Just Open: Da Orazio Mozzarella Bar, Bondi

If you felt like the only thing missing from dinner at Bondi's Da Orazio Pizza + Porchetta was a 1-kilogram ball of mozzarella, good news: the venue's Mozzarella Bar is open for business.

Part of the existing restaurant (owned by Icebergs' Maurice Terzini), the Mozzarella Bar has its own menu featuring seven types of the milky white stuff – and chef Orazio D'Elia plans to expand that list.

On offer are classic balls of buffalo (in four sizes, including the one-kilo monster described by D'Elia as the size of "a kid's head"), plaits (three sizes) and doughnuts (two sizes). There's also truffle and smoked mozzarella, plus burrata (that ooziest of mozzarellas made by adding cream) and a buffalo ricotta baked in the wood-fired oven and served on pizza bread with house-cured salmon and grilled zucchini.

You can order the cheese on its own or with sides such as prosciutto or marinated vegetables. And there's really no reason that a hunk of pearly mozzarella can't be your main – as D'Elia says, "If you take the 500-gram one or the kilo one, I don't think you'll be eating something else after."

The top-quality cheese is sourced from two Sydney suppliers, one who imports their product from Naples and another who makes their mozzarella on site with Australian buffalo milk.

Since Da Orazio opened in 2014, it's quickly become a well-loved local haunt. Why the addition of a mozzarella bar? D'Elia just really loves the stuff.

"Mozzarella is my favourite thing to eat, since I was little," says the Naples-born chef. "It's just the queen of the cheeses."

D'Elia is also keen to educate diners on eating the mozza. His top tip: always eat it at room temperature, never cold. In fact, he doesn't refrigerate his; it's stored in big tubs of brine on the kitchen counter. Like most cheese, its flavour and texture is best at room temperature.

D'Elia and Terzini also plan to open an offshoot of Da Orazio in Sydney's CBD (they're currently scouting for sites) and they're set to open in Bali's Seminyak by early 2016.

Da Orazio Pizza + Porchetta, shop LG09, The Hub, 75-79 Hall St, Bondi, 02 8090 6969, Mon-Fri 5pm-late; Sat-Sun midday-late, daorazio.com