Say ‘Ciao’ to my friend, Chef Luigi from Italy! His specialty is “Spaghetti Bolognese” with its gorgeously meaty sauce! Psst…! Wanna know the secret to his ‘out of this world’ delicious Bolognese sauce which leaves his patrons lip smacking and asking for more? This brilliant Chef cooks the sauce in a Chinese ‘wok’ (fry pan)! No kidding! The rounded bottom of the wok allows him to stir fry the sauce ingredients with speed and gusto over high heat with a special ‘wok chann’ (spatula). This method of cooking imparts ‘wok hei’ (flavour, tastes, and “essence” imparted by a hot wok on food during stir frying) into the ingredients and the resulting sauce is very fragrant and flavourful. Accompanied with spaghetti cooked ‘al dente’ and finished with a scattering of parmesan cheese and a twist of black pepper, we have the best “Spaghetti Bolognese” in town! Evviva! Let’s ‘Wok’!

We celebrated my Dad’s belated birthday (his birthday falls on New Year Eve) last Sunday with a panettone (Italian fruit bread), flown all the way from Italy to Surabaya and then shipped to Malaysia. I actually wanted to decorate the panettone with a Christmas theme after seeing two gorgeously decorated panettone by SweetLin and SweetJanis on CakesDecor. However, the panettone arrived after Christmas so I decided to decorate it for my Dad’s birthday. Since my Dad is great at cooking and makes the best “Spaghetti Bolognese” in our family, I decided on a sugar figurine of an Italian chef, inspired by the works of Carlos Lischetti, for the topper. I covered the panettone with a fondant red and white checkered ‘tablecloth’ for that homely Italian restaurant effect. And yes! Dad uses the ‘wok’ to cook his Bolognese sauce and other delicious dishes!

Many thanks to Linasari of SweetLin for taking the time to buy this special (coated with rock sugar and almonds on top) and very yummy panettone in Italy and then shipping it to me from Surabaya whilst she was on holiday.

Thanks for looking! :)