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Pasta, as you like it

Taste fresh pasta in every shape and form at Pasta Fresca Da Salvadore

PHOTO: M. VEDHAN

DEEP SEA DIVER-TURNED-CHEF Carecci Salvatore Photo: M. Vedhan

Is he a deep-sea diver who's also a chef? Or a chef who's also a deep-sea diver?

Carecci Salvador, diver, chef, entrepreneur and CEO of Pasta Fresca Da Salvatore has lived an interesting life.

He started out tossing pizzas and linguini in a restaurant in Italy, and then traded the skillet and ladle for a career in the Italian navy. A part of their international deep-sea diving team, he travelled across the globe. "And when we were stationed in places like Borneo, Brunei, there were no Italian restaurants... so I was cooking everyday," he grins. Making pasta for homesick navy men must have struck a chord. Because, he eventually abandoned the boats for a permanent place by the stove. "One day I decided to get married," he shrugs, "And then, I had a son. It was clearly time for an off shore life."

So he opened a tiny restaurant in Singapore, home of his Singaporean-Chinese wife: `Pasta Fresca Da Salvadore'. "It means fresh pasta from Salvadore," he says, settling into a chair in his stylish new restaurant at Thirumallai Pillai Road in T. Nagar.

Now for those of you who aren't Fettuccine-friendly, pasta comes in two forms: fresh and dried. Most restaurants use dried pasta, which is what you find at supermarkets. Fresh pasta, which has a softer texture, is more nutritious and needs to be made and used on a daily basis.

Salvadore's restaurant in Singapore was a big success because of the novelty of his pasta. He has his signature pasta machine — also installed in the Chennai restaurant — which can be programmed to create and spew out pasta in every shape and form: flat lasagne, stands of sphaghetti, tubes of penne, conchiglie, farfalle, fusilli... They have it all. Customers can also custom-make their food by choosing their own sauces.

"Because we do lots of creation," says Salvadore, passing around a fabulous `Timballo di melanzane,' layers of fried eggplant showered with mozzarella and parmesan cheese. "Everything is done on the spot."

The menu is extensive, but the staff is friendly and more than willing to help. They seem especially thrilled about their newly obtained Italian names, judging by how widely our waiter `Vincenzo' (Real name Thirunavakaran!) grinned all evening.

There's a buttery pasta, rich in asparagus and garden peas, served with chicken. There's also an intensely spicy penne arabiatta, set in rich tomato sauce. "I come from Lecce... . We make our food really spicy. Most people don't realise how hot Italian food can be," says Salvadore calmly, as everyone at the table dives into their glasses of water. They also serve up a Mediterranean pizza, bearing bright cherry tomatoes and the distinctively sharp feta cheese. Desserts the best part of the meal: a flavoursome tiramisu, with the bite of espresso and lushness of chilled cream.

The menu has a large number of vegetarian items, "because lot of people here are vegetarian, right?" Salvadore, a shrewd businessman with three restaurants in China and five in Singapore, is clearly not interested in niche markets. "India and China are the future," he says, "In another 20 to 50 years, India will have about 2.5 billion people. Just imagine, if 1 per cent eats pasta, how much pasta they will eat!"

A meal for two at Pasta Fresca Da Salvadore should come up to about Rs. 600. Call 39122588 for reservations.

SHONALI MUTHALALY

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