Want to cook but don’t know how? Fiona Lynch-Magor is just the teacher you need

Posted on 6 May, 2025

Every morning of their lives together, Fiona Lynch-Magor and her husband Richard would begin with a conversation about what they were going to cook and eat together that day.

In a way, Fiona is keeping that connection to her beloved late husband, by chucking in a traditional Public Service day job and opening her own cooking school, Food for Taught.

After losing Richard 18 months ago to a rare neurological condition, Fiona felt utter clarity about what she wanted to do with her life, and that is to inspire others to enjoy their kitchens as much as she does.

So, rather than go back to her SES position, Fiona began rebuilding her life after Richard died by formulating lesson plans and creative food ideas while preparing the large open-plan kitchen of her O’Connor home to welcome new and curious students.

Fiona, right, instructing Amanda on spice combinations in Sri Lankan cooking.

It turns out the hardest part of following her dream was navigating the ACT Government’s red tape for permission to transform her suburban kitchen into a classroom, but Fiona’s bureaucratic expertise and tenacity shone through.

Now Food for Taught is open for business, offering individual and small-group cooking classes covering a variety of cultures and cuisines.

With relatives from Sardinia, Fiona takes classes through a menu such as Pecorino sarda (cheese in pastry drizzled with honey), Fregola con arselle (small pasta with black mussels) and Tiramisu alla Dolciotti – a family recipe.

She is also a fan of Sri Lankan cuisine (which is the experience HerCanberra gets when we do a class, but more on that in a minute). There are also classes on French, Italian, Thai cooking, and a Brunch session – why not? Because of her experience and the bespoke nature of her set-up, Fiona is always open to requests for instruction and feels she can confidently teach to almost any request.

It should be clear from this point that Fiona is one of those women who can cook pretty much anything – the more ambitious the better. But one of the classes she loves taking is Cooking for First Timers, borne not only of an enthusiasm to share her knowledge but also of the experience of feeding four children, now aged 17-30, and teaching them self-sufficiency in an age where UberEats is a costly but convenient option.

If you haven’t made your own coconut milk from scratch, can you call yourself a cook?

“I love seeing young adults learn that they can make amazing food that is actually cheap, nutritionally fantastic and easy,” she says.

“I also really like to open up the world to people who may not have been adventurous cooks or travellers.  I love seasonal food and cooking with beautiful ingredients and I think this approach is great for people wanting to get back into cooking when they may have been out of it for a while.”

With the HerCanberra crew assembled around her large dining room table, Fiona displays an unflappable ability to juggle four curries, rice and a coconut sambal, while imparting gems of gastronomic knowledge that made it feel like learning from a friend.

For instance, we learn how much better it is to use coconut oil than olive oil for frying curries, which shops to get the best spices from in Canberra, and even how to grind our own coconut flesh to make fresh coconut milk, and then to use the pulp for a sambal.

Accompanying herbs are snipped from Fiona’s lush veggie patch and while her three dogs keep watch from patches of sunshine outside (ACT Occupational Health and Safety standards adhered to at all times).

Fiona tells us she learned to cook fairly early in life.

Fiona’s classes cater for all levels and abilities and made a beautiful mother-daughter morning for Amanda and her burgeoning foodie daughter Sophia.

“My mother was a committed feminist and unionist so from about the age of 12, she would have after-work meetings and leave me instructions on what to cook for dinner and how to cook it.  It generally went swimmingly until I once mistook the citronella growing in our garden for mint and made a fairly poisonous ‘mint’ sauce for the roast lamb.  It kept the mozzies away though!,” she laughs.

“My father took over most of the cooking as we grew up and we were very influenced by the food we ate on our travels and visiting our family in Sardinia.  So it really grew from there.”

As she has matured, certain chefs have become food heroes, including Yotam Ottolenghi “his recipes are excellently precise (I’m not very precise so I love his bossy nature)”. She has also pored over French cooking encyclopedia Larousse Gastronomique (which might explain how she calmly decided just three days before Easter that she was going to cook duck for 16 guests and it turned out magnificently). Meanwhile, she also seeks regular inspiration from Recipe Tin Eats which she describes as “such a generous offering which really makes cooking so accessible.”

But of all the inspiration out there, Fiona says “my favourite recipes are ones that you get given by family and friends that are a bit stained and worn out.”

Fiona and Richard always relished travel and new food experiences, and Fiona has undertaken cooking classes around the world.

As for our Sri Lankan meal, Fiona brings an induction plate , bowls of fresh herbs, spices and fish to the table and we get chopping. Her class is dynamic but also quite methodical and she gives recipes and instructions for all dishes cooked.

After we cooked all of this, we devoured it.

Our conversations range wildly, and laughter and questions fly across the table (as well as the odd coriander leaf and mustard seed).

Despite the innate chaos of four students trying to cook four separate recipes, it comes together beautifully, and the smell of spices start our stomachs rumbling. Once we have produced beautiful curries which Fiona plates for us to take photos, she invites us to sit down and eat.

And by this stage we are firm friends.

Our group includes experienced home cooks (Amanda and Emma), a former short-order café cook (Sammy) and 16-year-old burgeoning foodie Sophia. We are genuinely surprised at how delicious the curries are, how quickly they came together and how simple it all seemed in the end.

We share wonderful food memories and experiences and come away with a new repertoire of recipes.

If a mark of a good teacher is for students to put their learning into practice, Fiona certainly inspired Emma, who took a pouch full of dried spices and an armload of fresh herbs home from O’Connor and the very next night cooked two Sri Lankan curries for her family.

“I would never pick up a cookbook and cook something new like this,” Emma says.

“But when I watch someone put a dish together, I understand it so much better and now I feel very confident to try more Sri Lankan cooking. I also know how good it smells and tastes.”

Moreso, Emma would love to reach the stage where she could confidently produce a duck feast for 16 people. But baby steps…

Somehow managed to pump out an incredibly light and fluffy chocolate mouse while we were there. Not Sri Lankan but fabulous nonetheless.

The final word goes to Fiona, who genuinely lights up having people around her dining table.
“Being in my apron in the kitchen is just truly my happy place and I love more than anything having a load of friends and family for a meal. And I talk to Richard endlessly (even now) knowing he would have really loved to be part of this and he would be proud to see me bring this small business to life.”

SRI LANKAN DHAL

All of the curries we made were delicious but this dhal is our pick!

Ingredients:

150 grams red lentils

1 tablespoon coconut oil

1 large red shallot finely chopped

3 large garlic cloves minced

1 sprig curry leaves

1 teaspoon chilli powder

1 teaspoon Sri Lankan curry powder

1 tablespoon turmeric

1 teaspoon cooking salt

1 cup of fresh coconut milk (canned if you cannot get fresh)

Water if the dhal gets too thick

Chopped coriander to garnish

Directions:

Heat the coconut milk and add the onion, garlic and curry leaves and cook until soft.

Add the spices and cook until the spices are fragrant.  You may add some water if they start to burn.

Add the lentils and stir well and add the coconut milk and simmer until the lentils are soft.

Serve garnished with coriander and some chopped fresh tomato if you fancy.