At a lunch-time “do” not long ago, I happened to chum up with a visiting Italian food and wine writer. The five-star hotel’s buffet was excellent and we both enjoyed an excellent array of hors d’oeuvres before sizing up the pasta bar, where there was a good selection of sauces to match with four or five pastas. We both made our selection and returned to our table. After a little while I asked him what he thought of the pasta. “The sauces are well made”, he replied, “and the grated Parmesan is genuine and fresh – but the pasta is too soft, it is overcooked”
I answered that I thought that this was because it was probably made from Cyprus-produced pasta, which is made from less hard wheat than Italian. This satisfied him. But I was wrong, as I found out the other day when researching Greek food for the special feature we are going to run in the summer issue of Cyprus Gourmet Magazine. In several authoritative books it was noted that “Greeks prefer well cooked pasta, whereas Italians like it slightly chewy (al dente)”. So Cypriots have taken on language, religious belief and pasta cooking from Greece!
When eating in a place I haven’t been to before I often order pasta, because if it is well cooked (sauce as well as the starchy bits) it tells me a lot about the kitchen. Frequently I have noted the spaghetti, penne, tagliatelle or whatever to be too soft. The penny (not the Penne) finally dropped – it’s because Cypriot customers like it that way. But what about foreigners like me who like their pasta al dente (and, by the way, the local pasta can be cooked like that)?
I suppose we now have to specify when ordering how we like the pasta cooked – OR might the waiters ask the customer how he or she wants it done? We pay enough for our food now to expect that this little extra service should be included.
A clear error of many kitchens here is that the pasta is not boiled in enough water. You need a big pan and oodles of well salted water in a rolling boil (no lid) for the best results. The most recent plates I have had in two of our Awarded restaurants have been overcooked and starchy. The sauces, too, were below standard – far too much cream in one (Italian chefs are quite sparing in quantities of sauce), and in the other an awful mish-mash of chunks of cold cooked chicken and lumps of not very nice sun-dried tomato wallowing in dense cream.
There is not enough attention to detail in kitchens. In many a restaurant in Italy and France, the pasta comes in a heated silver salver, and the sauce comes separately in another one, so you can have as much or as little as you like. In the most service-conscious and up-market places here I have never seen anything like this. Too much washing up I suppose. I did quietly mention this idea to a pretentious place here and was insulted for my pains (the bill for two was €140.00)
Many of our establishments are currently short of customers. Apart from prices, service and manners are other reasons. People I know can do better at home – hence the reports from importers that wholesale trade wine sales are down, but retail sales are up. Come to my place and you get to serve your sauce for your pasta yourself (no silver salvers, though).
PASTA – how should it be cooked?
At a lunch-time “do” not long ago, I happened to chum up with a visiting Italian food and wine writer. The five-star hotel’s buffet was excellent and we both enjoyed an excellent array of hors d’oeuvres before sizing up the pasta bar, where there was a good selection of sauces to match with four or five pastas. We both made our selection and returned to our table. After a little while I asked him what he thought of the pasta. “The sauces are well made”, he replied, “and the grated Parmesan is genuine and fresh – but the pasta is too soft, it is overcooked”
I answered that I thought that this was because it was probably made from Cyprus-produced pasta, which is made from less hard wheat than Italian. This satisfied him. But I was wrong, as I found out the other day when researching Greek food for the special feature we are going to run in the summer issue of Cyprus Gourmet Magazine. In several authoritative books it was noted that “Greeks prefer well cooked pasta, whereas Italians like it slightly chewy (al dente)”. So Cypriots have taken on language, religious belief and pasta cooking from Greece!
When eating in a place I haven’t been to before I often order pasta, because if it is well cooked (sauce as well as the starchy bits) it tells me a lot about the kitchen. Frequently I have noted the spaghetti, penne, tagliatelle or whatever to be too soft. The penny (not the Penne) finally dropped – it’s because Cypriot customers like it that way. But what about foreigners like me who like their pasta al dente (and, by the way, the local pasta can be cooked like that)?
I suppose we now have to specify when ordering how we like the pasta cooked – OR might the waiters ask the customer how he or she wants it done? We pay enough for our food now to expect that this little extra service should be included.
A clear error of many kitchens here is that the pasta is not boiled in enough water. You need a big pan and oodles of well salted water in a rolling boil (no lid) for the best results. The most recent plates I have had in two of our Awarded restaurants have been overcooked and starchy. The sauces, too, were below standard – far too much cream in one (Italian chefs are quite sparing in quantities of sauce), and in the other an awful mish-mash of chunks of cold cooked chicken and lumps of not very nice sun-dried tomato wallowing in dense cream.
There is not enough attention to detail in kitchens. In many a restaurant in Italy and France, the pasta comes in a heated silver salver, and the sauce comes separately in another one, so you can have as much or as little as you like. In the most service-conscious and up-market places here I have never seen anything like this. Too much washing up I suppose. I did quietly mention this idea to a pretentious place here and was insulted for my pains (the bill for two was €140.00)
Many of our establishments are currently short of customers. Apart from prices, service and manners are other reasons. People I know can do better at home – hence the reports from importers that wholesale trade wine sales are down, but retail sales are up. Come to my place and you get to serve your sauce for your pasta yourself (no silver salvers, though).