Tetsuya Wakuda at the Sydney Seafood School
A little while back I got a call. “Tetsuya’s going to do a class at the Sydney Seafood School, we gotta book fast!”
I jumped on the phone, and purchased my golden ticket: A 5 hour cooking class with Tetsuya Wakuda, Chef/Owner of Australia’s most internationally renown restaurant. No sooner had I blinked and it was upon us.
The 20th anniversary of the Sydney Seafood School has seen it have the most amazing face lift. Gone is the high school looking space, and in is a sophisticated, and dare I say, sexy space with mood lighting, television monitors replacing the mirrors, dark wood finishes, and some of the sexiest appliances you’ve ever seen.
Our class today consisted of two hours of Tetsuya and his team demonstrating 6 recipes based around fresh seafood available at the Sydney Fish Market:
- Thai Chilli Crab Meat
- Ginger & Green Onion Crab Meat on Vermicelli
- Scrambled Eggs with Crab Meat
- Roasted Baby Barramundi with Fennel
- Carpaccio of Leatherjacket
- Warm Salad of Kingfish
Tetsuya was charming, unfailingly polite, knowledgeable and passionate about you trusting your own palate and adding your own twist to whatever recipe your trying. He also strongly advocated the use of sustainable seafood, using leatherjacket for the carpaccio. He also has a fetish: for pepper. Applied liberally, in multiple guises: white, ground, black, cracked.
The style of dishes Tetsuya presented was relaxed and designed to be shared, and ranged from the heat and kick of the Thai Chilli, to the subtleness of the ponzu on the carpaccio. We head into the sexy new kitchen and I’m blown away by the changes:
We get on with cooking, and we’re ably assisted by Tetsuya’s team, as well as the lovely ladies of the school. After a couple of hours of solid chopping, julienning, reducing, tossing, slicing and tasting, our lunch is ready…to motivate us, Tetsuya reveals that he will taste everybody’s dishes and give one team a degustation with drinks at his restaurant! How’s that to get you going!
Dishes done, we repair to the dining room:
Our dishes before us, we wait until the Masterchef gets to our table to taste before we dig in. Above, the scrambled eggs with crab meat and a rocket salad with teeny tiny tomatoes!
The Thai Chilli Salad is extremely popular with everyone on our team….
The Carpaccio of leatherjacket with ponzu and daikon is gobbled down quickly
The warm Kingfish salad is stunningly beautiful. Nice work Kate!
The ginger and green onion crab meat on vermicelli is much more delicate and Japanese in sensibility…
And finally the roast baby barramundi with fennel with black truffle salt…I had this for dinner too!
As we much away, we find out that Tetsuya has also generously gifted us all with the CrabPak 500g bag of crab meat like we used in class and a jar of his signature Black Truffle salt!
What a day! What a stuffed belly! What a man! Our group of ladies is now planning an assault on Tetsuya’s restaurant; a private dining room of course 
If you get the opportunity, head over to a class at the Sydney Seafood School. They have a range of well known chefs and excellent teachers running through a whole range of seafood based classes. They’re fantastic value and a great way to learn tips and tricks from the professionals.
Sydney Seafood School
2 Blackwattle Bay Street
Pyrmont
02 9004 1111
Tetsuya’s
529 Kent Street
Sydney
02 9267 2900
Food looks amazing! The new school looks fantastic too. Now that you’ve practiced those dishes, I’m coming over!
.-= Y´s last blog ..Cocoa Brownies =-.
Oh wow the food looks incredible, fabulous photos Reem!! I can’t decide which one I’d want to eat first….
Love the photo of Felix
Wow, what an opportunity! And I agree – the demonstration room and the class kitchen is so much sexier now that they’ve done away with all the white =D
.-= mademoiselle délicieuse´s last blog ..Ryo-Tei (aka Ryo’s Noodles), 22 August 2009 =-.
Great review Reem, and great to meet you ladies too! I finished the kingfish for my tea (think it actually benefited from the extra marinating) and even the cat ate some. Cat now has garlicky breath…
What an unbelievable experience. The seafood school definitely looks good after the renovation. I’ll have to keep an eye out for future classes.
.-= Belle@OohLook´s last blog ..Huevos a la Flamenca – can’t get enough of new dishes =-.
What a fantastic experience. I can only imagine the tips you would pick up!
Woo nice one! I agree with Belle, the seafood school looks great now! Hmm i’ve got to go through a list of classes they have!
Food looks great, and you must be proud the dishes you guys made
.-= Yas @ hungry.digital.elf´s last blog ..Celebratory meat-ing in order. =-.
Oh, how I wish I lived in Sydney when I read something like this! What an amazing experience – thanks for sharing it.
.-= Injera´s last blog ..The big move =-.
Wow, what fun and such decadent dishes! I’d be so stressed if Tetsuya tasted my cooking
What an amazing experience. I think i’d be rather daunted by the prospect of Tetsuya tasting my cooking, but as you say, what an incentive! Food looks tasty too. Very envious!
.-= Helen (grabyourfork)´s last blog ..The Coachmen Russian Restaurant, Surry Hills =-.
@ Christie Oh No! He was so lovely and gracious, I had no hesitation asking him to taste!
@ Helen It was so fun! I’ll definitely be back, celebrity chef or not!
@Yas we were so thrilled…my favourite was the baby barramundi…mmm truffle salt!
@ Jackie Kat! I’m a kitty kat! and I dance, dance, dance and I dance, dance dance!
That’s still making me chuckle, that is!
Great account. The food prepared by you and your team looks great.
The whole facility is great. Those Fisher and Paykel units are FANTASTIC.
Did you see the walls in the demo room and how they had lined it?
.-= Thermomixer´s last blog ..Thermomix Strawberry Gazpacho with frozen yoghurt =-.