Alio Cooking School-Surry Hills, Sydney

A while back I had purchased a couple of tickets to the cooking school at Alio Restaurant and Bar in Surry Hills, taught by Head Chef Ashley Hughes. Always fascinated by the art of bread and pasta making, I dragged my partner along to the cooking class last week (very much to his dismay, as he is not a huge foodie like me). We were seated around the kitchen bench, not long before Chef Hughes came into the kitchen to introduce himself. Chef Hughes is a soft-spoken yet passionate food lover, whose food philosophy is about using clever combinations of simple and fresh ingredients to bring out flavours that make your tastebuds dance. While I consider myself to possess a sound understanding of Italian food, I was keen to learn more about making good bread and the various types of Italian pasta. The Chef kick-started the cooking class by making a simple, yet mouth-watering Focaccia bread flavoured with rosemary and garlic. Despite having made bread myself a few times, I am still fascinated by the magic of bread-making, and the transformation from loose-sand-like flour to a beautifully bouncy yet soft bread dough. Watching Chef Hughes mix the flour, yeast and water, form, knead and proof the dough was a satisfying, almost therapeutic experience with a surprising calming effect. As an energetic person who borderlines hyper-active, I have had friends and family suggest that I try meditation to keep calm. Personally I don't think there is a better way to meditate than making bread, plus you get to eat it at the end of the process! 

While the Focaccia dough sat on the bench with the yeast performing their magic inside of it, chef Hughes transformed a good'ol home-made pasta sheet into more than a dozen varieties of pasta, from spaghetti and fettuccine to ravioli and Tortellini. The star pasta dish was Rotolo of Spinach and Ricotta cheese. What I had imaged to be a filled pasta similar to Ravioli turns out to be a large sheet of pasta filled with stuffing, and rolled to form a thick ‘sausage’, cooked in a tea towel (with both ends tied). It was an interesting pasta-cooking technique that I was not familiar with, yet makes total sense. The end result was a simply yet beautiful pasta dish that showcased Chef Hughes’s technical skills as a seasoned pasta maker.

After over two hours of watching chef Hughes whipping out bread, pasta and a beautiful summer salad from scratch, I (more so my tastebuds) could not wait to tuck into my long-anticipated lunch of Facaccia bread with olive oil and 25-year-old balsamic, Rotolo of Spinach and Ricotta cheese, Persian feta, witlof, wild rocket and pear salad AND my personal favourite, Tiramisu. I was in heaven, eating, sipping, and exchanging food stories with my fellow food lovers. The whole experience was a much-needed boost of ‘happy juice’, after recent deflating events. The cooking class at Alio, the food, and the nice little chat with Chef Hughes confirmed a simple yet important belief of mine: good food makes good living, and I just LOVE it!