When I go into , Giacomo is just finishing lunch with his family; his wife, Giselle, their little girl, and his mother who is over from Italy. Quinti feels as though you’ve stepped into a home in Tuscany. Giacomo and his father renovated the interior themselves and it is all recycled wood with photos and his father’s artwork covering the walls. Giacomo pours me a glass of Chardonnay and our chat is interspersed with his daughter wanting to sing to her father.
Giacomo, how did you get into cooking and running a restaurant?
I never studied as a chef but because I use my Grandma’s recipes and I love my Grandma so much and I sort of grew up with her and she taught me everything. I watched her and practised with her. She taught me about taste. Italian food doesn’t have recipes. We talk about regional recipes and particular home recipes, because even in a certain region between different homes recipes can change. That’s why Italians don’t follow recipes; it’s about taste and feeling. Even when I cook something here, I just taste and adjust that way. This place is called Quinti – Tuscan Lifestyle and my concept is to bring back the flavours because unfortunately if you go around most of the Italian restaurants in Melbourne they are not owned by Italians; sometimes Greek, sometimes Chinese and they try to do Italian food which becomes about more is better.
Italian food is simple; two, four ingredients, which is not easy because from those ingredients you have to take out everything, all the flavours. You have to make sure you will be able to taste everything. For example, my risotto which is alla Parmigiana, one of the most famous in Italy which is butter and parmesan, that’s it. From those two ingredients you need to make the rice taste good.
And do you think we appreciate that here?
I feel as though Australians are all about more ingredients, so pizzas with lots of toppings and all that. In Italy when I am hungry I can eat two pizzas, but here I can’t eat one. The pizza concept here is so wrong. Everyone thinks it’s all about the toppings; Meat lovers and The Lot. In Italy it’s Margherita or Prosciutto and it’s all about the base. Pasta here is all about the quantity. Many years ago I’m sure Lygon Street was good but now it’s about how it looks. My grandmother taught me that it’s all about the ingredients and if you don’t know your ingredients, you won’t know how to put them together. This whole thing is not about me, it’s about my grandmother. That’s her picture there. She passed away in 2008.
It isn’t about me or about the customers; it’s about my grandmother.
Have you always worked with food?
No, this is my first business. But I was born as a worker and anything I do, I want to do properly and I look after details. Even the restaurant, my dad and I did all the interior ourselves using recycled wood. It feels very homely.
Is it difficult to get the ingredients you need here?
Sometimes you can make the recipes authentically but I know that in Tuscany you have all those beautiful sun-ripened tomatoes and although we grow great vegetables here, I feel as though it would be different. The vegetables and fruit are so different. In Italy I eat a tomato like an apple. The flavour is so different. You can make the recipes here, but they are different. Here I think it’s about aesthetics. The bananas and tomatoes look beautiful but the taste isn’t the same. That does make it hard.
I don’t save money on ingredients. That was my first lesson from my grandmother, never save money on ingredients. When you eat, it might be the last meal you eat, so you want to eat properly.
I’m trying to get it as close to what you would have in Tuscany as I can. The biggest challenge I have is speck. In Italy it is prosciutto and it is pork from the leg. Here, the speck comes from the belly. When I buy it here I can see the nipples and I can see it’s not a leg.
No. Unless there’s something really wrong.
I’m trying to be as traditional and authentic as I can.
When people come and dine at Quinti, how do you create the experience?
I introduce myself and actually I always say the same thing. I ask them whether they have been in before and if not I explain that we specialise in Tuscan food and all of the recipes come from my grandmother and we make everything on site.
We make a traditional pasta called pici and it’s like spaghetti but made without eggs and much thicker. And we make pappardelle; it is long, wide pasta made with eggs, not too thick. Our gnocchi is made from ricotta cheese, no potatoes and no eggs. Our primi dishes all come with pasta and secundi are dishes without pasta, although we do make an exception for the meatballs because some people ask to have gnocchi or pici with them.
I have a couple of entrées. We do a Tuscan bruschetta. Everyone thinks bruschetta is tomato and basil and maybe mozzarella but bruschetta in Italy is garlic and extra virgin olive oil, full stop.
Our bruschetta are garlic and extra virgin olive oil from Italy, caramelized onion, a tomato sauce with parmesan on top and truffle oil, just to give a few varieties. Sometimes we change it around. Our menu is not that big, so I play around with things. Bruschetta for us comes from us tasting the new olive oil. We dip the bread in to the oil to taste it.
If your grandmother came in, do you think she would be pleased with the way you’re cooking her food?
Yes, but that’s because I grew up with my grandmother and I am the best grandson ever. She gave me her wedding ring and I wear it. It didn’t matter what I did, she was always proud of me. My grandmother was so strong. She didn’t even use the pasta machine. She started cooking when she was 11 years old for the whole family. She had something like 11 siblings.
I won’t change any of the recipes. They are authentic and traditional. It isn’t about me or about the customers; it’s about my grandmother.
Quinti – Tuscan Lifestyle