Sydney's top Italian Cooking School unveils its 2010 program for Italophiles!

There is something wonderful about starting the new year and setting realistic goals to achieve - and if cooking is not high on your list then we think it should be!

Casa Barilla Cooking School is Sydney's heart of Italian food and in 2010 Executive Chef Luca Ciano is going to showcase one of the 10 Italian kitchen commandments: Cook With The Seasons. If Vivaldi composed them, Luca will cook them! Between January and March, Ciano will bring Australia's prolific fresh summer produce and seafood to life in traditional Italian dishes. In April there is a classic' Easter Italian class featuring the crema of Italian "Pasqua" dishes. Each Casa Barilla class lasts 2.5 hours, is intimate (no more than 16 people) and interactive - you cook and eat!

And for children over the holiday season, there will be special hands-on classes making some of Italy's best loved dishes for the whole family to prepare at home including pizza, homemade meatballs and Italian baked goodies.

Luca's classes are unique in that they teach you the foundations required for Italian cooking as well as challenge you to develop more of a repertoire at home. Luca's approach to each class is to make sure everyone learns how to create simple, impressive dishes and share some chef's tips for big impact meals! We are all time poor but we crave rich, rewarding experiences and Casa Barilla satisfies the need for practical, simplistic cooking and more elaborate entertaining dishes.

Luca is an award-winning chef whose experience includes stints in the famous Michelin-star restaurant Il Luogo di Aimo e Nadia in Milan, London's Millennium Gloucester Hotel and Bermuda's Relais and Chateaux. Go to Cooking School Classes

For information and bookings please contact us at casabarilla@barilla.net.au or on (02) 8585 3911. Buon appetito a tutti! 

The Casa Barilla 10 Italian Kitchen Commandments:

1. Thou shalt not add oil to the pasta water.
2. Thou shalt not cook with subordinate produce.
3. Thou shalt not use old wine for cooking: if you drink it, cook with it.
4. Thou shalt not ban the man from the kitchen:  encourage him to use his hands!
5. Thou shalt not add masses of sauce to a pasta dish: the beauty of Italian food is its simplicity and honesty of simple flavours and combining.
6. Thou shalt drink an Italian wine whilst cooking - this will make you feel Italian even if you aren't
7. Thou shalt respect the seasons - they are what make us alive and what keeps the Earth in harmony. Watch, learn, listen to the produce and people who grow it.
8. Thou shalt respect tradition and what Italian mamma says. She knows from her mamma, who knew from her mamma who knew from her mamma and so on. It's been tried and tested.
9. Thou shalt come to Casa Barilla to learn how to cook, enjoy and share Italian food.
10. Thou shalt share Italian food with your loved ones. It is what life, love and family are all about.