Cucina Italiana, Annandale

If you’re looking to master the art of Italian cooking in Sydney, what better place to do it than in a heritage-listed villa in Annandale? Luciana Sampogna opens up her kitchen to those who love artisan cuisine as much as she does, with classes including “long Italian lunch,” “wood fire oven,” “gluten-free,” and, especially for the little ones, “bambini in cucina.”

For more information, go here

Luciana Sampogna has been running Cucina for the last 10 years

Cheeky Food Group, Surry Hills
Cheeky Food Group reckons food is the perfect vehicle for relationship building and the Surry Hills establishment runs over 400 team-cooking classes a year to prove it. The interactive events span a range of cuisines, with tapas, Spanish paella, Italian gnocchi and Magic of the Middle East among those foodies can choose from.

For more information, go here

Signorelli Gastronomia, Pyrmont
The Signorelli family’s reputation for producing premium food and wine precedes them into the world of education. Naturally, their cooking school has an Italian bent, and even if you don’t leave with an ability to produce flavour like a Nonna, you’ll walk away from Signorelli Gastronomia’s kitchen having downed a glass of prosecco, the house’s famous antipasto and the meal you cooked up, plus you get a Signorelli Gastronomia shopping bag and recipe notes to take home.

For more information, go here

Sydney Seafood School, Pyrmont
Renown across the city as the destination of choice for foodies hunting for the freshest seafood for their celebrations, Sydney Fish Markets also offers a specialised cooking school. Students work in small groups in a state-of-the-art kitchen, then enjoy their handiwork in a stunning dining room with 360-degree views of Blackwattle Bay.

For more information, go here

Simon Johnson Cooking School, Alexandria
Sydney’s most renowned gourmet food purveyor, Simon Johnson, offers a range of cooking classes including two hour chef demonstrations and “Talk Eat Drink” sessions. All classes are held in their custom-built demonstration kitchen in Alexandria and each class is limited to 40 people. Guest chefs include Collin Fassnidge (4Fourteen; Four in Hand), Jonathon Barthelmess (The Apollo) and Ross Lusted (The Bridge Room).

For more information, go here

Guest chef Collin Fassnidge at Talk Eat Drink

Accoutrement, Mosman
Accoutrement is the place to visit if you’re looking for culinary tips from the best in the business. The Mosman cooking school hosts private and group classes with celebrity chefs, plus they offer overseas and interstate gourmet food tours.

For more information, go here

Urban Graze, Kellyville
The kitchen at Urban Graze, is custom-designed to host hands-on cooking classes for up to 10 people. Adults and kids can sign up for a relaxed culinary experience that could take them anywhere in the world, from Sicily to Turkey and Japan.

For more information, go here

Urban Graze Junior forms part of the Urban Graze cooking school and is aimed at teaching 7-11 year old kids the basic principles of cooking

Spice Up Your Life, Alexandria

Ever thought you could find the man/woman of your dreams, all while cooking an organic soufflé? At Spice Up Your Life, participants can spend a fun evening mingling or reconnect with a loved one. Classes are broken up into age categories, with both singles and couples classes available. With just 8 people, the singles-only classes start with a drink and hors d’oeuvre’s, followed by organic gourmet meal. Spice Up Your Life also offers corporate team building classes).

For more information, go here

Kids Cooking Classes with Sheridan Rogers, North Sydney
Specifically designed for little hands, Sheridan’s kids’ cooking classes aim to teach children to prepare wholesome, nutritious meals they will love to eat and can reproduce easily at home. Classes take place in Sheridan’s home in North Sydney during school holidays periods, with a mixture of demonstration and hands-on cooking aimed at children between the ages of 8 and 14.

For more information, go here

Sheridan Rogers is an award-winning food and travel writer, broadcaster and food stylist

Majors Lane Cooking School, Hunter Valley

Enjoy vineyard views and an Asian cooking class at Hunter Valley institution, Majors Lane Restaurant. Under Head Chef Ben Sales, Majors Lane offers Thai, Balinese, Sichuan, Indonesian and Vietnamese classes. With a maximum of 14 people, classes are small and hands-on. Private classes are also available for groups of 10 or more people.

For more information, go here

Nadine Abensur, Mosman, Byron Bay (and various locations across Australia)
Best-selling international cookery writer Nadine Abensur offers vegetarian cooking classes across Australia. Guests learn to use wonderful but often neglected vegetables such as fennel and celeriac, and inject new life into staples with delicious techniques such as gratins, braises, pestos and tagines.

For more information, go here

Biota Dining, Bowral
Whether you’re a culinary novice or an experienced cook looking to improve your repertoire, Chef James Viles and his team at Biota Dining in Bowral will share their passion for food, focusing on artisan produce and seasonal botanicals, whilst supporting both local farmers and growers alike to create simple yet delectable cuisine.

For more information, go here

Biota is just a two hour drive from Sydney

Flavours of the Valley, Kangaroo Valley
Just a two hour drive from Sydney in the beautiful surrounds of Kangaroo Valley, this cooking school offers a range of hands-on Mediterranean classes. From Italian and Moroccan to the Farmers Table six-course degustation class, ingredients are all sourced from local farmers, gardeners and artisan producers. Flavours of the Valley also offers private bookings for special occasions and events.

For more information, go here

Urban Food Market, Marrickville
Focusing on ethical sustainability, Urban Food Market offers quirky cooking classes like “Bacon Curing and Smoking”, “A Lebanese MeatUp” and “Butchery 101”. Urban Food Market is also a catering company and wholesale retailer, supplying Sydney chefs with free-range meats. All cooking classes are 2.5-3hrs in duration and include a comprehensive session on ethical and sustainable farming practices and on how to shop ethically.

For more information, go here

Victors Food Cooking School, Waterloo

Release your inner chef at Victors Food – from “French Bistro Cooking” and “Learn to Be a Chef” to “Perfect Paella” and “Thai Street Food”, Victors offers a range of classes to suit a every skill level. Cooking classes are built around a banquet menu so you learn more and get to experience several dishes while you create part of the meal. Classes are limited to 14 people. Victors also offers Sydney Produce Market food tours (Farm Fresh Feast) which includes a cup of Toby’s Estate coffee, market guide, tastings, demonstrations and samples to take home.

For more information, go here

I’m not the only one who expects a good meal here.

Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day and it will taste so bad he’ll never eat raw fish again. Teach a man to cook fish and you give him a lifetime of showing off at dinner parties.

After he’s sourced the ingredients.

I’ve got enough stuff, so when another birthday rolled around it was very smart of my daughter to give me a voucher for a class at the Sydney Seafood School.

I’ve written before about this excellent institution at the Sydney Fish Market, but I can’t praise it highly enough. It’s open to anybody who cares to spend an evening or an afternoon learning to cook two or three fabulous dishes. For locals and visitors it’s time and money very well spent.

The guest teachers last night were Daniel Puskas and James Parry of Sixpenny restaurant, which happens to be close to where we live. Award-winning Daniel and James have impressive pedigrees as chefs at Oscillate Wildly, Sepia, Rockpool and, in James’ case, experience at the famous Noma in Copenhagen.

Sixpenny specialises in local produce, much of it grown at Parry’s family farm in Bowral. The use of sweet potato leaves, wild spinach ‘It grows as a weed on the farm’ and lardo (pig fat) with the seafood was a revelation.

Organisation at the Sydney Seafood School is superb.

About fifty of us sat in the small lecture theatre and for an hour or so we watched, listened and added personal notes to the recipe sheets supplied. A few of us recorded the experience on our smartphones.

The demonstration over, the doors at the side of the hall opened onto the kitchen. All that top of the range equipment looked slightly intimidating, but once I had my black apron strapped I felt ready for the challenge.

In groups of five we worked feverishly at the kitchen benches attempting to reproduce the dishes. My team was patient with the dummy who screwed up (sorry all, my hand slipped on the vinegar), and grateful for the assistance of those who seemed more competent.

Then we filed through into the restaurant area to put our creations to the taste test, with an accompanying glass of wine.

Here’s what we’d come up with:

Yabbies, Cucumber, Buttermilk and Lemon Flavoured Herbs.
It’s not an obvious choice to put buttermilk into a seafood salad, but it works. I’m not sure where to find buttermilk, though the notes say we can make our own by heating ordinary milk with a little lemon juice, then skimming off the fat and keeping the whey.

Yabbies (freshwater crayfish for non-Australians) taste fine, though they are hard work for a bit of prawn. I loved the mixed Lebanese and pickled cucumber salad however. I’ll certainly make that again.

Mullet Wrapped in Lardo with Sweet Potato Leaves and Trout Roe Vinaigrette.
This was the star turn for me, particularly given the humble ingredients. The lardo (thinly sliced pig fat) added a smoky flavour to a simple, relatively cheap fish, while the sweet potato leaves (I never knew you could eat them) tasted somewhere between spinach and, well, sweet potato. The trout roe vinaigrette with chives, tarragon, olive oil, rice bran oil and white balsamic was wonderful.

I’ve managed to get lardo (thanks, AC Butchery in Leichhardt) but still haven’t found sweet potato leaves or trout roe. If anyone knows where to find them in Sydney, let me know.

Steamed Bass Groper, Wild Spinach and Tomato

Wild spinach, also known as fat hen or lambs’ quarters is really nothing like spinach. James tells us it grows everywhere, as a weed, but I’m not sure I’d recognise it again. English spinach would be a fair substitute.

Classes at the Sydney Seafood School cost from $80.

So for half the price of a dinner in a top restaurant we’d eaten one of the better meals of our lives, and we should be able to reproduce at least an approximation of it any time we choose.

I’ve bought more mullet and lardo and will be trying to impress Mevrouw T tonight.

Thanks Daniel and James – I look forward to visiting Sixpenny. And thanks Tim, Raj, Kate and Steve for pooling your ignorance and sharing your skills, enthusiasm and company.

I contacted Roberta Muir from the SSS to book my class. Unfortunately the one I chose was not suitable for the gig, but after a few emails back and forth I was booked into the Seafood BBQ class on February 19. Roberta was super helpful and understanding about my food allergen concerns. Some days before the class I printed out my booking confirmation and realised it was made for 2 guests. I emailed Roberta to ask if it was a typo; it was but she gave me the thumbs up to attend with a guest (ie, Alvaro), which turned out to be the perfect way to celebrate our 5 year wedding anniversary.

The school was established in 1989 and renovated in 2009. It was my first time there and I must say everything looked brand new. The class starts with a 2-hour demonstration in the fancy and well-equiped auditorium. Comfy lecture-type seats, top-quality kitchen equipment and four big TV screens make the whole experience a luxury.

Auditorium

Vincenza Scalone, our teacher for the day, is very passionate about fresh local seafood. During the class she didn’t only went through the recipes but also gave us valuable information on how to purchase fresh seafood, how to handle and store it when raw, how to properly cook it (not overcooking it), how (and why) to clean the BBQ, etc.

The first recipe Vincenza demonstrated was BBQ prawns with herb marinade. She showed us the easiest and most efficient way of cleaning prawns, and told us the many uses of chermoula, the herb marinade that was used for the recipe. Half of the marinade was reserved for dipping the prawns and/or spooning on bread.

Cleaning prawns

The second recipe was a Thai-style squid salad. Vincenza mentioned the types of squid that can be found in fish shops and showed us how to clean and prepare them. She told us that scoring the flesh not only tenderizes it, but also also allows the marinade to get in.

Cleaning squid

BBQing squid

The next recipe was blue mussels with garlic butter. I was very excited about this one as I love mussels but don’t get to eat them very often. Vincenza showed us how to clean them and told us that discarding the mussels that didn’t open in the cooking process was a thing of the past. Nowadays it’s ok to open them with a blunt knife and sniff them to check if they’re ok. This was by far the easiest recipe: cook mussels on the grill covered by a lid, melt butter & garlic in a small saucepan, serve in bowl with chopped chives.

It was not in the program, but Vincenza showed us how to produce the best, moistest barbecued whole fish, using the en papillote method.

Then she showed us how to butterfly a fish for the next recipe: BBQ garfish. The fish was crumbed in a flour + Parmesan mix, cooked in an electric grill, and served with a super simple rocket salad.

The final recipe was salmon with lime mayonnaise. We used sashimi-grade salmon, term that refers to the way the fish is harvested, which produces better quality meat. In the case of salmon, it’s fattier, and thus has a completely different texture and mouthfeel. The salmon was marinated in lime juice + zest, salt and pepper, and grilled skin side down first (with sea salt sprinkled on the skin to avoid it from sticking to to BBQ plate). The result was perfect salmon: beautiful crispy skin, perfectly seared on the outside and pink on the inside.

Finished dishes

Needless to say, the smell in the auditorium was phenomenal, but we had to ignore our hunger a bit longer: it was time for us to move to the kitchen to try and replicate what we had just seen. We split into groups, each one was assigned a cooking island geared up with everything we needed: from bowls and knifes to fridge and electric BBQ.

Herbs, sauces, water in fridge

Seafood in fridge

There’s a separate area with several gas BBQs lined up, with a cool seafood blackboard-type mural in the back. They must have a hell of an smoke extraction system in place, too.

BBQs

We were given initial instructions and started cooking. Vicenza and other staff members were available the whole time to answer questions and offer guidance. We managed to organise ourselves pretty well, despite the fact that we didn’t know each other (except for Alvaro and I, that is).

Prawns in the BBQ

Squid in the BBQ

Garfish in the BBQ

Salmon in the BBQ

One of the coolest things about the class was that, except for a few items like knifes and measuring cups, we didn’t have to do any washing. That saved us a lot of time, and we were able to finish up fairly quickly (great job, team!).

My team in action

We took our finished plates to the dining room, where each group was given a table and a bottle of Wild Oats 2010 Pinot Grigio to enjoy with lunch.

It’s difficult for me to rate the dishes. They were all very tasty, and I’m not saying it just because we cooked them, but because IMO the quality of ingredients and equipment does make a difference. If I had to choose, I’d say my favourite was the salmon, followed by the Thai-style squid salad (although it had sweet chilli sauce and palm sugar, so it’s not something I’d normally prepare at home).

Salmon with lime mayonnaise

Thai style squid salad

The mussels and prawns were great, too, as well as the garfish (we cooked ours just with salt and pepper, so I can’t comment on the “real” dish).

Blue mussels with garlic butter

BBQ prawns with herb marinade

BBQ garfish

It was a lovely lunch, followed by great coffee courtesy of Nespresso. Apart from the class notes and apron, we left with a classy SSS insulated bag for our future seafood purchases and tickets for the Taste Of Sydney festival (which I already posted to two lucky readers).

Seafood classes in the SSS are suitable for corporate functions (for staff and/or clients), team-building events, milestone celebrations, and in general as a fun thing to do with your partner, family, and/or friends. Oh, and they have gift certificates, too!

Sydney Seafood School
Sydney Fish Market
Locked Bag 247
Bank Street
Pyrmont NSW 2009
www.sydneyfishmarket.com.au/SeafoodSchool

Since 1989, Sydney Seafood School at Sydney Fish Market has been a magnet for attracting seafood lovers Down Under. Students interested in mastering the art of preparing sashimi (raw fish), pipis (edible clams), squid, crabs, mussel, or octopus will find the instruction and the facility at the school as good as or better than any elsewhere.

 Although seafood is the school’s raison d’être, it isn’t the only subject taught at this well-respected Australian cooking school. The school also teaches students techniques for preparing a huge variety of cuisine, including sizzling BBQs. Leading chefs (like Matthew Moran, Christine Manfield and Giovanni Pilu, to name a few) offer weekend workshops.

 All classes begin with a demonstration and are followed by a hands-on cooking lesson, taught to students in groups of four-six with the presenter and the school’s assistants on hand to help. Each lesson ends with guests eating what they have prepared. (See posted recipe: Barbecued Octopus, Zucchini and Marinated Fennel Salad)

Photo copyright by Sydney Fish Market

 www.sydneyfishmarket.com.au/SeafoodSchool/AboutSSS/tabid/82/Default.aspx 

Cooking is about exploitation says David, and his kitchen staff are so good he's offering to auction them off.

I went to Sunday School this week, joining fifty other disciples worshipping at the feet of David Thompson of nahm (London and Bangkok). He’s arguably the world’s greatest Thai chef, the first one with a Michelin star anyway.

Mevrouw T and I used to be regulars at David’s Darley Street Thai when it was behind an unfashionable pub at the unfashionable southern end of the unfashionable Newtown, Sydney.

It was too good to last. Darley St Thai moved to Kings Cross with prices inflated to match its well deserved popularity, and David also opened the excellent (and slightly cheaper) Sailors Thai in the Rocks area. Even south Newtown has moved upmarket since, leaving only Mevrouw T and me languishing behind.

David Thompson meanwhile moved onwards and upwards, opening his London restaurant and being voted Outstanding London Chef in 2003. Last year, nahm opened in Bangkok too.

It was great to have him back in Sydney, briefly strutting his stuff at the Sydney Seafood School.

I thought I knew Thai food quite well by now, so much so that I was a bit over it.

I’d had enough rubbery fish cakes, insipid Tom Kha Gai and standard red beef curry to last me quite a while. It was refreshing to go to a cooking class and be reminded of what made Thai food exciting when I first discovered it.

The Sydney Seafood School was established in 1989 to encourage Australians to eat more fish. Now 12,000 students a year pass through its doors. This is impressive because it wasn’t easy to find the doors, in a corner of the buzzing Sydney Fish Market.

These slackers all had their food cooked for them. We'll be cooking our own.

Upstairs we found a smart wood-panelled auditorium, like the set from a TV show, with video screens overhead showing live close-ups of the chopping board action. The students had to be keen and knowledgeable. And quick. This class sold out immediately it was announced, and I was only squeezed in courtesy of the management.

Thompson’s laid-back presentation was thorough, passionate and anecdotal. He rightly assumed we already knew something about coriander and lemon grass and could move on to more interesting matters.

‘And I didn’t expect him to be so entertaining,’ whispered my neighbour. My pen was kept busy writing down the tips and also the jokes. ‘These are very hot chillis, used not so much for culinary purposes as for punishment.’ ‘You may have seen those carved Thai carrots. I think life’s too short to carve a vegetable.’ ‘Use the back of the cleaver to split your coconut, not the blade…unless you’re making red curry.’

No corners were cut when it came to constructing the flavours however. Everything was made from scratch. ‘Fresh coconut milk turns sour after 4-5 hours. What crap do they add to that can to make it last 2-3 years?’ I now know that curry paste in a packet is rubbish, most fish sauce is crap, and I’ll be attempting to make my own chilli powder and looking for good shrimp paste in future.

Thanks to the school for arming me not only with recipe sheets, but also with a list of Sydney Asian shops which sell the ingredients.

After we’d queued with teaspoons to taste David’s fabulous results, the side door of the auditorium opened and we were led through to the kitchen to try to put our new knowledge into practice. On the menu was Southern Coconut Curry of Snapper, Hot and Sour Soup of Mussels with Tumeric, and Cucumber and Prawn Salad.

We try to reproduce his dishes.

We were organised into teams of 5-6, with unfamiliar equipment and half an hour to do everything. I was shocked to find my hands trembling with nerves. Or was that just the shuddering caused by a few minutes working the coconut grater? Fortunately Mike, Mike, Alan and Caroline seemed to know their way around a kitchen and the results were dahm near nahm stahndard. Thanks, people!

The day finished as we shared our meal and the complimentary glass of wine, then cleared the table, said our goodbyes and left the serious cleaning-up to the seafood school staff.

‘Cooking is about exploitation,’ was one of David’s lessons. ‘Never do the hard work if you can find someone else to do it for you.’

Our mussel tom yum certainly looks right, and using fresh turmeric is inspired.

Classes at the Sydney Seafood School are usually held in the evenings and weekends, and normally cost $85, $120 and $155 for 2-,3- and 4-hour classes respectively.

The writer was the guest of the Sydney Seafood School. Thanks for having me – it’s nice there are some perks for being a dedicated blogger!

Thousand of seagulls can't be wrong.

My circumnavigatory walk of Sydney Harbour has brought me to the Sydney Fish Market. It’s a good place to stop and take a breather, if you don’t mind the fishy smell.

It’s the biggest fish market in the Southern Hemisphere and the second biggest in the world (‘in terms of variety’) outside Japan. I suppose the Japanese need big seafood markets to accommodate those scientifically caught whales.

Since it moved to its present site on Blackwattle Bay in 1966, the fish market has expanded into a major Sydney attraction, a place where people come as much for entertainment and information as to buy fresh seafood to take home.

12,000 guests a year attend the Sydney Seafood School, to learn about oyster shucking or paella preparation from leading chefs. I see the course to be run in December by the great Thai chef David Thompson (of nahm in London) is sold out. Dahm!

If you were thinking of getting a few prawns to chuck on the barby at Christmas, the market will be open for 36 hours straight on December 23-24th. It will be busy. I won’t be there. I prefer the quieter times to stop for coffee and a fresh seafood lunch.

You can eat your fish and chips inside...

...or outside with a view...

...of the Anzac Bridge.

Live crabs to go. Notice that none of them are waving, saying 'Pick me, pick me!'

And naturally there are fish.

It's a relaxed place most of the time. There are some rules, however.

You can relax now and forget all of your bad memories (should you have any…) of drab and dreary home economics classes because the newest cooking schools are cool.

It is true that The Culinary Art School in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico is not of the high-school variety – it is for serious chefs with high aspirations – but it oozes a new, cool confidence that could potentially turn even the most nonchalant teenager into a passionate chef.

The elegant use of wood is the key attribute in The Culinary Art School. Its new building was designed by San Diego, California-based Jorge Gracia Arquitecto whose founder, Jorge Gracia, was born in Tijuana in 1973.

The entire school complex carries an air of strict order, almost an ascetic solemnity. If you didn’t notice the stoves or wine racks, you could mistake this for a place of religious study.

And, passionate chefs certainly express a fervour for food, ingredients and cooking that could be likened to religious zeal. It is easy to imagine how the colours, textures and aromas of various ingredients stand out in this kind of environment. It is like a stage for culinary creation or like a frame for gastronomic artwork.

Also in the category of cool cooking schools is the Sydney Seafood School established in 1989 and completely refurbished for its 20th anniversary. It conducts cooking classes for all skill levels and draws more than 12,000 students annually.

Words such as handsome and sexy come to mind when you look at this space, the creative work of Dreamtime Australia Design,based in Sydney, Australia.

Some time ago, we have featured Dreamtime-designed Churchill Butcher Shop in Sydney.

In Sydney Seafood School, a tactile intrigue, and a contrast between serious study and serious fun, are evident in every space. The school’s entry wall is a honeycombed sandstone creation by sculptor Michael Purdy.

The dark and impressive hands-on kitchen looks formidable with lots of shiny stainless steel and glass, but its gravity is lightened by chalkboard walls with “fish graffiti” as art. The cool auditorium’s walls are lined with Icelandic fish leather. In the dining room, the harbour view competes for attention with a row of fun fishnet chandeliers and their more than 6,000 little globes. Where do we sign up?

by Tuija Seipell for http://www.thecoolhunter.net/