Press & Reviews...
Thank you for Evening Standard Auction - Day with Aldo
Dear Tim, Katrina and Luisa
I am writing to express my sincere thanks to the Evening Standard and Aldo Zilli for making my ‘Day with Aldo’ memorable and special.
The day started at 9am at Aldo Zilli’s restaurant ‘Zilli Fish’. It was my first experience being in a professional kitchen and after spending the morning with the team of efficient, polite chefs, I must say that my preconceived ideas of working in a professional kitchen were destroyed. Aldo purchases all his ingredients fresh and then his team spends the morning preparing the ingredients. It’s hard work preparing the volumes of ingredients, very different from cooking at home. I spent over 1 hour over the sink individually cleaning the buckets of beautiful, blue black mussels (and I didn’t finish). It’s hard work.
We then stepped back and watched Aldo and his chefs in full action during a busy lunch service. Again, it was not what I expected. Yes the kitchen was hot, fast and full of action, however there was minimal shouting and raised tensions (as I had expected from watching kitchen shows on TV). I was surprised that his team remained calm and in control and the end result was an efficient, smooth service. It made me realise I could never be chef as I would not have the memory to multi-task five to six items on the go.
After lunch service, Aldo spent time teaching us how to make fresh pasta , pasta sauces, followed by how to make the lightest batter using a flour commonly used in Chinese cooking, then how to fillet fish and prepare fresh seafood.
Finally, we ended the day with dinner at the restaurant, enjoying the food which we had helped prepare and learnt how to make during the day.
Overall, it was an exhausting day... physically from the extended standing, and mentally from all the learning, however it was fun, memorable and special.
Thank you Mr Zilli and your team, for your generosity and sharing your knowledge and kitchen life with us.
Rebecca Yeoh
Hi Luisa,
Please can you pass on our HUGE THANKS to Aldo, Tony, the team and of course to you for an amazing experience on Saturday. Roger and I really, really enjoyed ourselves - Roger hasn't stopped grinning since - now that he's The Master !!!!!
I've taken the liberty of copying in the group as you all helped to make the day as wonderful as it was - like long lost friends !
Thanks again to All.
Jan & Roger Markham
