Flaming Parmesan with Salt Meats Cheese

At Sydney's Salt Meats Cheese they love a bit of theatre with their food. So when co-director Stefano De Blasi was planning a new dish for their freshly minted Broadway restaurant, setting a wheel of cheese on fire seemed just dramatic enough.

"Back in Italy, especially where Parmesan comes from, they always serve pasta from inside the Parmesan wheel," says De Blasi. "It's traditional at big functions, like weddings, where the chefs go to the kitchen and cook with the Parmesan."

At Salt Meats Cheese the pasta dish is cacio e pepe (cheese and pepper), but it's not just served from a big wheel of Parmesan.

"It started without flame, but then American Italians added the flames, and we saw it in New York," he says.

De Blasi begins with a hollowed out wheel of Parmesan before pouring in a jug of flaming brandy. The heat of the flames melts the walls of the wheel of cheese, and as the flames die down, strozzapreti pasta (cooked in a four cheese sauce) is added and tossed in the melted Parmesan and finished off with plenty of freshly cracked black pepper. It's a rich and fragrant dish – and served at your table it's laced with just the right amount of theatre and danger.

Cacio e pepe is a Wednesday night special at Salt Meats Cheese Broadway and is flamed at the table for extra drama. Special bookings for large groups can be made at other times.