Dani Venn

Before last week I had always associated picking fruit as something English backpackers did to fund their travels around Australia. For some absurd reason it had never occurred to me that I could go and pick my own fruit from farms in my local area. Silly me, for all these years I have been missing [...]

For as long as I can remember I’ve always yearned for the exotic, something less familiar. As a kid I never dug domestic cats and dogs, I wanted a white tiger as a pet. When all of my friends went to schoolies on the Gold Coast, I chose to live with a family in rural [...]

Unless your name is Heston Blumenthal, it’s pretty much impossible to invent a new dish. It seems that almost everything in the culinary world has been done before. But I guess that was probably what people in the 1950′s thought about music until The Beatles changed all that! Now I’m not saying that I’m like [...]

The third episode of Homemade at Dani’s is inspired by one of my all-time favourite childhood books ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ written by Eric Carle. In some ways I can see myself in this little caterpillar as I often eat way too much for my own good and then feel all sorry for myself. I’m [...]

The Brits have bought a few good things, or two, to the shores of Australia. Convicts and colonialists, rabbits and foxes, the common cold and Christianity, but the best things would have to be public holidays and puddings. Let’s be honest, everyone loves a public holiday. Australians love a public holiday so much that they would rather [...]

American food is so hot right now. Sweet bun burgers are the new Vegemite sandwich, Cal-Mex tacos are popping up like a teenagers pimples, hell there is even a Gumbo Kitchen cruising the streets of Melbourne. I’m not saying I’m not loving it. It’s food that is generally jam-packed full of fat, salt and sugar – what’s [...]

I’m exited to share with you the very first episode of my new web series Homemade at Dani’s featuring a Tea Cup Creme Brûlée. This series will reveal a little bit more about me through yummy homestyle recipes and personal stories from my very own kitchen in the Yarra Valley. I hope that you enjoy [...]

Most people are shocked when I tell them that I’ve never really been fond of animals, especially domestic ones. But the truth of the matter is my family’s dogs have always been a bit strange. One had a fetish for my stuffed toys, he would drag them underneath the dinner table and wouldn’t leave much [...]

As some of you already know, I made the conscious decision (yes, I was sober) to move to the country recently. This was partly due to housing unaffordability in inner city Melbourne, partly because I like to do things differently, partly because Food Inc scared the living daylights out of me but mostly because my [...]

I have an obsession with baking lately and I’m not sure what has caused this? Perhaps it’s because I’m breaking in my KitchenAid, maybe it’s my new house in the sticks which now qualifies me to become a member of the Country Women’s Association, or it could be that there’s nothing quite like a slice [...]