Restaurant - About Us

"If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe."
–Carl Sagan

Genesis vegetarian restaurant and café first opened in September 2007. With two years of careful planning of the structure and the feel of the place, we believe creating food is not just about cooking – it’s a philosophy and a way of life.

The blend of colours and flavours in every plate we serve reflects the experience of food that we absorbed in the Middle East – a place where people and cuisines mix in an endless, rich diversity. The texture of Rivka’s famous berry cheesecake, the zesty blend of fruits and vegetables in her salads, reflect and develop the flavours she herself grew up with: her mother’s Bulgarian-Spanish cuisine and her father’s Hungarian cuisine.

At Rivka and Ita’s childhood home, meals involved a daily process of fresh and resourceful cooking, where they intuitively absorbed an understanding of the flavours, blends and herbs. Their mother’s cakes, baked every week for Shabbat (Friday evening), gained a reputation in their town, and friends would often join the girls after school to visit and taste the cakes, which were always gladly shared.

Growing up with the daily doings of cooking and baking is similar to growing up with familiar stories and family members – they become an inseparable part of your acquired subconscious. This love of cooking continued to grow with the years as Rivka, with her broad knowledge of nutritional balance, meal structure, food groups and herbs and spices, turned it into a real art. Upon arriving in Australia, Rivka opened a successful largely-vegetarian restaurant in the heart of Subiaco. Today she cooks and expresses herself at Genesis.