Cooking Demonstrations
Some of the best vegan cooks share their secrets at the Vegan Festival Adelaide Cooking Demonstrations. You don't just try a huge range of delicious vegan foods at the Festival, you can pick up tips on making your very own vegan feasts! This year's experts cook up vegan treats right in front of you in the Vegan Kitchen at the Cooking Demonstration tent.
Check out the Vegan Cookbook page for amazing awesome vegan recipes from the 2016-2024 Festivals.
Vegan Junkfood - Zacchary Bird
Zacchary Bird is the vegan butcher, the vegan baker and, above all, the vegan rule breaker. He’s vegan, BTW. No matter which hat he’s wearing, the job is the same: to perfect the plant-based version of absolutely every menu item known to humankind, and then some.
With a background in commercial plant-based meat development and teaching cooking classes (that go heavy on the deep-frying), Zac and his recipes alike are known for being extra AF. Flipping through his cookbooks will reveal a bounty of bold flavours, vibrant eye candy and (at times) bewildering creativity. Scrolling through his social media, you’ll find Zacchary teaching recipes as well as performing as a global dance icon (live from his living room), to kill time between tours of a croissant dough.
Zacchary’s first book, Vegan Junk Food was published in 2020 and was once used as a political prop by Jacinda Ardern. The Vegan Butcher won the PETA Australia Vegan Cookbook of the Year 2021, which Zacchary claims makes him the world’s number one vegan butcher/baker hybrid who can also do a backbend.
These days, Zac owns a Brisbane based vegan eatery and coffee bar called Archie AM PM.
Shannon Martinez
Shannon Martinez is one of Australia’s most influential plant-based chefs and the culinary force behind Melbourne institutions Smith & Daughters and Smith & Deli.
With more than 25 years in professional kitchens, Shannon has built a reputation for bold, flavour-driven food that challenges expectations of what plant-based cooking can be.
Since opening Smith & Daughters in Melbourne in 2014, Shannon has helped shift plant-based dining firmly into the mainstream, earning a loyal following in Australia and internationally. She is also the author of several acclaimed cookbooks, including Smith & Daughters: A Cookbook (That Happens to be Vegan), Smith & DELIcious: Food From Our Deli, Vegan With Bite, and Vegan Italian Food.
Today, as Culinary Director of Smith & Daughters, Smith & Deli and Made by Smith, Shannon continues to push plant-based food forward — developing everything from restaurant dishes and deli classics to ready meals and foodservice products.
Everyday Eating, Reimagined: Simple Plant-Based Swaps
Join Doctors For Nutrition for a practical, engaging cooking demonstration that brings plant-based eating back to basics. Grounded in evidence-based nutrition, this session will showcase how simple, affordable ingredient swaps can transform everyday meals into nourishing, delicious options that support long-term health.
Rebecca Stonor - PRESENTER & CEO
Rebecca Stonor is a science‑trained advocate for nutrition‑led lifestyle medicine. With an honours degree in Biological and Environmental Science from Flinders University and nearly two decades in plant science, she brings a rigorous, evidence‑based perspective to the role of diet in chronic disease prevention and management. Certified in plant‑based nutrition through eCornell University, she focuses on translating peer‑reviewed research into practical, clinically relevant strategies that complement standard care.
Motivated by both personal experience and the growing burden of lifestyle‑related disease, Rebecca aims to support clinicians and communities in making informed, sustainable choices that improve long‑term health outcomes.
Doctors For Nutrition is an independent, evidence-based health promotion charity dedicated to improving human and planetary health through whole food plant-based nutrition. Founded by medical and dietetic professionals, the organisation works across Australia and New Zealand to empower healthcare practitioners and the broader community with practical, science-backed nutrition and lifestyle medicine education.
SAM PARSONS - lIFE AS A VEGAN CHEF
Chef Sam Parsons has spent 11 years working in professional kitchens—and almost a decade doing so as a vegan. In this honest and engaging cooking demonstration, Sam will prepare a delicious dish while sharing the challenges, joys and defining moments of navigating life as a vegan chef.
You can also join us at the Adelaide Central Market in the lead up to the festival with dates advertised on our Facebook pages.
