Wandering Cooks, incubator for small food businesses, has re-invented itself as a restaurant, bar and local produce market and moved into Brisbane’s West End.
Wandering Cooks founder, director and owner Angela Hirst now leads a team of chefs “preparing creative and wholesome dishes” from locally available produce. Hirst has previously expressed her passion for ethical business at Harvard and Rutgers universities.
As recipient of Anthill ‘Cool Company’ Microbusiness Award, the company will continue with its core mission to enrich urban food culture through bringing together local growers and the community. Both the produce market and restaurant celebrate farmers and producers that practise responsible agriculture and mindful custodianship of the land.
Hirst nutritious dishes are created using the best local, seasonal and ethically farmed ingredients, all drawn from the Wandering Cooks’ own produce market.
The produce market also enables customers to take home the best locally sourced produce, supporting the region’s farmers and growers and striving “for the enrichment of our community and the long-term survival of those who provide thoughtfully for it.”
The Wandering Cooks bar is stocked with a curated selection of artisan beer, wine and spirits from emerging and established regions across Australia.
Re-locating from the outer fringes of South Brisbane to the West End was a strategic move for the company to tap into its main customer base. The new premises, a recently renovated warehouse on Vulture Street, has been “purpose-fitted and thoughtfully designed” yet remains a “rustic and ramshackle, simple and functional,” reimagined industrial space.
In Wandering Cooks incubating and mentoring a mix of food businesses, cooks and makers, it has provided many opportunities for them to test the market and endear themselves to the locals in the eight years since its inception.
Hirst is an internationally experienced chef, PhD recipient in food ethics, research student educator, cooking instructor, restaurant reviewer and catering business owner. Via Wandering Cooks, she is focused on enriching the quality, variety and level of engagement in the food industry.