A few months back, I reviewed the bar at 5&33 (part of the Art’otel, a stone’s throw from Centraal Station) for the World’s Best Bars. It’s one of those black-lit places that comes alive at night and makes you feel like James Bond… But a couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to be invited “backstage” to the kitchen – the powerhouse of any bar/restaurant outfit – for a master class with Italian chef Mattia Pedroni.
The concept was to tie in with the Food Film Festival and the Taste of Amsterdam events that were going on at the time, so Chef was preparing (with our rather limited help) a so-called “Film Food Menu” of six dishes all inspired by famous Italian films. After a thorough briefing by Chef Pedroni, I and my new blogging companions (including Karin from Koken met Karin and Eva from The Cookteaser) donned our chef’s whites and headed for the place where the magic happens…
First, we got to work on the Aubergine Parmigiana – a classic dish of aubergine, tomato sauce, parmesan cheese, basil and not enough salt on my part, according to the chef! We rolled dozens of pork meatballs made with bread and milk to keep them soft and unctuous, and cracked open a bottle of Prosecco to keep us going throughout our stint in the kitchen…
After an hour or so of hard labour, it was time to sit down and enjoy the results. We kicked off with some fried green tomatoes (I thought they were American – apparently they’re Italian; you live and learn!), followed by the Aubergine Parmigiana and the meatballs (with tomato sauce, NOT with spaghetti, we were strictly reminded).
From there, we moved on to the chef’s secret recipes – the ones we hadn’t seen in the kitchen. There was “spaghetti cacio e pepe” made of just three ingredients and a good dollop of love: pasta, pepper and cacio cheese. And there was roast beef with potatoes and carrots, which (I have to admit) was the only dish I remembered the accompanying film for: La Grande Abbuffata (The Big Feast) is a French-Italian film about four friends who meet in a villa for a weekend with the sole purpose of eating themselves to death. I can’t decide whether that sounds like the best way to go or the worst, but by this point in the meal we were wondering whether the chef wasn’t trying to finish us all off through over-eating too.
Savoury courses now complete, the proof of the pudding came from the Sachertorte – made the Italian way with prunes in the centre rather than apricot jam. Although I got to watch it being made, sadly I can’t tell you how the torte tasted as I had to leave for an appointment before the end of the meal. But suffice to say, if 5&33’s Italian cuisine hasn’t left you feeling like an extra in La Grande Abbuffata, the Sacher Torte should be part of your dessert order. And if you’re lucky, your entire meal will be made by real Italian chefs – not amateur food bloggers like me.
