Last Thursday we were treated to a special guest chef event with Cameron Matthews taking the Italianicious – Cooking with Passion class.
The day was a huge success with 8 very happy cooks getting an idea of what it is like to cook with a 2 hatted restaurant chef. The kitchen was buzzing. Cameron is passionate about Italian food and this passion and excitement shined throughout the day. He takes great pride in using fresh, local, seasonal produce to create the perfect marriage of different foods, textures and natural flavours. He shared so much knowledge and understanding of what ‘real’ food is all about and how to cook it for maximum flavour and texture.
Cameron’s mouth-watering menu included Tagliata di Manzo, a salad of marinated beef with rocket and Parmigiano Regianno; potato gnocchi with Napoli sauce and a gorgonzola cheese sauce to die for. In fact we ate it and thought we had gone to heaven!!!
Next was Trophie Genovese, a hand-rolled pasta with fragrant, pungent basil pesto, green beans and potato; a wonderfully refreshing Panzanella, a mixed tomato, red onion and pesto salad.
The finale was the best crosttata I have ever eaten, with the perfect, most buttery pastry and delicious jam filling. The crosttata is an old favourite from his days of cooking at ‘Simones’ in Bright, a recipe from Patrizia’s Nona.
So we had a ball and cooked up a storm as you can see from the photos.
Cameron’s The Long Apron presents food that is quite different to this rustic, authentic Italian fare. At the Long Apron Cameron’s food is known for its originality, it is modern, elegant, mature and is very regionally inspired food. The WEA’s John Leathean said, ‘he creates food which explores the boundaries while still being anchored to the fundamentals of flavour and freshness.
John Lethlean recently placed The Long Apron in the current top 50 restaurants in Australia.
Next February we will have our next Guest Chef, Edwina, all the way from Marrakesh and we will immerse’ ourselves in Moroccan cooking. Email me to reserve your place.
