Fearless Foodie

By Leonie Jarret Photos Gary Sissons & supplied

The Mornington Peninsula (Main Ridge to be precise) has just scored a new culinary experience: Frog Hollow Kitchen. Focussing on seasonal, Mediterranean recipes, owner Ciara Griffiths, has created both a beautiful space and a beautiful experience.

At its core this is a cooking school, but it is much more than that. It is a cooking experience centred around love; love for family and friends, love for good produce (home or locallygrown where possible), love for cooking and entertaining and love for the Main Ridge/Red Hill area.

Ciara traces her love for cooking and entertaining back to her Australian mum and Irish dad. One of seven children, Ciara describes her mum as calm and unfazed by cooking and entertaining a “house full”, even if it meant “Pulling out another four chairs at the last minute.”

“Fearless” is how Ciara describes her mum. It seems that this a trait that has been passed down to Ciara.

When Ciara was sixteen, her parents and younger siblings emigrated to Melbourne where three sisters had already settled. Ciara finished high school, went to business school, met her husband, Grant, and started a family.

About thirty years ago, Ciara and Grant were invited to lunch in Main Ridge. Ciara had never visited the area before and immediately felt “melancholy” for Ireland. “The green patchwork fields” had her thinking fondly of her homeland and planning for a house and some land in the area 'one day'.

'One day' arrived about five years later when Ciara and her husband purchased Frog Hollow Farm. Grant loved frogs so the name was the sealer!

Fast forward to 2023 and Ciara had a void in her life after her powerhouse husband sadly passed away and her three sons moved interstate. Ciara’s property manager resigned and vacated the manager’s house on her farm. The idea to re-purpose that house as a cooking school was born.

Ciara has clearly poured her heart and soul into Frog Hollow Kitchen. She designed a bespoke kitchen to be both beautiful to look at and functional as a teaching space.

Ciara’s vision for the cooking school is to share her passion for cooking and entertaining with a group sitting around her kitchen bench, chatting, whilst she prepares a meal and shows that cooking and entertaining can be effortless and not stressful; a joy and not a chore. If the meal includes something that you have grown yourself, so much the better, even if the homegrown portion is only herbs from your apartment balcony.

Where possible, the bursting-with-flavour produce used in Ciara’s cooking is picked fresh from her garden. She is a believer that produce has better flavour if it is not over-irrigated. Ciara dreams of a large kitchen garden. Her newest project, in fact, is a potting shed near to the cooking school where she can plant bulbs and plants to fill the current seasonal gaps in her garden.

Ciara’s fearless vision gave her both a project and a purpose. At Frog Hollow Kitchen, which opened in February. Ciara hosts small groups and demonstrates what the group will be eating for lunch whilst giving cooking and entertaining tips and tricks. The kitchen is all shades of glorious green – the tableware, wall tiles, cupboards, vines and vistas. Even the Frog Hollow Kitchen logo is green. Is the green a homage to Ciara’s homeland of Ireland or her chosen home of Main Ridge? Maybe both.

When Ciara and Grant bought Frog Hollow Farm, Ciara wanted seven rows of vines to look out at from her kitchen window. The pinot gris and pinot noir vines have ended up growing to ten acres and are looked after by Red Hill winery Foxeys Hangout.

Once lunch is prepared and cooked, the group sits at a superbly arranged table inside or outside (depending on the weather) and enjoys what Ciara has demonstrated. The table is decorated by beautiful fresh flowers from Ciara’s garden and looks over the acres of vines and picturesque countryside. The meal is accompanied by Foxeys Hangout wine. You may even be sipping Frog Hollow grapes whilst you eat.

After a few hours of chatting with the other guests, the small group becomes a little community learning from Ciara and sharing experiences about food, cooking, entertaining and life in general. And all with the backdrop of beautiful Main Ridge.

Ciara’s love of food, friendship, cooking, entertaining, seasonal produce and the Main Ridge/Red Hill area shines throughout Frog Hollow Kitchen. Do yourself a favour and take someone you love there. You’ll bring home joy.

Frog Hollow Kitchen takes bookings, including private cooking experiences for a group of friends, family or colleagues. Owner, Ciara, is happy to curate a menu in conjunction with a host if a private group is booked.

IG: @froghollowkitchen froghollowkitchen.com.au