Brenda Fawdon
Passionate real food advocate Brenda Fawdon is a chef, author, food educator, presenter, recipe developer, food and wine tour leader and start-up business visionary. She is also a food ambassador for the Scenic Rim region in Queensland.
Brenda co-authored Eat Local — Food, Farming and Conversation in the Scenic Rim Volume 1 (2016) and Volume 2 (2018) with Christine Sharp, published by the Scenic Rim Regional Council. Her first cookbook, Wholehearted Food, was published by UQP in 2013, and she was a contributing author to QAGOMA’s award-winning book, Harvest, published in 2014.
Brenda was a restaurateur and chef for over thirty years, and co-founded award-winning restaurant, catering business and cooking school Mondo Organics in Brisbane in 2000, which she later sold in 2015. In 2014 and 2017 Brenda and business partner Sonja Drexler led food and wine tours to Italy with UK company Tastes of Italy. In 2018 Brenda and Sonja founded and grew Real Food Farm Gate, a farm-gate-to-farmers’-market business, which they then sold to a local farming family in 2021.
Sonja Drexler
Sonja Drexler is both a dynamic hospitality professional and a talented designer of built environment – the fine creative mind behind the North Stores building and interiors design. With a Graduate Diploma in Applied Science Built Environment from QUT, Sonja is a qualified interior designer, architectural concept designer and project manager, with a focus on sustainable and ecological design.
Sonja has worked in hospitality in various capacities since 1983, and co-founded award-winning restaurant, catering business and cooking school Mondo Organics in Brisbane in 2000, which she later sold in 2015. In 2014 and 2018 Sonja and business partner Brenda Fawdon led food and wine tours to Italy with UK company Tastes of Italy. In 2017 Sonja and Brenda founded and grew Real Food Farm Gate, a farm-gate-to-farmers’-market business, which they then sold to a local farming family in 2021.
