(upbeat jazz music)
- [Chris] It is an art to make this dough
because when you spend
many hours making something that people enjoy,
it becomes a masterpiece.
That is what makes it all worth while.
- [Michael] Fresh pasta is more
of a special occasion.
You have to have practice at it.
It's a labor of love.
It's the smell of the egg when you cook it,
you can taste the egg and the flour,
it's pretty darn good.
(upbeat jazz music)
- [Chris] I think of what my father used to say,
"if it's an egg noodle,
that means you put egg in it."
When you're making,
like a fresh egg noodle dough,
with a machine where you now
have to put it together,
it involves using your hands,
your mind, and your heart.
(laughs)
We like to maintain quality
with our raviolis and egg noodles.
And the only way you can do that
is by using quality ingredients.
You really need to understand the dough,
understand the weather.
Is it too wet?
Is it too dry?
Do I add water?
Do I add a little more flour?
Basically have to be consistent with that dough.
That machine came from Italy,
it's been in the store since 1950.
I like to say sometimes,
I'm part of that machine.
In order to make that be of the quality we want
when we sell this.
The most bought pasta that we make and sell
is taken back to the home.
And I think the significance of something like that
is where unlike a store bought package pasta,
the texture, the flavor,
is gonna be different.
It has that homemade quality taste
as if they were there,
maybe making it with their grandmother.
My grandmother had some recipes
making pasta at home.
And in 1935,
they opened up Borgatti's Ravioli & Egg Noodles.
This is actually the recipe, of course,
my grandparents were using
when they opened up the store.
(bright violin music)
It is an art to make this dough
because you're involved with creating it,
kind of designing it,
finishing it,
using your hands and mind
and your heart.
Pasta should feel very soft,
but yet strong.
It becomes a masterpiece.
Been here 82 years.
I came into the picture around 1976
as an 18 year old.
I think of it as a dream of my grandparents.
I'm just, you know,
fulfilling their dream.
It is a passion, a love,
is when you spend many hours
standing there making something
that people enjoy.
A customer would come back and say
"I've had your noodles,
I can't imagine ever buying package pasta ever again."
When you hear things like that,
that is what makes it all worth while.
(bright orchestra music)
(jazz music)
I always think of like,
when it comes to food
or when you think about pasta,
it's something that brings us together.
We share good times and good moments, you know?
I used to come here when I was young,
help out, putting raviolis together
and packing raviolis.
When they first opened up the store,
in order to shape the raviolis,
they didn't have a machine.
They were actually making these raviolis
near the window of the store
so people could see what was going on
in this store.
When it was selling in the 1935,
when they opened up a hundred little pieces,
only cost you about one dollar.
My father used to say,
"use good quality ingredients.
Focus on the past,
what got you here?
What made this place what it is?
So always be mindful of that."
What started out as a family business,
continues as a family.
Keeping it simple
because at the end of the day,
am I doing it to make the money?
Or am I doing it because I know
when people sit down to this,
they'll say these are the best raviolis
I ever had in my whole life?
(laughs)
(upbeat jazz music)
With pasta,
it's something that brings us together.
I mean there's a variety of different ways
noodles could be served these days;
it's not always the same way.
You just feel good and go oh boy.
(laughs)
(smooth jazz music
- [Michael] Pasta is everywhere
and Italian food is everywhere.
But good pasta is something hard to find
because there's so many nuisances in pasta.
You have to really focus on
the equal parts of the flour and egg yolk.
I grew up in Wisconsin in a Norwegian family
and so food was very very important, always.
Whether it was breakfast or dinner,
there was something always going on in the kitchens.
When I started cooking,
there was no Food Network,
or it wasn't on TV like it is today.
I remember watching Yan Can Cook
and great chefs on the Discovery Channel
as a young person.
I was in college and made a decision
that after a football injury
that I was gonna become a chef.
And when I told my father that he said,
"that's fantastic,
but how do you expect to make a living?"
I started in the kitchen
just to kinda see if I really liked it.
And I remember going there the first day
and being mesmerized
by eggs and flour comin' together
and be something such as pasta.
Needless to say after the first day,
I was ready to roll.
Probably one of the things
that attracted me the most
was coming in early in the morning
and working with pasta.
It's something that I can get my hands messy with.
Never forget that cooking is a vocation,
it's something that use
and do with your hands.
Obviously I love fresh pasta.
I don't want people to think
there's anything wrong with dry pasta either.
But fresh pasta in some instances
is more of a special occasion.
It's a labor of love.
It doesn't happen instantly.
You have to have practice at it.
It's like doing anything,
you have to enough repetition
to know that when you touch it,
it feels right.
It feels dry.
It feels humid.
I can look at something
and give it a spray of water
because I know it needs it.
Those types of things
all come with time.
I'm still perfecting my craft.
You know we're constantly
pushing boundaries of pasta,
and we're having fun.
(jazz music)
The garganelli for example,
is a dish
that there's an old story.
About how garganelli became garganelli
is they were all laid out over
the work surface
and there was tortellini pieces of meat
put on every one of the squares
and a little cat
ate all the filling off the squares.
And so the chef is sitting there
with all these squares of pasta
and she didn't know what to do.
So she grabbed a comb
and she rolled them over a comb,
so that's how that pasta happened.
Now I don't know if there's any
real truth to that story or not,
but it sounds great.
We toss it very simply
with prosciutto and cream and parmigiano.
The beauty of that pasta is the fact that
it absorbs in the sauce quicker.
You can smell the egg when you cook it
and toss with cream,
you can taste the egg and the flour.
So it's all in the details.
To sit down and eat it a complete meal with pasta
is something I don't do all the time,
but it's pretty darn good.
(jazz music)
(sultry music)
Pasta is something that
is the cornerstone of the Altamarea Group business.
It's a cornerstone of what I do.
It's what people come to the restaurants for.
The pasta has fulfilled so many of my dreams already.
Knowing that people are coming
to eat your food,
that's pretty cool.
These people like came in on a train
like an hour and a half from work,
they go an hour and a half back.
Like you better pinch yourself, right?
It's really really something
and those types of things
are what keep me driving to make pasta
as close to perfection as we possibly can.
We're really sure
that we're cooking for the people
that we have in front of us.
And the person behind the stove
cooking the pasta has to be passionate about it.
And this is a pasta that is
bone marrow, braised octopus,
red wine, tomato, and basil.
Proud of that dish
and at the same time,
you will never be able to take off, so.
You're only as good as your last pasta dish.
That's what we like to say.
I don't know anything else either though,
do you know what I mean?
It's just kind of what I do.
- [Michael] It's my 29th year cooking in the kitchen.
- [Chris] I've worked with my father,
close to 40 years.
- [Michael] The most important thing really,
it's not about stars.
It's not about that.
- [Chris] I want to continue the story
of my father Mario.
- [Michael] It's about teaching now,
showing and making connection
with young people in the kitchen.
- [Chris] As a merchant,
he was always there for others,
and he was always giving.
May he rest in peace.
(bright inspirational music)
(piano music)