Now whilst it wasn't hands on, Head Chef and owner Ashley Hughes took the class and the 23 of us had plenty of opportunity to ask questions and learn tips and tricks of the trade that the cook books don't give you.
The cooking school is in the basement of the restaurant and is a pretty good set up. Ashley advised us that they are awaiting installation of the mirrors so you can see all aspects of the cooking process, but even without them we had a pretty good view and Ashley continually showed us inside pots etc.
He was a great teacher explaining all parts of the process of the recipes he cooked and was extremely gracious in providing his time and his knowledge even though he had been on site in Hyde Park for the Sydney Food Festival from 6:00am with his team providing up to 800 covers for food, he then spent 3hrs with us and was then heading up service this evening!
So the day started off with him teaching us to make a basic chicken stock and this stock was then used in 2 of the dishes we cooked. I didn't bother with taking a pic of this as I'm pretty sure everyone knows what a big pot full of water, vegetables, herbs and chicken carcasses looks like :)
We learned how to make a basic bread dough for a focaccia. It was such a simple process and the finished product was the most delicious bread, warm and eaten straight from the oven, dipped in olive oil and 25 year old balsamic.
Focaccia with rosemary and garlic oil
Whilst the bread was 'proving' Ashley then heated some olives in a pan with fresh chili and garlic and a dash of olive oil and these were provided to us to nibble on along with a glass of champagne.
The tomato sauce that he was making for one lot of pasta was left on to reduce and was literally nothing more than crushed tomatoes, salt, pepper and a little garlic and this slowly simmered for about 2hrs before we ate it with the fettuccine.
He taught us how to make fresh pasta - the pasta itself was then cut into fettuccine which was later served with the tomato sauce and muscles that had been cooked in white wine, garlic and chili and thrown last minute with some fresh basil and parsley into the tomato sauce. Now I'm not someone to order muscles voluntarily at a restaurant but these were lovely and cooked to perfection.
Fettuccine with muscles in a wine and tomato sauce
The other pasta we made was a ravioli which went formed part of a traditional northern Italian soup called a Stracciatella which was made with chicken broth, the ravioli and egg. It sounds really strange but it was a gorgeous fresh soup that had a very warming and home made feel to it, I guess you could say its the Italian equivalent of chicken noodle soup! We had this whilst we waited on the mains to finish cooking as we continued to watch Ashley at work :)
Straccatelli (Italian chicken noodle soup)
Once the bread was baking and the soup eaten Ashley then showed us how to master the art of wet risotto. Risotto, depending on the chef and where you are eating it can range from a dry to a wet consistency, from crunchy to al dente to well cooked, it all really depends on the preference of the chef and the type of rice that he uses.
Did you know that there are many different types of risotto rice and that each one depending on how long it has been aged will then depend on how long it needs to be cooked?
Nope, me neither til today!
The most common rice used for risotto here in Australia is 'Aborio' and it seems in the scientific world of risotto mastering it is actually the bottom of the food chain! Now considering its the one we all buy because we believe it to be the best I found that hard to believe, that was until I tried Ashley's risotto this afternoon and now I'm converted.
Ashley only uses a special Italian grain called Riso Vialone Nano and in Australia the only non commercial vendor is 'Simon Johnson' who have it on their website for $13.95 for a kilo. Now when you can buy 'Aborio' for about $6 a kilo why would you spend it you think, but after tasting it today I'll definitely be using it (in fact we bought some from Alio after the class) and I figure, risotto is that special meal that I cook for guests, it's not like I cook it for myself every week, so its an investment well worth it.
Riso Vialone Nano - THE best rice for a risotto
So this particular rice takes 18 minutes to make the perfect risotto and the one we had today was a mushroom. A simple combination of field mushrooms and porcini's which had been soaked for about 2hrs and the liquid then added to the risotto as well. This risotto is served quite wet and looks a little sloppy, but it was easy to eat and was so robust in flavour. Apparently the traditional way of serving it in northern Italy is flat on the plate rather than heaped in a bowl as we eat it, but as there was such a crowd of us it was served in bowls along the table just like you see on Masterchef at the end of the Friday night cooking class when they all share a meal - that is exactly how it was for us!
Mushroom risotto
The last thing Ashley made for us in the class was a lovely salad to serve with the meal made with Persian Feta, Witlof, Pear, Rocket and Walnuts. It was such a simple salad but the lovely peppery flavour of the rocket with the slightly bitter of the witlof leaves was a nice combination. He dressed it in vinaigrette that is their house speciality - olive oil, balsamic, verjuice and some other secret ingredients and a drizzle of 25 year old Italian balsamic vinegar. (and yes I bought bottles to bring home!) Now I'm not usually a fan of balsamic anything, but this had such a well rounded flavour and mixed with the vinaigrette coating those salad leaves I could have eaten a whole bowl of that salad!
Witlof, Pear and Persian Feta Salad
We enjoyed a further glass of wine - stupidly I didn't get the details but it was a very nice semillion and good conversation over lunch before Ashley wrapped up and we finished off with a small dish of to die for Tiramisu made with real couveture chocolate rather than cocoa - it was divine and a shame for this sweet tooth that it was just a small ramekin full, probably the size of a standard tea cup! (that's a tea spoon in there)
Tiramisu
So all in all it was a great day - we bought the oil,vinaigrette and balsamic, 01 flour for the pasta and bread the the rice which cost us an extra $60 but as the whole day was via scoupon for $69 instead of $200 we so were not complaining!
Now I'm looking forward to testing out my pasta machine and giving the bread a go next time I have guests.
We are also planning to go back and have dinner, especially as we now know how divine the food is. I think its now my favourite Italian restaurant in Sydney.
The olive oil, vinaigrette and aged balsamic
www.alio.com.au - check out their website for the Italian Feast course we did, I'm also hoping to go back and do their pasta masterclass now too! - click on the link for your personal invitation where you will see a YouTube clip of the pasta class - looks awesome!
Danielle xxx
