The secret to Britain's best pasta chef's winning dish? It's gluten-free and vegan
While sauces, shapes and flavors vary almost endlessly, for hundreds of years all the best pastas have been linked by one key ingredient: gluten. But Antonio Alderuccio's revered pasta is different.
Proudly holding the uncooked yellow, tubular paccheri in his London kitchen, he lists his two ingredients: rice and corn, none of which contain gluten.
After years of perfecting his recipe and method, he has not only attracted a loyal following at his gluten-free and vegan restaurant, Plant Club in Newington Green, but respected by the Italian culinary establishment.
In a historic moment for Italian food in the UK , his dish of paccheri, with zucchini sauce, asparagus, burrella (a vegan alternative to burrata) and toasted gluten-free breadcrumbs, won him the title of British pasta chef of the year awarded by the Federation of Italian Chefs (FIC).
It is the first time that a gluten-free dough, generally considered ered as gastronomically inferior, wins the Pizza, Pasta & Italian Food Association (Papa) award. The judges, including chief Theo Randall, said it blew them away. ="model .dotcomrendering.pageElements.ImageBlockElement" class="dcr-10khgmf">
Randall, who serves upscale Italian cuisine at his InterContinental restaurant in Mayfair, said he thought they had already found their winner before sampled Alderuccio's dish, but quickly changed his mind.
"It made me think 'wow'. I didn't even think about the fact that he was gluten-free and the fact that he was vegan," said the British chef, praising its texture, lightness and seasoning.
“It was breathtaking, to be honest, absolutely breathtaking. Beautifully created, the dish looked stunning and it was a really well balanced flavor. his restaurant, but that not all chefs have adopted gluten-free cooking. “There is a bit of snobbery in there. But everyone comes to the idea that actually, yes, you have to adapt."
Sitting under glass ceilings at a green marble table, Fresh produce from Italy UK waiting in crates on the counter, Alderuccio, 34, said the secret to his paccheri was his rice flour Rather than using grains broken up, he uses ground risotto rice which he says works like magic as a binder.
The winning dish, he said, was inspired by the "transition in between the two seasons" from summer to autumn.
While sauces, shapes and flavors vary almost endlessly, for hundreds of years all the best pastas have been linked by one key ingredient: gluten. But Antonio Alderuccio's revered pasta is different.
Proudly holding the uncooked yellow, tubular paccheri in his London kitchen, he lists his two ingredients: rice and corn, none of which contain gluten.
After years of perfecting his recipe and method, he has not only attracted a loyal following at his gluten-free and vegan restaurant, Plant Club in Newington Green, but respected by the Italian culinary establishment.
In a historic moment for Italian food in the UK , his dish of paccheri, with zucchini sauce, asparagus, burrella (a vegan alternative to burrata) and toasted gluten-free breadcrumbs, won him the title of British pasta chef of the year awarded by the Federation of Italian Chefs (FIC).
It is the first time that a gluten-free dough, generally considered ered as gastronomically inferior, wins the Pizza, Pasta & Italian Food Association (Papa) award. The judges, including chief Theo Randall, said it blew them away. ="model .dotcomrendering.pageElements.ImageBlockElement" class="dcr-10khgmf">
Randall, who serves upscale Italian cuisine at his InterContinental restaurant in Mayfair, said he thought they had already found their winner before sampled Alderuccio's dish, but quickly changed his mind.
"It made me think 'wow'. I didn't even think about the fact that he was gluten-free and the fact that he was vegan," said the British chef, praising its texture, lightness and seasoning.
“It was breathtaking, to be honest, absolutely breathtaking. Beautifully created, the dish looked stunning and it was a really well balanced flavor. his restaurant, but that not all chefs have adopted gluten-free cooking. “There is a bit of snobbery in there. But everyone comes to the idea that actually, yes, you have to adapt."
Sitting under glass ceilings at a green marble table, Fresh produce from Italy UK waiting in crates on the counter, Alderuccio, 34, said the secret to his paccheri was his rice flour Rather than using grains broken up, he uses ground risotto rice which he says works like magic as a binder.
The winning dish, he said, was inspired by the "transition in between the two seasons" from summer to autumn.
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