The City of Boroondara is culturally and linguistically rich, with residents born in over 150 different countries and more than 121 languages spoken at home. With such a multicultural heritage, we are proud to support and celebrate this year’s Cultural Diversity Week, running from Saturday 11 to Tuesday 21 March.
We are running a series of fun, in-person cooking events and some other activities at our facilities to mark this celebration, inviting the community to connect with the many people and cultures that make up our city. There are also 5 free recipes available for download that you can try at home if you can't make a cooking event.
Cooking up Culture demonstrations
Our Cooking up Culture demonstrations are set to be highlight events of Cultural Diversity Week. These events will feature step-by-step cooking demonstrations of delicious dishes, including:
- Pol Roti (coconut flatbread) with Swarna Amarasingham
- Hot Khichdi (a rice and Dahl porridge) with Ajai Dogra
- Papeda (a staple food in Indonesian cuisine, also known as Sago Congee or Bubur Sagu) with Yacob Manhua.
These are free events, but registration is essential. Visit the event pages today to book your place at the demonstrations.
Cooking Up Culture in Boroondara with Yacob Manuhua
Free recipes to try at home
If you can’t make it to one of our Cooking Up Culture demonstrations and still want to get a taste of what was on the menu, never fear!
Every recipe from the series – lovingly crafted by our community chefs themselves – is available to download in the Downloads section on this page, along with a short bio from each of our local community chefs. You can also pick up a copy of the recipes from your local Boroondara library or neighbourhood house from Friday 10 March.
Download our free recipe cards
Other Cultural Diversity Week events
On top of the Cooking it up events, we are also running some additional events at our Libraries and facilities. We encourage you to get involved, have some fun and learn something new this Cultural Diversity Week.
Planning for the future
The Cultural Diversity Week events we are running are supported by our overarching Multicultural Action Plan 2019-2023. The goal of this plan is to create a welcoming community where cultural diversity is celebrated and promoted and where people of all cultural, linguistic and religious backgrounds can participate in all aspects of life in Boroondara.
As our community continues to grow and evolve, our approach to supporting and celebrating our multicultural community needs to grow and evolve too. To do this, a new Multicultural Action Plan is being developed this year that will build on the achievements of the 2019-2023 plan.
As we commence work on the new Multicultural Action Plan, we’ll be seeking the input of the Boroondara community as part of the public consultation process.
We invite you to follow this consultation on our Engage Boroondara website-external site. By selecting to follow the page, you will be updated when the consultation opens. This is the best way to make sure you get all the information and can have your say on our new Multicultural Action Plan.
Find out more
You can find out more by:
- visiting our Events page
- calling us on (03) 9278 4938
- emailing any questions you have about this topic to [email protected]
We also recommend you read our Multicultural Action Plan 2019-2023, which is available in the downloads section on this page