A little interview to let you know a bit more about this great place and website

As you maybe know already, we have a quite small production of pasta:  we only make around 3 tons of pasta a day and this means that only 15.000 “lucky” people can eat our pasta every year, which is a very different scenario from a normal supermarket that sells pasta for 15.000 people in one day.  For this reason we have to chose our food retailers very carefully.

In England we sell our pasta in Harvey Nichols, since few weeks in Melograno, but the first place and person who get involved with our products was Niccolo Bittante founder of *foodinthecity, a premier source for gourmet food.

Niccolo has in fact many years of experience in the food industry and the majority of his work has been product development, marketing and brand building. It's now a long time that he work with us supporting and promoting our products and we love his taste in food and his care for the esthetic side of anything he works on and for.

Here a little interview to know him and *foodinthecity better:

When did you have the idea to start a project like *foodinthecity? And why?

Having lived in London for many years and driven by my passion for quality ingredients I realised there was an opportunity to create a business and one stop shop to help like minded people who love to cook and entertain get the finest products without having to drive all over London, delivered direct to your door. 

When it became a shop?

 8 months after I launched *foodinthecity online

Who invented the name?

 I did.  It was a fun process.  I wanted something that would reflect the core mission of the company and also that people could remember easily.

How do you select your products for your shop and where they come from?

Working closely with the world’s best producers and chefs I have the chance to use their expertise to source and create amazing products where only the very finest ingredients are used without preservatives and additives. Our range is organic wherever possible, and its prime mantra above all driven by flavour.  I am also always looking out for new sources by spending a lot of my time travelling and meeting producers. 

Are you scared about more commercial competitors like Carluccio's?

The Carluccio's business is amazing and Antonio is a great friend of mine. *foodinthecity is different and it is focused on artisan production methods on traditional production, rather than mass production. We strive to find unique and interesting products of the highest quality for our clients, who love to visit our warehouse which has been described by many as a little gem. We also spend time with our customers educating them on the products, offering tastings and taking them through the journey of each product and characteristics.

Do you really think english people can appreciate a place like this? What would you like them to understand?

My philosophy is that if you put quality in front of people they will respond and it has been proven time and time again by our clients who order regularly from our online website or visit the warehouse with wonderful stories of diner parties they have created using our produce.

How do you see *foodinthecity in 3 years?

My business has been growing nicely in a tough market and this is driven by my energy to succeed, we have amazing clients who are spreading the word and as the business grows we will expand into other markets.

When did you discover your passion for food and when did you decide to work in this field?

My love of food comes from my very early days in Marostica my home town, where as a family the table was an important part of our daily lives. I loved helping my mother cook seasonal produce that we grew in the garden. It was a way of life working the land and enjoying the fruits of our labour.

Which is the most characteristic ingredient in your shop? something that could be your signature?

We don't have a single signature product.  It's all about the combined variety of signature products we carry and how unique they all are.

What is your favourite /dish/food or recipe?

I have many favourite recipes. My philosophy is keep it simple and let the wonderful produce be the hero using the finest ingredients so in season I love spaghetti with courgette flowers and anchovy.

Have you ever tried this dish? Do you know how to prepare it?

Next week i will post this great recipe from Niccolo, but in the meantime get ready with the ingredients: come to *foodinthecity this weekend to buy the anchovies and the Spaghetti Pastificio dei Campi.

*Foodinthecity is a provider of the finest quality foods in the UK, with a warehouse and store in St John’s Wood London. His customers include five star hotels, premium restaurants, caterers and specialist food retailers.

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Some original ideas from the Pasta World for your Christmas.

Just few days are separating us from Christmas, so it's time to put together all our energy to buy the latest presents and prepare the house for our guests. This will be the focus of my next posts.

Let's start directly with the first idea: the Christmas pasta tree. A new way to decor your tree and your house for the festivity, using some natural and easy material like pasta... ok it's not exactly something that I suggest everyone to do, but it's just something that come up in my mind observing the pasta from Pastificio dei Campi: it's not just great to eat but it's really beautiful! A pleasure for the mouth and for the eyes :) Just have a look a this "Santa Pacchero!"

Let's speak now about something a bit more interesting and serious like the gift list: are you sure you have bought all the presents you needed? Have you already wrote all your desires to Santa or are you still putting down the latest ideas? Here few more suggestions all absolutely "pasta related".

Do you often cook the same shape of pasta, or you try to combine the right pasta shape  with  sauces? Do you need help and some more learning about this? here is the book for you (and for me, considering is at the top of my personal wishes list).

“The geometry of pasta” by Caz Hildebrand e Jacob Kenedy. " The perfect shape + the perfect sauce = The perfect Pasta!" Problem solved. Kenedy is the chef and owner of the restaurant Bocca di Lupo in London, while Hildebrand is a designer. By their union has born this elegant, simple, but extremely beautiful and interesting book to learn how to team up sauces with pasta shapes. Really unique in its genre, this book it's really something useful even for an italian like me, who can always miss some perfect combination. Is better penne or eliche with arrabbiata sauce? Spaghetti or bucatini for carbonara? etc.

Then for the ones in troubles with the long pasta, like linguine, spaghetti or bucatini, instead of the classic spoon to help you with, why don't try this technological fork? I have to admit I found it a bit weird, but maybe could be a real solution. Do you have a friend always in trouble when eating pasta? Or you simply don't want to splash sauce and pasta everywhere  anymore? Another problem is solved with Hog Wild’s Twirling Spaghetti Fork

Finally if you simply want to give a nice pasta hamper for Christmas, Pasta di Gragnano PGI from Pastificio dei Campi, is here to help, offering you one of the most high quality products on the market.... and look at the packaging. It seems to be made to be a gift!

You can buy this directly here in the shopping section of the website, or on Food in the city site, or you can even purchase them in all the Harvey Nichols shops around England. Finally you can even try to win an hamper on the blog Eat like a girl, but run because you won't have so much time left.

I hope this guide will help you with your latest presents, or simply letting you know a bit more about the pasta world!

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Converting people to the real italian pasta taste!

On Saturday and Sunday I was protagonist of a really interesting tasting session in Harvey Nichols in London. This is the main chain where you can find our products in the UK and we decided to offer to all the visitors in London a little bite of our pasta.

We started our session around 12 o'clock both the days and I have to admit it was all really well organized, the staff nice and the customers happy and interested in the black and red brand.

We placed a little table exposing our products and me, Linguina in person, cooked pasta for everyone. Just simple tomato sauce and Parmesan, but thanks to the good quality of the pasta, it was everything very good and even easy to maintain "al dente".

Everyone could try the Eliche, Lumache and even Calamarata, and all of the visitors discovered the real difference between this pasta and the one they are used to! I was keep on saying that one bite could tell them much more than 2000 words, because until you don't try it, you can't really believe in the difference.

This pasta is naturally tasty, consistent and special, because made by 100% pure italian Durum wheat. It's slow dried, thing that maintains the pasta tasty and reach with the 14% of proteins, while the bronze dye make it rough on top and able to absorb the sauce in a unique way.

I'm not just here to impress you all being particularly auto - celebratory. I'm saying this because I saw it on the face of the people when they were trying the pasta. It's all true and you can taste it!

So next time don't loose this occasion and come to taste it you too! You will be surprised!

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