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Everyday MasterChef: TV-worthy cooking classes at Australia's leading cooking school

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - Sydney Seafood School (SSS) is serving up more than just a mouthful of a name – it’s holding professional cooking classes too. Famous chefs lead classes in the School’s world-class facilities, which have had people signing up hook, line and sinker (as seen in photo 1).

With 13,000 guests a year, SSS classes span a range of skill levels, from those where students make a simple paella or stir-fry (as seen in photo 2), to complex weekend workshops with internationally renowned chefs. Seafood BBQ is the most popular class, which shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise – we all know Aussie’s love a good ‘barbie’. Another favorite is Quick’n’Delicious, where in just 30 minutes students make three recipes that are smart enough for casual entertaining, but quick enough to whip up mid-week.

Classes begin in the School’s 66-seater tiered auditorium with a demonstration (as seen in photo 3), before moving into the state-of-the-art kitchen complete with custom-built stainless steel workbenches fitted with ovens, gas cooktop and refrigeration units – just like MasterChef. And then the clock starts and it’s time to get cooking! The students form groups of five and divide up the tasks, working together to ensure that all of the dishes are completed in time. The professional chefs and SSS staff wonder around the kitchen during the cooking process, offering advice and tips on technique (as seen in photos 4 – 5), as well as rescuing those with smoking pans. When the time’s up, the pumped-up students head to the dining room (as seen in photo 6) to tuck into the fruits of their labor, accompanied by wine paired especially for the dishes they’ve cooked.

The classes are professional, hands-on and interactive, which is key, Roberta Muir, SSS’s Manager of 15 years explains. “The combination of a cooking demonstration followed by hands-on cooking is the most important aspect of SSS. It’s one thing to watch a professional perform a task, but it’s another to do it yourself. Having the opportunity to put their newly learned skills into practice straight away with the guest chef or demonstrator and SSS staff on hand to assist, gives people the confidence to recreate the dishes at home.” Celeb chefs on the teaching staff include Christine Manfield, Matthew Moran and Guillaume Brahimi, and the freelance demonstrators are acclaimed food writers, cookbook authors and restaurant reviewers. 

And with the new Sydney Seafood School Cookbook, people can take a piece of the School home with them, Roberta tells us. “The recently released Sydney Seafood School Cookbook extends the reach of the School for people who may not be able to get to classes often. It has over 80 seafood recipes from leading chefs plus lots of tips on cooking seafood as well as great, color step-by-step seafood preparation diagrams, for example how to shuck and oyster, fillet a fish, strip a squid, etc.” You’ll find seafood recipes by Tetsuya Wakuda, Neil Perry, Phillip Searle, Kylie Kwong, Guillaume Brahimi, Frank Camorra, Matt Moran and many more in this colorful hardcover book. So now people really can cook professional quality dishes at home. If only they had a live-in celebrity chef too.

All photos are courtesy of Sydney Seafood School (SSS).