Elite Event: Cook With A Michelin Star Chef!

This was such a great event! How could you not love being greeted with such tasty cocktails and the promise of more amazing food! It was so fun rolling out the dough to make pasta and getting to play with the pasta before cooking it. Yes, I like to play with my food sometimes… so what?!
The ONLY thing I would have changed, was that it would have been nice to get more exact measurements for when (and if) I attempt to make the tiramisu and pasta at home. I’m the kind of person that if I don’t have exact measurements, you don’t know what is going to come out of my kitchen! All in all, great evening. Thank you to Pacino’s and Luca for their amazing hospitality!

My favourite event so far!
We had the pleasure of spending an evening with the very charming Luca, who taught us two of the most important italian dishes, tiramisu and pasta with tomato sauce. We got to make and eat our own pasta: delicious!
The evening was very informative and it was truly an honour to meet a chef who is so eager to share his passion.
I am looking forward to eating in the restaurant and trying out more of his dishes.
Big thanks to Emily for organizing another flawless Unilocal event!

My first ever Unilocal Elite event, accompanied by non-​Elite member Mikey O — lucky bugger!
And no, Mikey, you DON’T have notes… I do! ;-) And for the benefit of the very lazy Emily, I have uploaded a picture of my handwritten notes. Don’t blame me if your tiramisu doesn’t taste as good as Luca’s though!
OK now onto the event itself, it’s going to be a short and sweet one — reflecting what everyone has said. Luca being an excellent teacher as well as the huge learning curve, combined with the amazing food and wine after — makes for a very happy Timmy. *wiggle*
I’d have liked to mingle a bit more with the group but I’m sure there’s plenty of opportunities for that in future!
*final wiggle*

Part 2 even better than Part 1.
How could it not be? First, cocktails from the generous staff at Pacino’s as well as friendly smiles and warm greetings, even from Luca (the chef).
Then, we got to expand our culinary aptitude by making a Tiramisu, which I got to assist in (see photo) and then the pasta/​tagliatelle, which we all got to do.
Luca showed us the process and made everything look so fast and easy, but of course, when we started doing it, we were just silly and slow. Could you imagine us cooking for a restaurant full of hungry patrons? Anarchy? Cannibalism?
Anyway, on with my review. Once we managed to make some fancy looking tagliatelle, the lovely cooks from Pacino’s cooked the pasta and then Luca demonstrated the proper way of mixing the pasta with the sauce as well as topping with cheese and basil.
Then the best part, pasta and Chianti (obviously, because Luca’s family if from Tuscany!).
After the pasta came the tiramisu and yes, because I made it, it was fantastic. In all modesty of course!
The staff at Pacino’s were really really kind and hospitable and I really cannot emphasise the service that they provided to us. I can only imagine it would be the same upstairs.
I look forward to eating in the restaurant. The menu looks amazing.
Thanks again to everyone at Pacino’s and thanks to Emily for another fabulous ELITE event. It totally makes it worthwhile.

This was a great event to be a part of, especially considering I got to rub shoulders with the Unilocal Elite (am I required to bow?).
Luca had an infectious passion for food and I probably could have listened to him all night! He also had the very unfortunate habit of making everything look extremely easy until I turned my hand and made a hames of it. All of a sudden I have a desire to go out and buy a pasta machine, I don’t think I’ve ever felt a compulsion to own an appliance before so that’s pretty impressive!
The tiramisu shocked me, I’m not usually a fan of this dish as I normally find it very heavy and soaked in booze but the one prepared by Luca (for which I have notes, thank god!) was lovely, light (taste-​wise, certainly not calorie-​wise!) and it will certainly be my new go to desert if I have guests at home!
The staff were absolutely lovely, from the moment we walked in to the moment we walked out every member of staff we encountered gave us a beaming smile and jumped at the chance to be of help, even before we announced ourselves as Unilocalers, and I have no doubt that if you walked in there this evening they’d be the same!
Another great event, it was lovely to meet some again and others for the first time, thanks & parabens for the organisation Emily! (You should have picked up at least some of the lingo by now!)

First official Unilocal event and it was amazing. Lucca Mazza is truly and utterly charming. Actually being able to roll your own pasta through a maker and create tagliatelle was such a foodie lover’s moment. Absolutely cannot wait for another event with him and Pacino’s restaurant – and to all of the wonderful, lovely attendees we had the pleasure of getting to know a bit better thanks for making it such a good one for us! ps The tiramisu for dessert was the best I’ve ever had in Dublin. Oh, my yum.
Thank you Emily! :)

I love to cook„ even when it’s just for myself (*sniff*) and what I lack in talent I more than make up for with enthusiasm. Luckily, last nights even has added greatly to my repertoire of «things what Aoife cooks». And thank heavens, even I was getting bored with my dinners.
Firstly we watched as out chef made tirimasu (I can’t spell it, but now I can make it!), which we got to devour at the end. I am not a big fan usually, but this version was light and owed more to chocolate and coffee notes than the almond/​amaretto I am used to. I loved it!
The pasta making was interesting and a skill I will call on over and over. And even though I was a bit of a butter fingers, the helpful staff assisted me from start to finish, leaving me with perfectly acceptable tagliatelle. Which was more than I had hoped for on arrival. And we got advice on storage and how to fill and store our fresh pasta, so to get the most return from out efforts.
From the delicious fresh cocktails which were served on arrival, and were a lovely touch keeping us all hydrated and chatty, to the fantastical apple noted Chardonnay I enjoyed as we milled into our hand made pastas, the evening was great, and a big thanks to Emily for arranging it!

Wow, how easy is Tiramisu? And a tomato pasta sauce? AND the pasta itself!
Welcomed with a fruity cocktail, the staff here were very attentive to make sure everyone had their welcome drink.
Shown a film of Luca first, he was demonstrating how to make a simple tomato pasta sauce to Paolo Tullio. Wobbly footage that didn’t really show the food itself, was a bit odd to be honest. But there was some fun facts that Paolo threw in and the sauce is indeed very straight forward to make.
Next to the Tiramisu… how simple and so gorgeous. I took all the notes down for this recipe and will definitely be attempting this at home.
Finally making the pasta, this was a huge amount of fun that really surprised me. Also as a team, the four of us in the group really bonded and had a good laugh doing it. It was really nice to meet these folk too, some of whom were new to the Unilocal community.
So at the end we got to eat the fruits of our labours. We didn’t labour too much to be honest, the staff here at Pacinos were all on hand to take the pasta away to cook and bring back to us. They really treated us all well.
I love the interior of the place too. Somewhere this central I will definitely be putting it on my list of go to places when in need of dinner in town.
Thanks to Emily for organising.
And huge thanks to Luca and his fantastic team in Pacinos.