Dish Articles

Alberto Usseglio – Chef patron at Barolo, The Langham Auckland

Story by Dish Magazine

That was almost a decade ago. Today, after eight years running a restaurant in Whitianga – a place Alberto describes as a tropical paradise compared with the northern Italian town from which he hails – he is chef patron at The Langham Hotel’s beautiful new restaurant Barolo.

Barolo is by no means a run of the mill Italian restaurant. For a start, as Alberto is quick to point out, there is no such thing as an ‘Italian’ cuisine as each dish has its own traditions and heritage: a tiramisu made in Verona is vastly different to one made in Rome.

“Historically Italy has been colonised and mistreated by so many kings and kingdoms and all these different people have brought their own recipes and cuisine with them.

In southern Italy you find dishes that have been heavily influenced by the North African way of cooking and in Piedmont, where I come from, you can find big similarities with French cuisine. Each area is distinct from the other; a couple of kilometres can make a huge difference to how something is made.”

Named after the famed Northern Italian wine and taking its inspiration from the home of the Slow Food movement, the menu at Barolo draws heavily from Alberto’s Piedmontese heritage, meaning there is a heavy focus on meat, hand-made pasta and truffles. “Piedmont is really well known for the high quality of the beef, so we do a wonderful carpaccio dish here.

We also have a lot of game meat, like the rabbit we have on the menu, and smallgoods. In my home town you can get any sort of salami you can think of, duck, pork and even donkey. In Italy we have a saying that we eat anything that moves and if it doesn’t, well why not anyway?”

As well as nurturing the Slow Food Movement, Piedmont is also famous for championing the zero kilometres concept, something Alberto is keen to adhere to as much as possible at Barolo. “When I first started out as a chef in the early nineties there would always be farmers turning up to the restaurant door with their produce which was wonderful as we had a great relationship with them. New hygiene laws stopped that for a while but now it’s coming back in Italy and I’d like to be able to do that here. New Zealand has some wonderful produce.”

Matching that produce with imported Italian wine is at the heart of Barolo and is something New Zealanders could do well to learn from. Alberto says that before a bottle is opened in Piedmont the menu has already been chosen, leaving no doubt as to whether the food and wine will go together.

“Here when you go out to dinner you are usually handed a wine list and expected to order before you eat. Back home we start with a Campari…and then really think about what we are going to drink with our meal. This way the food enhances the wine and vice versa. You get a better all round experience.”

In the ten years he’s been here Alberto has noticed a marked increase in the diversity of food offered and says it’s a direct reflection of the number of people coming from all over the world. “There is a need now for things like buffalo mozzarella and really good olive oils because people have begun to expect it with a change of population.”

Alberto is catering to those expectations too, tracking down the best New Zealand truffles, planning his seasonal menus and perfecting his hand-pinched pasta so they are just like the ones made back home.

Barolo at Langham Hotel, Auckland. Phone 09 300 2885

Photo by Mark Heaslip
Story by Dish Magazine