New commercial kitchen for kids in Hobart's north hopes to inspire a community

Australia Broadcast Center

25-04-2025

In Hobart's outer suburbs, busy hands are making light work of a harvest of cucamelons — a slightly sour, crisp fruit with the look of a mini watermelon, but the taste of a cucumber.
But as the pile builds up, alongside freshly plucked cherry tomatoes, it doesn't have far to be transported before it can be turned into a delicious dish thanks to the recent opening of a brand new commercial kitchen, just a few metres away.
The kitchen is the latest addition to the Bridgewater-based base of social enterprise charity Material Institute.
With the site already home to a science beauty lab and market garden, the kitchen has been designed to give students hands-on experience preparing and cooking healthy meals with all the necessary equipment.
Roughly 30 students a week will make use of the kitchen, a number Material Institute is hopeful will continue to grow.
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"This is the fruition of a long-term plan," Amelia Clifford, the relationships manager at Material Institute, said.
Currently, the charity runs food education program 24 Carrot Gardens in 24 Tasmanian schools, mostly in the state's south.
While largely run within the schools, the program also includes students coming to the Bridgewater site for workshops — but until now, all the cooking has had to occur outside, limiting the options.
With this purpose-built kitchen, new opportunities for the students would open up, Ms Clifford said.
Students going through the market garden have been sharing what they've learned — with the 'cuteamelons' a crowd favourite.
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"An immersive approach in a professional kitchen will be more impactful through first-hand participant experience of the seed-to-plate journey, harvesting food from the gardens only metres away," she said.
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It will expand the students' skills … by being in a different type of cooking environment. So, professionally set up, engaging with community, serving and supporting.
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It will be used by roughly 30 students a week for the workshops, and the team hopes the infrastructure will also encourage more schools to get involved.
The kitchen will also be used for food preparation and catering for local community events.
Setting up healthy habits early
Tasmanian Community Fund chairperson Ric de Santi with Material Institute horticulturalist Louise Sales.
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The construction of the kitchen was aided by a grant from the Tasmanian Community Fund, which said it was exactly the kind of project it seeks to support.
"It's fabulous — to be able to grow the food, cook it in a commercial kitchen environment and then share it," chairperson Ric de Santi said.
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It teaches you skills that hopefully inspires some of the children to look at food and beverage or hospitality careers, of which there's plenty of opportunity in Tasmania.
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Students will be shown how to harvest vegetables from the on-site market garden, and turn them into tasty dishes to share.
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Mr de Santi said setting up healthy habits early and teaching students about where their food came from was vital for setting up "healthy habits into the future".
"This project brings young people, children, family and the community together around growing, preparing and sharing healthy and nutritious, affordable food."
More plans on the horizon
While initially the kitchen will be put to use for school workshops and existing public event offerings, Ms Clifford said its purpose would not end there.
She said there were also opportunities to engage older high school students who were looking for pathways beyond the classroom, with formal hospitality training and apprenticeships.
Ms Clifford said having a space where young people could get a glimpse at what a career in the sector could look like, and to learn under industry professionals, was "essential".
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It gives exposure to all different opportunities and different professionals in the space, different people they can interact with and things to look forward to in their future life as adults.
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Kirsha Kaechele (centre) wants children to be inspired by the kitchen.
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Photo shows
Three people in a science class.
When Kirsha Kaechele randomly surveyed a group of teenagers about their interests, she was surprised to hear "beauty" topped their lists. It inspired her to build a lab that teaches science through beauty products.
Charity founder Kirsha Kaechele — who is also an artist and curator at Tasmania's Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) and wife of owner David Walsh — said she wanted the kitchen to be a place that students could be proud to access.
She said ensuring it was aesthetically beautiful and that the students felt they were actively contributing to the program was a key part of that.
"I want them to be inspired. I want them to feel proud, I want them to walk in and say 'wow' and then take charge — just take over and run the place," Ms Kaechele said.
Down the line, a future goal is also to open up the space more broadly to the public as a social enterprise cafe.
"The idea is to really lift young people up and give them the opportunity to build real skills — running a business, preparing the food, hospitality, just all aspects of what a cafe has to offer," Ms Kaechele said.