Ada’s passion for healthy food to shine on stage

Several traditional Lebanese and Middle Eastern dishes will be on the menu at this weekend’s Moreton Bay Food + Wine Festival when Redcliffe’s very own self-proclaimed “Vegetarian Queen” Ada Daher takes to the stage.

As a local, Ada has been a festival favourite for many years, sharing her healthy and authentic recipes with thousands of foodies.

“I have been to the festival about three times, and I love cooking alongside the other chefs and sharing recipes from my homeland with the crowd,” Ada says.

“When I am up on stage, I love showing people how to use lots of vegetables in their dishes because vegetables are so important to our diet.

“While I was growing up in Lebanon, we got all our vitamins from food like almonds, legumes, vegetables, protein, and yoghurt – we ate so well that we didn’t need multivitamins.

“I didn’t even know what a multivitamin was until I came to Australia.”

Ada will be sharing some of her favourite dishes on The Kitchenette Stage across all three days of the festival.

On Friday she will make a Doner kebab and Mushabak, followed by fresh pasta and ravioli on Saturday, and Dolmades and Namoura Semolina cake on Sunday.

Ada says she loves to cook with pasta as it helps incorporate more veggies into people’s diets, especially kids.

“I incorporate a lot of vegetable juice into my pasta and love to make different coloured pasta, which the kids love,” Ada says.

“When I make green pasta, I have used lots of green vegetables and herbs like spinach, rocket, and parsley.

“When I make red pasta, I have used things like beetroot, and when I make orange pasta, I have used lots of lovely carrots.

“When you make the pasta fun and colourful, then your child is more likely to eat it.”

This was one of the topics in Ada’s children’s book series, which is all about healthy eating.

“I write children’s stories called Emily and Friends Around the World Cooking Adventures, and in one of the books Emily goes to Italy,” Ada explains.

“It’s a good resource for when your kids say they don’t like broccoli or peas, you can bring out the book, read it, and then make the pasta together.”

When to see Ada

If you would like to see Ada’s cooking demonstrations, head on down to The Kitchenette Stage at the following times:

• Friday: 5.30-6pm
• Saturday: 5.30-6pm
• Sunday: 4-4.30pm

About Ada

Known on the Redcliffe Peninsula as the ‘Queen of vegetarian, healthy, Mediterranean cooking’, Ada Daher is an acclaimed chef, cooking instructor, author and illustrator.

Born in northern Lebanon, Ada grew up surrounded by organic vegetables where her father made Ouzo, grew olives for olive oil, and fished three to four times a week.

Her mother Catherina was also an accomplished cook in her own right.

While Ada and her family migrated to Australia when she was 10, her love for cooking and sharing traditional Lebanese and Mediterranean meals stayed with her during her childhood and into adulthood.

With a yearning to learn as much as she could, Ada explored many different skills including cooking, teaching, business, marketing, writing and art.

It is those skills that assisted Ada in writing multiple cookbooks, as well as writing and illustrating the Emily and Friends Cooking adventure series.

Sharing her passion for food has also seen Ada design a program for the Sesame Lane Day Care and Kindergarten Centres that teaches young children about the joy of food.

Throughout her career Ada has managed and worked in several restaurants in Moreton Bay, and now hosts regular Mediterranean cooking classes for children and adults at The Urban Feast Cooking School, which is owned by her good friend and fellow chef Dominique Rizzo.

She also hosts cooking classes at the Golden Pig in Newstead.

Believing that all food is made with love, Ada shares that love with the less fortunate hosting regular cook-ups with members of her church to help feed the homeless in Brisbane.

Don’t miss out

With only a few days to go, there is still time to secure your tickets to the 2024 Moreton Bay Food + Wine Festival.

The festival will be held at Apex Park in Woody Point from August 23-25.

The festival is renowned as one of Queensland’s biggest foodie celebrations, with a jam-packed program of events including special appearances by a host of celebrity chefs, live cooking demonstrations, pop-up bars and restaurants, food trucks, local producers, market stalls, live entertainment, and more!

To book your tickets, head to the Moreton Bay Food + Wine Festival website.