The Newcastle chef opened his one-man, home-made pasta delivery business in March and it quickly gained a following.

"I was originally going to start looking at a space to rent but once COVID hit, home delivery became a no-brainer," he tells Weekender.

"It also saved me from the stress of all the overheads and running a restaurant. I love making pasta and it's not a fad that people are going to get tired of. It's tried and tested."

Hunter, who grew up in Hamilton South and attended Newcastle Grammar, has been working as a chef "for about 15 years".

"I started out at Restaurant II with Peter Bryant as a kitchenhand and an apprentice, then went to Nor East where I was a second-year apprentice under Tony Harrison.

"I worked at Quay in Sydney for a year, then moved to the Hunter Valley and worked at a restaurant called The Beltree, which is where I learned to cook Italian properly and started to really get into pasta."

Then London called and Hunter answered, working in restaurants there for two years before returning to Sydney and completing a stint at Bennelong at the Opera House.

"Then I came back to Newcastle, did a year at subo, worked as head chef at The Edwards and spent 18 months with Tony [Harrison] running the Urban Mess bistro with him," Hunter says.

"It was nice to have a change in lifestyle after working in fine dining and Tony is a really good mate of mine. He gave me the motivation I needed to branch out on my own."

In an ego-driven industry, Hunter has refreshingly swallowed his pride to enable his pasta dream to come true. He works mornings at a childcare centre, preparing food for the children, to fund Al's Pasta.

"Whenever I tell people that they're like 'What happened to you, you work in a childcare centre?' but I always say cooking for a bunch of kids is one of the most satisfying things ever because they generally just eat anything and are very enthusiastic about it," he says, laughing.

"I had to work out how to make my small business work and I wasn't ready for it to be my sole source of income."

Hunter is learning as he goes, and taking advice from his many friends in the hospitality industry. When he first started Al's Pasta, for example, he would deliver an order for two from Newcastle to West Wallsend.

Not any more. He'll now go "as far as Dudley, and Cardiff is a stretch".

"When COVID first hit I was doing, like, 30 orders a night which doesn't seem like a lot but for a one-man team it's heaps," he says.

"Don't forget, I was delivering them too, and 30 orders is something like 160 pastas.

"So the first month was a gold rush but I anticipated a drop-off once the pubs and restaurants started to open again, and it did, so I dropped a day."

He has kept his menu small and simple. Three pastas and four sauces, plus sides of garlic bread or broccolini.

"I wanted my menu to be simple, easy and consistent," he says.

"I just wanted to do four things really, really well, and slowly introduce more - keeping in mind that I am doing this completely on my own. It's funny, whenever people ring the mobile number on my Instagram page to place an order they ask to speak to Al and I'm like 'Yeah you've got him' and they are always shocked."

Having friends in the industry has helped.

"Ali [Downer] from Chiefly East is a really good mate and he has given me a lot of good advice about merchandise and branding," Hunter says.

"He's also offered his restaurant up to do a pop-up. A lot of other chefs have offered me their kitchen spaces. I've been sharing a prep kitchen with Gareth [Williams] from Covered in Crumbs."

So, why pasta?

"It's so satisfying to make something from scratch," he replies.

"My gnocchi with blue cheese is always popular but I find people tend to stick with their favourite combinations. They don't stray too far from what they like."

He reckons more and more chefs will diversify as COVID-19 continues to create havoc for the hospitality industry, and uses Tim Montgomery has an example.

"He is hands down one of the most talented chefs in Newcastle and he did a switch from what I consider to have been the best fine dining restaurant in Newcastle, Bacchus, to Rascal and other pop-up ventures," Hunter says.

"I remember working at Quay and doing 90 to 100 hours a week, falling asleep in the classroom at TAFE. At 29 I can't do those weeks any more.

"When you're younger it's about wanting to prove a point, to a degree, to show that you can work at that level. But then you get there and you don't really have anything to show from it apart from your skill set, and you can use that skill set in so many ways.

"If you put ego aside you can take from cooking what you want - and I really like cooking pasta and making nice sauces. Working at Michelin-starred restaurants in London when I was 21 has made me appreciate what I have now."

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