Cooking Retreats
Our cooking retreats offer food as a vehicle for a better understanding of ourselves. Deep, intelligent and soulful nourishment can also be fun, joyful, powerful and delicious.
Cooking together in the kitchen of Clearview Retreat, we will explore food’s journey from seed to plant, from harvest to kitchen, from pot to plate, and from palate to our inner being. Expand your ideas and options with food, cooking and eating for a more creative and flexible relationship with yourself and the world.
You will learn innovative approaches to vegetarian cooking, balancing a wide variety of vegetables, grains, fruits, spices and herbs, and combining approaches from different cultural traditions. Learn how easily you can adapt recipes for special diets and allergies, creating simple, tasty and satisfying home cooking that everyone can enjoy. Be inspired to deepen your love of food and cooking in a nature-rich setting.
Each cooking retreat involves cooking classes and sharing those meals together, eating meditation, some periods of silence, and guided nature walks. Free time between sessions allows guests to rest and explore. People of all levels of experience in cooking are welcome. Special diets are catered for.
The retreats are held at Clearview Retreat, ninety minutes north of Melbourne in the King Parrot Valley in central Victoria. Clearview Retreat backs onto the Tallarook forest and ranges, with immense views 100 kilometres across to Mount Buller and other spectacular mountain ranges.
Each cooking retreat is limited to small numbers of people (8 max).
Upcoming Cooking Retreats
• Cooking from the Heart - w Jocelyn Bennett: 9-11 August 2024 (2-day retreat)
• Cooking from the Heart - w Jocelyn Bennett: 11-13 October 2024 (2-day retreat)
• Cooking from the Heart - w Jocelyn Bennett: 21-23 March 2025 (2-day retreat)
• Cooking from the Heart - w Jocelyn Bennett: 23-25 May 2025 (2-day retreat)
More retreats will be scheduled for 2025.
Check the website later for updates or ask to be put on our email list.
Clearview Retreat also offers Yoga Retreats and Nature Meditation Retreats.
When
2-day retreat: 7pm Fri until 3pm Sun
Enquiries
Jocelyn Bennett, ph 0437 813 737
Cost
2-day retreat: $470, $540 or $610
See full price information below
Cooking from the Heart
…with Jocelyn Bennett
9-11 August 2024 (2-day retreat)
Cooking is enjoyable, often when done with others. After cooking for so many retreats I want to share with you the key themes which I return to again and again when nurturing ourselves and retreat guests. Themes of cooking balanced, uncomplicated and deeply satisfying meals will be shared. We'll celebrate the diversity of tastes in a vegetarian diet, offering options for different restrictions and preferences, while also limiting processed foods in favour of local and Earth-saving foods. Simplicity and diversity in cooking can be complementary friends. We’ll cook and eat all six meals together and take two guided nature walks. Sharing home cooked and heart felt meals is a very physical expression of both the cook's creativity and warmth, and of the love we give and receive with others through delicious, nutritious and nurturing food.
Cooking from the Heart
…with Jocelyn Bennett
11-13 October 2024 (2-day retreat)
Cooking is enjoyable, often when done with others. After cooking for so many retreats I want to share with you the key themes which I return to again and again when nurturing ourselves and retreat guests. Themes of cooking balanced, uncomplicated and deeply satisfying meals will be shared. We'll celebrate the diversity of tastes in a vegetarian diet, offering options for different restrictions and preferences, while also limiting processed foods in favour of local and Earth-saving foods. Simplicity and diversity in cooking can be complementary friends. We’ll cook and eat all six meals together and take two guided nature walks. Sharing home cooked and heart felt meals is a very physical expression of both the cook's creativity and warmth, and of the love we give and receive with others through delicious, nutritious and nurturing food.
Cooking from the Heart
…with Jocelyn Bennett
21-23 March 2025 (2-day retreat)
Cooking is enjoyable, often when done with others. After cooking for so many retreats I want to share with you the key themes which I return to again and again when nurturing ourselves and retreat guests. Themes of cooking balanced, uncomplicated and deeply satisfying meals will be shared. We'll celebrate the diversity of tastes in a vegetarian diet, offering options for different restrictions and preferences, while also limiting processed foods in favour of local and Earth-saving foods. Simplicity and diversity in cooking can be complementary friends. We’ll cook and eat all six meals together and take two guided nature walks. Sharing home cooked and heart felt meals is a very physical expression of both the cook's creativity and warmth, and of the love we give and receive with others through delicious, nutritious and nurturing food.
Cooking from the Heart
…with Jocelyn Bennett
23-25 May 2025 (2-day retreat)
Cooking is enjoyable, often when done with others. After cooking for so many retreats I want to share with you the key themes which I return to again and again when nurturing ourselves and retreat guests. Themes of cooking balanced, uncomplicated and deeply satisfying meals will be shared. We'll celebrate the diversity of tastes in a vegetarian diet, offering options for different restrictions and preferences, while also limiting processed foods in favour of local and Earth-saving foods. Simplicity and diversity in cooking can be complementary friends. We’ll cook and eat all six meals together and take two guided nature walks. Sharing home cooked and heart felt meals is a very physical expression of both the cook's creativity and warmth, and of the love we give and receive with others through delicious, nutritious and nurturing food.
Jocelyn Bennett
Jocelyn Bennett, co-founder of Clearview Retreat, has been exploring the power of food to invigorate our lives and deepen our relationship with nature, in her own diet for over 30 years, and since 2004, as cook and host at Clearview Retreat. Jocelyn takes pleasure in the quality of good food and its ability to nourish ourselves and our relationships with others, and to enrich our spirit. Her own journey has involved exploring the delights of new foods and cuisines, while accommodating her body’s changing sensitivities to gluten, yeast, sugar and dairy. Jocelyn’s approach to food and health always highlights flavour, balance and enjoyment. Rather than emphasise specific diets she favours a few maxims like using plenty of vegetables, balancing nutrition, and having a good cross section of colour and texture. She loves to create menus that delight and inspire all tastes, and at the same time suit a wide variety of preferences, needs and lifestyles.
Cooking Retreat Rates
2-day retreats
$ 470 per person: meditation tuition + all meals + camping (BYO tent & camping gear)
$ 540 per person: meditation tuition + all meals + sharing bedroom (2 or 3 people in a room)
$ 610 per person: meditation tuition + all meals + one person to a bedroom
Meals include: Breakfast, lunch and dinner
~ Gift certificates are available, and are valid for 12 months from date of purchase
~ GST is included in these prices
~ Non-refundable and non-transferable deposit to secure booking: $ 150
~ Balance to be paid 3 weeks before retreat
~ Full fee is forfeited, & non-transferable, if booking is cancelled by guest less than 1 week before retreat