Yak Italian Kitchen, Melbourne: restaurant review
The food archaeologist will spot the word. Only, perhaps, the Melbourne food pedant will join the dots. Under a list of pasta dishes at Yak – a super interesting list, by the way – is fine breadcrumb “maltagliati”. It’s a pasta you don’t often see. Meaning “poorly cut”, maltagliati is a word in Italian cuisine occasionally applied to other things, like the roughly cut strips of thin beef in a salad.
But this is a crinkle-cut, unevenly shaped egg pasta made with crumb and parsley in the dough, which in turn is made with a stone-ground flour, water and salt. The chef tosses it in a little fresh tomato and its juices, diced fennel, saffron, white wine, basil and delicious, shelled Crystal Bay farmed prawns. It sounds so simple, doesn’t it? The “bite”, the slippery-yet-slightly-rough tongue feel, the flavour and texture…
I’m old enough to remember when Valerio Nucci, a chef from around Milan, introduced a maltagliati dish to a Melbourne institution, Cafe di Stasio, around the time he joined in 1991. It was with radicchio and calamari. It became a Di Stasio signature and is still probably my favourite pasta dish, ever.
After many years Nucci went into business elsewhere, turning an inner suburban pub (The Grand, Richmond) into a kind of Aussie locanda with superb Italian food. And, of course, the maltagliati. Nucci had a young Italian/Australian apprentice, Leo Gelsomino, who eventually became head chef and a partner. As a duo, they thrived. Gelsomino made the maltagliati. Eventually, of course, the young chef wanted his own place; he took the maltagliati with him. A few more dishes, too (pizzoccheri, vincisgrassi), refining, fiddling, contributing another chapter to the story of what might be called real Australian-Italian food.
Four years later, here we are at Yak with a plate of pasta on the table and Gelsomino heading up the kitchen. It’s a nice back story. And undoubtedly someone working at Yak will eventually go somewhere else and the story will continue.
For now, however, it’s Friday lunch and the pleasant, simple corner site at the heart of Melbourne’s food district is jumping. Yak’s is a reassuring story if you like to believe in the foundations of real food, done well, without pretence, in welcoming circumstances. They do antipasti, pasta, secondi, pizza, and dolci. They don’t do overcooked Italian-ness. And they do nothing by halves. The chef pretty much puts his pride on the line with this stuff. You can taste it.
The margherita pizza is superb. A slow-proven dough of stone-ground flour with wheat germ added back into it gives the base a brilliant, light, easily bitten and digested texture; the tomato sugo is delicious; the fior di latte has been added in two stages so that some is molten, some fresher/firmer; and the basil is pungent. A denizen of CBD eateries tells me this is the city’s best pizza. I’m inclined to agree.
The maltagliati (pictured) is as previously described; light, textural, sweet and acidic, the fennel adding a hint of anise. Tortellini laid down on a sweet/acidic balsamic reduction have a bitter braised radicchio filling, and over the lot goes an aerated chestnut and goat cheese sauce. I can’t bring myself to call it a “foam”, yet it is close; and it has a salty grip alongside that peculiarly wintry flavour of chestnut. Wonderful.
Finally, bomboloni: two cricket balls of Italian doughnut, each sandwiching fat balls of good pistachio ice cream. They come with cinnamon-poached blood orange and their almost-caramel juices, plus a crumble of toasted pistachio. Nice.
A glass of wine the (excellent) waiter chooses; the buzz of a city diner that works. It’s just terrific, uncomplicated, customer-focused eating with food quality and skill that goes way beyond the predictable. It comes with a story. The pedant is happy.
Address: 150 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
Phone: (03) 9654 6699 Web: yakitaliankitchen.com.au
Hours: lunch Tue-Fri; dinner Tue-Sat
Typical prices: starters $18; pasta $29; mains $38; desserts $15
Summary: Pasta – a never-ending story
Like this? Try… Tipo 00, Melbourne; Sagra, Sydney
Stars: 3.5 out of 5
Source: The Australian, John Lethlean, 31st October 2015
Originally published as: Yak Italian Kitchen, Melbourne: restaurant review
