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Edna’s Table spread before Indigenous community

The founders of Sydney’s famed Edna’s Table restaurants have teamed up with the Redfern Aboriginal community to create a hospitality training college for local school leavers reports Judith White in the July 2006 edition of the South Sydney Herald.

The Yaama Dhinawan project (the name means “Welcome Emu”) aims to open within months at the old Eveleigh railway works, with a cooking school and a café fronting Wilson Street.

Pyrmont-born brother and sister, Jennice and Raymond Kersh, who made Edna’s Table a favoured dining spot for city lawyers, media and politicians, have joined with Aunty Beryl Van-Oploo of the Kamilaroi nation to form the Yaama team.

Courses begin in September, with training open to students from all backgrounds. Uniquely, the college will give training in indigenous food and culture. Chef Raymond Kersh, together with Aunty Beryl and trained TAFE lecturers, will teach students about collecting food in traditional ways and integrating the ingredients into modern cuisine.

“Our hearts are in this project,” said Jennice Kersh, who for more than 20 years has run the restaurants named after her mother. “We have always been passionate about developing indigenous Australian cuisine and it’s long been our dream to work with young people from the community.”

The Kershes are no strangers to battling neighbourhoods. Their father was a wharfie who recreated exotic dishes seen on the docks in their tiny Pyrmont kitchen. Raymond and Jennice became fascinated by Australian native foods 40 years ago at Balgo when their brother was running an outback station. When they opened their own restaurant, they soon began incorporating the ingredients into fine dining.

Redfern residents since 1994, they have been delighted to meet up with Aunty Beryl, who has extensive experience as a cook and TAFE teacher, has worked at a number of restaurants including Lilli Pilli, and is dedicated to working with Sydney’s Aboriginal communities.

The pioneering project is part of the plan by the Redfern Waterloo Authority to transform the railway works into a cultural complex. Yaama will inhabit the former Railworkers’ Social Club, which has kitchens, a dining area with performance stage, and rooms suitable for classrooms, all now ready for renovation.

While the project is in preparation, the Yaama team has been unable to stay out of the kitchen. In May they held a highly successful Mothers Day lunch at the Wyanga Centre in Cope Street, with a mouth-watering menu.

Soon their first students will be learning preparation techniques, and within months the project aims to welcome locals to the Yaama café.

[South Sydney Herald July 2006]