John Lanzafame
Born: Sydney, NSW Have you always wanted to be a Chef? At Lanzafame Trattoria we do stick to recipes,
and of course my cookbooks are structured, though it all is really a generous
collection of mum’s simple homestyle embellished for absolutely
delicious results. How would you define your style? What is your feature flavour these days? At Lanzafames we only and always use the best
produce. If we were to define a feature flavour I would say we spoil our
diners with choice products including truffles, cheeses, specialized beef,
game, poultry and all the things you would expect of a fine dining restaurant
but in Trattoria fashion, casual and welcoming. Obsessive compulsive about? Your greatest culinary inspirations? What do you love about this business? An ingredient you can’t live without? Pork and a good array of salts, onion and
garlic. Most “eyebrow raising” menu item? White truffles and Signature Dish: Gnocchi!
I have always cooked, right from an early age with mum; she was the reason for
my love of cooking and good food – great food is our families’ passion. I
started cooking professionally at the age of 15, inspired to get right into it
because her creativity knew no bounds and I wanted to follow in her
footsteps. Over the years we never ate the same meal twice which meant
our plates were always full of a wide variety of Italian dishes.
My style is rustic Italian; true to my roots. Recording recipes is really
important to me because they can be lost so what I often do is take one of
mum’s traditional dishes and add a slightly modern twist.
I’m more of a winter chef than a summer chef. Pasta and pizza are some of
our favourites and they’re definitely crowd pleasers; less is more and I place
emphasis on earthy flavours always sourcing ingredients with no additives or
preservatives.
Flavour and just simple; no fuss service. I love playing with
unattainable produce.
Thomas Keller. Peter Gilmour. Pete Evans and being part of the culinary
Olympics.
The smiles on peoples faces after eating and people wanting to know more about
REAL Italian food and how flavoursome it can be.