Today I am sharing my thoughts on Visiting The Cookery at The Colony. The Colony is a unique, open-air lifestyle and destination shopping Centre in the Hyde Park, Craighall Park area, which I recently came to know because of my Bachelorette. My beautiful sister who knows me very well booked a surprise evening at The Cookery for family, friends and myself.

If it is your first time hearing about this spot, then let me set the scene. The Cookery is a small, intimate eating dining area, with a TO-DIE-FOR kitted out kitchen. When you arrive you are warmly welcomed, by the team, offered drinks from your bar and then divided up into teams.

Each team is given 2 – 3 recipe cards, and all the ingredients to make each recipe. Once all the food is cooked, you all sit around a dinner table to eat together.

What is fantastic about the Cookery is that you can bring your own drinks to the venue, and my sister had created a lovely little gin bar in the corner which went down very well with the girls.

Discovering Gems at Cookery at The Colony

Visiting The Cookery at The Colony

The owner of The Cookery, Paul Maciel, started the well-known Jozi restaurant Pronto in 2004, and after 12 years sold Pronto and decided to follow his passion for writing and teaching about food with the launch of his cooking school The Cookery. The Cookery is equipped with state of the art Whirlpool and KitchenAid appliances and plenty of room for large groups to cook.

Paul together with his co-chef Milo have numerous events that they co-ordinate every month with varying themes, which you can check out here. You can also book for special events like team building or parties like my sister did for us.

Our night at The Cookery at Colony

Chef Milo, our host, was the funniest, bubbliest person, and created such an awesome vibe during the evening. He was full of jokes, one-liners and really thought-provoking life/cooking anecdotes that kept us all entertained throughout the evening. He, along with his staff, were very hands-on, but not so much that they took over, but rather just to lend a helping hand if anyone stumbled with their recipes.

Milo was so accommodating and understanding about my IBS and made sure that fresh garlic, chillies and onions were removed from the food, and even went so far as to prepare a special Dairy Free Chocolate Ice Cream recipe for us to create.