A Night to Remember

(Giorgio Locatelli)

As an Italian living in London, eating pasta out is at best a let-down, and at worst a nightmare. Sure, recent years have seen a boom in independent ‘authentic pastarias’ — from popular Soho hotspots to various let’s-just-cook-the-pasta-in-a-wheel-of-cheese food market stalls — each professing to serve the finest ‘primi’ in the capital. Unfortunately, the experience is perennially met by disappointment.

Pasta not al dente enough? Check. Parmiggiano used in lieu of pecorino? Check. And that’s splitting hairs. God forbid I even dare to mention the fact that in the motherland the mere thought of, gulp, ‘chicken arrabiata’ would send even the most progressive native running for the hills.

Thankfully, Italian MasterChef extraordinaire and general good guy Giorgio Locatelli has the answer to this gastronomical crisis. His restaurant, Locanda Locatelli, has for years now been touted by Italian Londoners as the spot to grab a pasta that wouldn’t make your nonna faint, their tendency towards innovation combined with an ardent loyalty to the pillars of traditional Italian cooking setting them ahead of the pack.

The most recent lockdown has again prevented revellers from whiling away their time gorging on Linguine with Cornish lobster or mushroom and chestnut-filled Cappellacci. However, last Friday night, a selection of lucky dinner guests were treated to a slice of luxury in the form of a virtual cook-along with the man himself, in collaboration with supplier La Tua Pasta, the brand continuing to support food redistribution charity The Felix Project having provided them with 6.5 tonnes of pasta in 2020.

Having only agreed to partake on Thursday evening, my La Tua Pasta meal box was promptly delivered to my doorstep on Friday morning, the company’s knack for operational efficiency hugely impressive and, it must be said, distinctly un-Italian. I somehow managed to hold out on opening it and seeing what was in store for the evening until just before the event began, at 7pm.

The evening kicked off with a welcome by Giorgio and La Tua Pasta’s charming Stefano, allowing for the 650-odd diners to sort out any Zoom technical issues and, on his encouragement, pour themselves a healthy glass of the organic Grecanico white that had been provided by Passione Vino’s Luca Dusi as an accompaniment to the meal. Stefano and Giorgio then, to a gallery of Zoom screens peppered with practically salivating dinner guests – proceeded to talk us through the menu.

And what a menu it was. The starter itself was an occasion, Giorgio instructing us disciples on how best to tease open a generous blob of burrata before giving a lesson in plate presentation not dissimilar to his performance on the MasterChef Italia finale the night before, the final product made complete with a stunning focaccia slice from Wimbledon-based deli and bakery, Whisk. The desert too was a treat, the charming inclusion of chocolate and vanilla custard-filled mini piping bags again allowing us to forget the weariness of lockdown and imagine ourselves away into the heart of the Locanda’s kitchen, encouraged by the chef to fill the accompanying choux from provider Valentina’s Recipes “until bursting.”

Prepping the pudding first is a smart hack, but also a difficult task in self-restraint, though nothing compared to the herculean effort required to hold off on gorging on burrata the minute it touched the plate.

Inevitably however, it was the ‘secondo’ — the pasta — that shone. This was not ‘just’ a cooking class, but a live-action autobiography of sorts, Giorgio seamlessly meandering between cooking instructions and nostalgic memories of his early days in London. The inspiration for the La Tua Pasta-provided pea and shallot tortelloni, for example, were explained to have come from the culinary surprise he experienced when first eating fish and chips with, you guessed it, mushy peas – “a purée with such intense flavour,” as he put it. Similarly, the addition of truffle butter sauce, and a healthy lump of black truffle — 6kg of which had been provided by Urbani UK for the evening - to shave onto the pasta came with their own accompanying anecdote,

Giorgio vocalising his disdain at the knee-jerk description of “expensive” whenever truffle comes up, the chef instead urging us to appreciate the beauty of the ingredient. “This is a produce that reflects the beauty of certain parts of our world,” he extolled almost poetically, the passion for adding context to the dishes he serves clear to see.

Though the meal was a heady, carb-filled act of wonderful decadence, the evening also held a poignant note too. At £85 per box, the event helped raise over £6,000 for The Felix Project, London’s leading food distribution charity. The mobilisation of London’s food industry to help those most in need over the last 12 months has been seismic. Long may it continue.