Hunter Valley Cooking School Our Italian Table -Mike Smith speaks with Jen Nicita

For a Sydneysider who with her husband moved to the winegrowing Hunter Valley for the quiet life, Jen Nicita hasn’t been busier. In fact, she is regularly cooking up a storm on her Pokolbin wine-growing property and city-slicker visitors couldn’t be happier. By converting a double garage into a commercial kitchen, she has opened Our Italian Table – a cooking school within the Nicita Estate where up to 10 guests learn to prepare and cook fresh pasta and gnocchi before dining on the results. Our Sydney-based travel writer Mike Smith reports.