Ordering in: Modern Roman food from an Italian chef who learnt to cook at his family's 60-year-old restaurant

There is a lot of hard work that goes into perfecting the pappardelle con guancia de manzo, which makes use of wagyu beef and is packed with flavour from start to finish. — Photos: NATALINA ITALIAN KITCHEN

Not many people can say they literally grew up in a restaurant, but Italian-born chef Diego Reali did exactly that. As a child, Reali spent hours in his family’s celebrated restaurant L’Hosteria Amadeo near Rome, Italy. The eatery has been around since 1958 and Reali recalls serving water and bread to diners when he was just eight years old.

“That’s how I started out, and then I moved to the kitchen and learnt how to cook with my mother and grandmother. I never went to culinary school – my mother and grandmother were my teachers and the restaurant was my school,” he says.