FOOD SPECIAL Bloomberg Pursuits March 9, 2020
59in a commercial espresso machine to add a foamy texture.
He calls it “Misopresso Botan-ical” ramen.
Fabio Trabocchi, another old-school master of the craft,
sees diners who are open to well-considered noodle experi-
mentation. At the three D.C.-area locations of his casual Italian
spot Sfoglina Pasta House, he’s been rethinking the conven-
tional makeup of popular dishes, adding grassy spirulina to
his twisty, tubular garganelli and the ancient grain einkorn,
the oldest cultivated wheat, to pappardelle for a toasty flavor.
He’s committing what could be considered heresy back in his
native Marche region in eastern Italy by making bucatini from
chickpeas. It now anchors a dish of cacio e pepe.
Trabocchi has also been expanding his repertoire of hand-
made pastas that are pulled and stretched, a technique sim-
ilar to the phenomenon of Chinese hand-pulled noodles.
(For anyone who hasn’t been transfixed by the videos, cooks
whip lengths of dough around until they’re transformed into
thin, chewy ropes.)
At Sfoglina’s pasta-making classes at its Van Ness loca-
tion, dough-rolling expert Simonetta Capotondo teaches
the art of macceroni alla mugnia, a specialty of AbruzzoEven as experimentation
runs rampant through
the world of pasta,
you’d think some time-
honored recipes would
be stubbornly immune to
change. A shallow bowl
of pasta carbonara is
one such example: The
mixture of spaghetti,
coated with egg yolk
and Parmigiano with
tiny chunks of glistening
guanciale (cured pork
jowl), is a balancing act
best handled by the
chef behind the pot in
the kitchen.
But thanks in part
to social media, eternal
dishes such as carbonara
are becoming tableside
attractions. At Peasant in
New York, Marc Forgione
shakes the components in
an oversize Mason jar atthe table, then transfers
it to plates. The chef says
the origins are practical:
He came up with the
idea at a dinner for 1,400,
where it was the easiest
way to serve hot, freshly
tossed pasta. “Turns
out people loved it, so I
figured we could do it for
single servings as well,”
he says.
Performative
affectations extend to
ramen, too. At Brooklyn’s
Karazishi Botan, chef
Foo Kanegae credits
superhero comics from
American pop culture
as the inspiration for his
porcini-based Captain
Brooklyn ramen, which
is finished with a ladle of
sizzling hot oil. To protect
diners at the counter from
spattering oil, he givesthem a Captain America-
style “shield”—sure to
delight both children and
adult-size kids.
The most dynamic of
the new tableside-service
pastas is undoubtedly
the “noodle dance” at
the recently opened
Haidilao in Flushing,
N.Y. The Chinese hot pot
chain is already known for
its free hand massages
for waiting customers.
But most viral of all are
the servers who hand-
pull noodles tableside,
whipping lengths of
dough overhead and
behind their back to a
pop music score in the
background. It’s a made-
for-smartphone-video
moment that puts even
flaming Baked Alaska
to shame.A Theatrical Twist
Chefs are giving Italian and Asian dishes
the tableside treatmentPHOTOGRAPH BY ERIC MEDSKER FOR BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK. OPENER FOOD STYLIST: CAITLIN BROWN