She was invited to make the visit to the North East after meeting winery owners Katrina and Fred Pizzini at her cooking school in George Town and discovering they shared a similar food philosophy.

Katrina runs cooking school, A tavola!

“We loved it so much that we invited Pearly to run a class in my cooking school back in Australia, and she accepted immediately,” Ms Pizzini said.

On Saturday morning 10 lucky cooks were taught how to make traditional dishes including chicken rendang, sambal goreng, laksa and pork pai ti.

Dishes were matched with Pizzini wines.

“We had the pinot grigio with the prawn sambal goreng,” Ms Pizzini said.

“Because the food is a bit on the rich side the pinot grigio came through the richness.”

Ms Pizzini said Kee’s relationship with food was deeper than taste and satisfaction.

“Her food is based around health and stories of her culture,” Ms Pizzini said.

“So it’s not only delicious, there is always a story to the dish.”