Last night my chef friend Zach trialled a pop-up dinner for 6 and I was lucky enough to be one of the ‘guinea pigs’ on the receiving end of gourmet foodz. Zach and his parents are behind the most delicious fish and chip shop i’ve ever experienced (the burgers, oh my) so I was pretty excited. We enjoyed three courses of amazing Italian, matching wines and loose intelligent conversation.

Things kicked off with a round of potent Vesper Martinis, James Bond style.

Shaken, not stirred. Seriously.

We took our seats for entree;  a crispy thin crust pizza with prosciutto, mozzarella and rocket aaaaaand

A mountain of DIY bruschetta ingredients:

#thatgarlic

To go with a stack of lightly fried bread:

All bread should be fried.

Cheers!

Clink.

Just one course in we were feeling pretty jolly.

It may have taken about 15 takes to get a straight-faced photo of Em and I.

Nailed it

But thankfully we had a patient photographer.

Thanks Dylan.

Meanwhile Zach is making delicious things happen in the kitchen.

We were served pork belly, that was cooked via the sous vide method (cooking food sealed in airtight plastic bags in a water bath or in a temperature-controlled steam environment for longer than normal cooking times, cheers Wikipedia!) at 65 degrees for 36 hours. That isn’t a typo. 36 hours. More than a day.

The result was melt-in-your-mouth pork belly. Divine. It was paired with delicious leek risotto.

And an apple, honey and dark soy reduction. My mouth is actually watering as I type this.

It was the best pork belly I’ve ever had. No jokes.

Le Sigh.

I already liked dessert when I saw it was coming in jars.

We had panna cotta (not ricotta, as I was going to write…) with rhubarb coulis, lime, toffee shards and a candied rhubarb stick.

Mmmm shards.

It was a perfect, light dessert to top off the meal. Apparently it was the second batch, as Zach wasn’t happy with how the first batch set. Love that dedication!

It was a very fun, very delicious evening. I’m not much of a chef (more of a baker) so it was fascinating to learn new things, like cooking in vac packs dunked in water, who knew?!

Thanks for inviting me Zach, I’m here if you need someone to sample more food. Any time. Some time next week?

How was your weekend?