The top food tours & cooking classes in Sydney

Multicultural and neighbourhood food tours 

Sydney is one of the most multicultural cities in the world, with countless cultural and linguistic groups contributing to the culinary fabric of the city. Gourmet Food Safaris (run by lauded broadcaster Maeve O'Meara OAM) and Taste Cultural Food Tours (a social enterprise and charity) take groups to culturally rich neighbourhoods around Sydney, and tours are led by local, knowledgeable guides. Be immersed in the Italian community of Haberfield, taste your way through Harris Park’s Little India or eat the city’s best Lebanese food in southwest Sydney. 

Little India, Harris Park

Mia Cucina specialises in private, bespoke culinary tours focusing on Italian, Chinese, Turkish or Vietnamese cuisine, in the suburbs where those cuisines are best represented. If you want to pack all the cuisines into one delicious journey, join a Forkabout guided tour through the multicultural, trendy eat streets of Surry Hills. If you’ve got a particular hotspot or flavour you’d like to explore, Splendour Tailored Tours will create an itinerary to suit you but you can also relinquish responsibility and let them take you on a day or evening adventure touring Sydney’s classic food experiences. 

Splendour Tailored Tours, Sydney

Feel like you’re hanging out with a group of mates on a social but informative Local Sauce Tour through historic Chinatown and Thaitown, or try something off beat like a food and street art tour of Newtown. For an experience centred on Sydney’s more contemporary icons, book a Taste of Sydney tour with Ultimately Sydney where you’ll go from Barangaroo to Surry Hills, sipping local wines, tasting a world-famous cake and having a dumpling feast. Or join The Sydney Connection on a one-night dining tour, with a cocktail, entree, main and dessert at different venues in either Potts Point, Darlinghurst or Surry Hills.  

BBQ and roasted duck hanging in a restaurant window in Chinatown

Foraging and produce tours 

Get your hands dirty with wild food expert Diego Bonetto on a foraging tour through the suburbs and parklands of Sydney where you’ll learn to pick edible and medicinal plants. Alternatively, take a self-guided culinary excursion to the producers of Sydney with the Harvest Trails and Markets farm gates along the Hawkesbury. Depending on where you drop into, you’ll end up picking your own oranges, apples or tomatoes at family-run orchards; tasting gourmet goats’ cheese; and sipping apple cider and boutique wines. 

Shields Orchard, Bilpin

Bush tucker, native ingredients and Aboriginal food history 

Sydney is a sprawling metropolis but before colonisation it was the market, pantry and kitchen for more than 20 Aboriginal clans. Learn about that history, the medicinal and culinary use of the land’s native ingredients, and taste some ingredients along the way with tours run by local Aboriginal people and organisations. Royal Botanic Gardens' Aboriginal Bush Tucker Tour takes you through the native Cadi Jam Ora garden, giving you lessons in botany plus a few samples to taste during the hour-long walk. Splendour Tailored Tours’ Authentic Aboriginal Experience explores Aboriginal art, tradition and cuisine over a half-day, culminating in a native ingredient-focused lunch.  

Splendour Tailored Tours, Sydney

Learn about the land’s original produce onsite, in nature, with an Australia by Nature Northern Beaches Salty Air and Aboriginal Bush Tucker tour or Salty Safaris’ Northern Beaches Small Group Day Tour, both run in collaboration with Aboriginal social enterprise Bush to Bowl. Go with Salty Safaris if you want to start the day with a surf lesson, or with Australia by Nature for an exclusive private tour including pick up and drop off from your hotel.   

Favourite lunch spot on tour with Salty Safaris, Sydney - Credit: Harrison Adams

Brewery and distillery tours 

Sydney is a craft brewing hotspot with more than 20 operators inviting you in to taste their wares. Dave’s delivers behind-the-scenes insights on its Hipsters & Hops Brewery Tour, taking you to three breweries plus a pub for a hearty lunch. As 13 of the city’s breweries are concentrated in the Inner West, it’s also easy to plot your own carless tour, and the Inner West Ale Trail is the perfect resource to guide you.  

But Sydney isn’t just a beer city, there’s a thriving small-batch spirit scene, with many makers running cocktail bars, tours and make-your-own classes in the same place they produce their spirits. If you’re keen to try a variety of things, book a Local Sauce Tours bar crawl to discover the best drinks in Surry Hills or Darlinghurst, the latter comes with stories and local knowledge from a drag queen.  

Local Sauce Tours, Redfern - Credit: Local Sauce Tours

Cooking classes 

While there’s nothing better than having someone prepare you a lavish meal, getting into the kitchen for a class ensures not just one great meal, but a lifetime of them. Bigger operations like The Sydney Cooking School and Vive Cooking School offer an extraordinary range of classes covering different cuisines and ability levels. Sydney Seafood School has a similar wide array of cooking styles to learn but with every class centred around using premium Australian seafood (you’ll be using the freshest produce available from the fish markets next door) as well as offering guest series’ from famous chefs and cookbook authors.  

Sydney Seafood School, Sydney Fish Market

If you’re interested in honing a particular cuisine or culture, join a class with a local expert or walk into the kitchen of a traditional family home. For the secrets of fresh pasta, gnocchi and the knowledge of which sauce to have with which, sign up for a pasta class at Pasta Emilia, a regionally focused lesson with Cucina Italiana Cooking School or a take on the skills of acclaimed chef Marcello Farioli with a class at his restaurant I Maccheroni.  

I Maccheroni, Woollahra - Credit: Will Hartley

For a masterclass into Indian cuisine (pick from north Indian, south Indian or street food) join a group or private class with the Modern Desi. Or experience what it’s like to cook in a traditional Lebanese family kitchen with the mother-daughter-duo-run classes of Sunday Kitchen. 

For butchery, Feather and Bone will teach you how to break down an entire animal (with all produce sourced from ethical, quality-focused farms). Cornersmith Cooking School will help you level-up your pantry with a pickling, fermenting or jam and marmalade workshop. And OzHarvest will help you understand how to make the most of your produce while teaching you about food waste in their Cooking for a Cause classes (with all proceeds going to OzHarvest’s mission of redistributing food to disadvantaged peoples).  

If you’re more of a baker or budding pastry chef, iconic bakery Bourke Street Bakery will help you become a capable sourdough baker.  

Cooking for a Cause class with Ozharvest, Alexandria - Credit: Nikki To/Sydney Delicious