Wandering Cooks

We offer two options in tamari and two options in mirin to our co-op; just enough to satisfy our current members' desires.

If you're a working member, this agedashi inspired meal will set you back $7.50 or $5.25 a person, depending on which products you choose.

Why two of each, not one, not five?

We are avid cooks, compelled by the kind of artistry epitomised by Ito Shoten Tamari and Mikawa Mirin. And, we are budget conscious.

Ito Shoten is made by the ninth and eleventh generations (grandfather and grandson) of a 200 year old family company. And Mikawa Mirin is made by the Sumiya family, the last of the traditional mirin makers.

Even though we keep their pricing exceptionally low, these are still very special day items when you're on a tight budget. So, we also sell Spiral Foods organic mirin and tamari. Eventually, we plan to stock these in 20L drums, making them even better value for our co-op.

Also in the mix:
Wadaman toasted sesame seeds, Yamaki Jozo dashi powder. (Both of these + Ito Shoten Tamari and Mikawa Mirin are accessible in Australia due to the efforts of Fino Foods with the help of Nancy Singleton Hachisu, who, btw, is also THE BEST and I mention her because these are two of her cookbooks opened to three different agedashi recipes because our photograph of the finished meal was NOT THE BEST)
Earth Source Foods Biodynamic Silken Tofu
Riverina Sustainable Growers Opus Rice
Tapioca Starch
Spring onions from the garden
Water from the tap

When Wandering Cooks said goodbye in May 2022, many of us felt the loss. It wasn't just a business —it was our family. We believed we were growing something better, together.

We all got on with things in the quiet that followed. New work, new loves, new lives… but we didn’t forget the magic, or want it less.

I (Ange) have spent the last few years working in a great organisation. But it’s also helped me remember what having a boss feels like, and why, in my mid thirties, I decided I wouldn’t have one anymore, which led to me starting Cooks and becoming the boss.

Now, I'm looking for bosslessness.

What if we can resurrect the magic… the producers wandering in every day and gathering around food, the rejection of the heartless, the corporatised, the industrialised... what if we can resurrect all this but reform it into something owned by everyone?

18 months ago, 3 households, all ex-Cookers, started gathering food together. Then, we invited more households into the fold.

Every month, we gather together to shop, with working members weighing up bulk purchases of flour, grains, nuts, oils — all manner of them. Then we reflect together and improve. We’re constantly reworking our system for divvying up a whole cow. We share snacks, hold babies and help each other to the car with mountains of food. We’re discovering that the work itself—the ordering, weighing, debating and baby minding—weaves us together. The "inconvenience" of participation rather than the soulless ease of a supermarket turns out to be the source of our collective abundance.

Most recently we’ve added a weekly grocery box to our offerings, to facilitate fresh fruit and vegetables.

We're called Cooks' Co-op, for now. It’s a nod to our origins, with a new commitment to ‘us’.

Every month we open our doors just a little wider, with an invitation to more households - to kindred spirits, who share our longing for the magic and want to weave us with it. So if you've been looking for a different way to feed yourself and your loved ones—one that connects rather than isolates, that builds rather than extracts—you may have found your people.

We take on a maximum of 5 new member-households every month. We’ll keep a waiting list after we fill these places. Email us (see our profile) if you're interested. xx

Thank you so much to 's James Frostick for this very beautiful article on the history and legacy of Wandering Cooks.

https://m.theweekendedition.com.au/food-drink/the-legacy-of-wandering-cooks/

At this strange and occasionally anxious time, it is an enormous consolation to hear from some of the wonderful and talented Cooks and thinkers that really did need what our little warehouse gave to them.

Faced with the wild reality of making food as business, some forged ahead toward great things, some turned around and went other ways, and a great many learned the subtle and endlessly valuable art of adaptation (which the last few years would most certainly have rewarded).

I am very proud to have been a small part of so many great stories.

And even as is sit here licking my wounds and counting the costs, please let me assure you that I'm ok, and that I feel well supported. Plus, in the midst of it all, there is one thing I know without a shadow of a doubt; it was all, absolutely, worth it.

Lots of love to everyone,
Ange
xoxo

**CLOSED TONIGHT

With apologies to everyone, Wandering Cooks will be closed this evening.

Please support our neighbors and friends in food and drink in our place. They deserve (and very much need) your custom.

Lots of love,
Ange and Co.

xoxo