meet the Italian Chefs : GUSTO 2011

On Sunday 21st August, CIRA The Council of Italian Restaurants in Australia held its annual GUSTO for 2011 at the Sydney Fish Market. The cookery demonstrations culminated in the last session on Regional Italian Seafood with four Sydney Chefs Lucio Galletto, Alessandro Pavoni, Armando Percuoco and Giovanni Pilu, all offering up an seafood example of their own regional Italian cuisines.

During the day I also sat in on Food of the South with Chef Armando Percuoco from Buon Ricordo and Chef Eugenio Maiale from A Tavola.

During the masterclass Chef Armando Percuoco kept us all entertained with his flirtations … and some sound advice “If the egg white doesn’t stiff very well, don’t use viagra. Thank God and I don’t use viagra yet, just use salt”, he said of the torta. Remember, its not a souffle (a souffle is French).

While I missed what I hear was an entertaining (and heated) debate where Daily Telegraph restaurant reviewer, Simon Thomsen was dressed in what can only be described as an Italian flag, I did have a chance to catch up with a bunch of people (mostly Italian) including Chef Logan Campbell (Lucios), Chef Gabriele Taddeucci (of the soon to be opened Osteria Balla at The Star) and Chef Danny Russo (where I chatted about his new venture Jet Bar Caffe at QVB).

There was a whole lot of delicious Italian food and wine to sample upstairs in the Sydney Seafood School kitchens. All in all it was a very full and fun day.

Following on from GUSTO, the annual CIRA gala dinner will be held at Doltone House on Monday 31st October 2011. The special event will include a degustation dinner with each course devised and cooked by one of the CIRA chefs and their restaurant team. Tickets are available at www.cira.com.au