Cooking with Shane Delia

I got to cook with Shane Delia! He was in my kitchen! And we cooked up a storm!

Shane Delia, is a well renowned Australian chef, who owns Maha Restaurant, Middle Eastern cuisine, in Melbourne CBD. He’s also had a couple of TV shows – Spice Journey was a wonderful insight into the cooking techniques in the Middle East and opened my eyes to wonderful spices I hadn’t really had a chance to experiment with.

How did I get to cook with Shane Delia? Weren’t we supposed to be in lock-down due to Covid-19?

As part of the Good Food & Wine Show, that was supposed to happen in March this year, a lot of the chefs that were to share their cooking skills on stage, decided to share their recipes and/or cooking tips online, whether it be a cooking demonstration or cooking class, there were quite a few to choose from. And Shane Delia decided to a virtual cooking class – what an awesome foodie experience!

Shane and his team from Maha & Maha Go, (who have stayed open through the lock-down period, cooking & preparing take-away food from their restaurant menu), pre-prepared the meal, with all ingredients required, for us to then prepare & cook the dish at home. Hubby went to collect it from Melbourne for me (he’s such an awesome husband!). Once logged into Instagram Live – I then cooked with Shane in real time. It was like a Master Class in my very own kitchen!

I have to say, this was my favourite foodie experiences I’ve ever had! OK, second favourite – my absolute favourite was meeting Rick Stein! I had two cookbooks signed by him & a photo 🙂 I’ve had a few amazing experiences, this was definitely a once in a lifetime food experience – who can say they cooked with a chef, while being in lock-down, over the internet? Such an experience – I’m still in awe 4 weeks later.

We cooked one of the most asked for dishes from his restaurant:

Maha Slow Roasted Lamb Shoulder with butter roasted nuts and spice, served with freekah, chickpeas, basturma, greens & sweet onions, topped with a turmeric yogurt spinach.

We enjoyed a matched Pinot Noir with the dinner, also supplied by the team at Maha – absolute perfection!

Oh my goodness, hubby & I died & went to heaven!

A huge thank you goes out to the whole amazing team at Maha Restaurant & Maha Go, who managed to keep working throughout these tough times.

And thank you Shane Delia, you have left an impression on me as a cook, one that I will never forget.

I really enjoyed cooking a restaurant quality dish, from the comfort of my home, with a top notch, down-to-earth Australian Chef. And for an hour, I felt like I was a contestant on a top TV cooking show!