout the race. He leant down to my father at the finish and said, “I bet you a thousand bucks your horse has won”. To which my stunned father responded “You’re on!” The happiest bet he ever lost! Next we were flying down the stairs, pirouetting at each turn and onto the mounting yard.

The trophy presented, we were whisked upstairs – it was time to formally meet the Prince & Princess of Wales (pictured left) who where the esteemed guests of the Club on that day. Greetings were exchanged and congratulations offered; yet nothing could ever come close to the exhilaration of what had just occurred – not even the once in a lifetime opportunity of meeting a real Princess.

My Father’s traditional public persona took an unusual turn on that day. There was to be neither car park celebration nor parading of the trophy to the masses and media. He wanted to be private. He insisted I go to the Secretary’s Office to find something to secure the prize for transport. “What no box?” I asked them when they told me they had never been asked for such a thing. With no other option, we clumsily wrapped the Cup in The Age and headed straight for the car, dodging many a well wisher along the way.

Once back in the solace of the Restaurant the party began with friends, family and guests all enjoying a swig of champagne from the hallowed vessel. A tradition which has been enjoyed in our restaurants on Cup day ever since. Throughout the night, a familiar cry could be heard from an exuberant, once orphaned, Cockney lad, “Open another bottle of champagne!”

Still got that old spice from the 90′s?
Our Pantry Pervert service is part of the 12 week regenerative health plan that we offer and includes an on site visit to your home where together we detox your pantry and start a fresh, filling it with organic wholefoods, the right spices and grains for your digestion and plenty of nourishing wholefoods for the whole family.