There’s a lot of good food at the Winter Night Market, but That’s Amore Cheese has a stall that's especially popular. People gather to watch the equivalent of heaven for dairy lovers: warm pasta containing ricotta, scamorza and bocconcini is tossed through a Grana Padano wheel before it's served. “We didn’t invent that, but were the first people to do that in Australia,” claims owner Giorgio Linguanti. “Fresh pasta and fresh cheese: it’s simple, tasty, Italian. What’s better than that?”
On busy nights, they can sell up to 1200 bowls of the quattro formaggi spaghetti.
Say cheese (of course). Source: That's Amore Cheese
Gnocchi Sorrentina (cooked in Napoli sauce and topped with fresh bocconcini and basil) and a flatbread toastie with fior di latte mozzarella and spinach complete the short menu.
The cheesemaker also has another stall at the market, Cannoleria by That’s Amore, which is dedicated to cannoli. Coming from Sicily, Linguanti has a particular attachment to the dessert – preferring the traditional version, filled with his own ricotta mixed with sugar and cinnamon. “In Sicily, the cannoli are filled just before [serving], so the shell is always crunchy. That’s what we do at the market,” he says.
Special flavours are also offered every week at the Night Market, like Nutella, mandarin, Vegemite, coffee, persimmon and chilli chocolate.
That's Amore Cheese's experiments with cannoli can also be found at the market. Source: That's Amore Cheese
Although Linguanti’s cheesemaking business is doing well today, and his cheese praised by some of Australia’s best chefs, success didn’t come easy. When he left Sicily for Australia in 2004, he had a background in advertising, but spoke no English, so he had to take a job in a cheese factory.
On busy nights, they can sell up to 1200 bowls of the quattro formaggi spaghetti.
He had never made cheese before, but started to take an interest while working there. With a cheesemaking book his brother sent from Italy, he started experimenting in his home kitchen: “My first cheese was bocconcini leaf. It’s mozzarella flakes. Nobody was making that cheese in Australia.”
After a good response from restaurants, he set up his business properly and it just kept growing. Today, That’s Amore Cheese has 80 employees, and produces around 40 types of cheese from burrata to mascarpone to diavoletti.
The idea of going to events and using his cheese to prepare dishes happened naturally a few years ago.
“I like to work at the market for the nice atmosphere where people come together. It feels like a festa! For me, coming from Italy, festa is about food – so it brings me back to my homeland,” says Linguanti. “Every stallholder brings a different colour, we all work together.”
Crowds flock to The Queen Victoria Winter Night Market every Wednesday. Source: The Queen Victoria Winter Night Market
Around the world at the Night Market
We suggest you bring a few friends when you go to the Winter Night Market, so you can taste more dishes.
If you want to keep things Italian, new stallholder Beato te Panigaccio makes a bread specific to the Cinque Terre area, baked on terracotta plates, directly in a fire. They are then covered with meat, cheese or vegetables and rolled or folded like a taco.
Follow the thumping noise and you’ll make your way to Drums Cafe's stand, where somebody is chopping roti, onion, carrot, leek, egg, chicken and goat for the stall's Sri Lankan kotthu. There's also a selection of curries if you’re looking for other comforting options.
Close by, Tribal Tastes puts an African twist on fish and chips, and dishes up West African specialties like chicken jollof rice and akara (deep-fried bean balls).
And there’s plenty more to try: the falafel pita from Just Falafs, the award-winning margherita pizza from 400 Gradi, the char siu bao from Wonderbao, the lamb kleftiko from The Cypriot Kitchen or the Ferrero Rocher pancakes from Butterlake Pancakes.
Just make sure to arrive hungry …
Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne
Every Wednesday until August 29, 5 – 10 pm
