A one-on-one cooking session with at at the in Limassol with the man in control here in…

Original caption · 19 October 2026

A one-on-one cooking session with @giorgiolocatelli1 at @ristorantelocatelli at the @amarahotelcy in Limassol with @dariomasafi the man in control here in Cyprus This was my third time joining one of Giorgio’s classes. This time it was a private session in the kitchen with Giorgio and Dario, cooking two dishes from a single local fish and talking through the process as we went. The fish was sfyrida, a Mediterranean grouper that lives among the rocks and caves. The whole fish was used. The fillets were kept for plating, and the bones were roasted and turned into a stock with onion, celery, carrot, bay leaf and white wine, then reduced down to a quarter to concentrate the flavour. The first dish was a new creation, named on the day: Gnocchetti alla Cipriota. The pasta is made with louvana, the Cypriot split peas, which were steamed, blended and mixed with flour in equal parts. Each piece was then shaped by hand on a ridged wooden board, which helps the sauce cling to it. The sauce combines the rest of the sfyrida with garlic, black olives, capers, whole peeled tomatoes, sun-dried tomato, the reduced stock, basil and Giorgio’s own olive oil from Sicily. It’s finished with lemon instead of Parmesan, which he doesn’t put on fish pasta. Not sure if it’s on the menu, but it should be 😋 The second dish was the sfyrida fillet, cooked mostly skin-side down until crisp, and served with slow-cooked torched leek, small potato spheres, a leek and potato sauce and crispy fried leeks. Along the way I asked him a few questions: • The Cypriot ingredient he’d take into Italian cooking: louvana. • The most common mistake with fresh pasta at home: overworking the dough and making it too soft. • Pasta or sauce, which matters more: the shape of the pasta should decide the sauce. We finished by tasting both dishes on the terrace. His verdict: “If I had to choose what to eat for the rest of my life, it would be pasta.” Thank you, Giorgio, Dario and the team at Amara. 📍 Ristorante Locatelli, Amara Hotel, Limassol