About
"More pasta, less sauce...”
The desire for more 'condimenti' or sauce over the heart and soul of pasta dish i.e. the pasta itself, has tipped the balance in favour of a "sauce over pasta" mentality. The perceived value of a pasta dish is tied to having a disproportionate amount of dressing to pasta, overzealous layering of complex flavours, use of opulent high priced items and precise manicuring techniques accomplished with tweezers for e.g. For some, these are parameters considered for the value proposed in relation to the price tag.
"Customers are always right...”
In a bid to make the best sauces and plate the wildest looking dishes for the gram, traditional pasta making techniques rooted in skill of the old world and good ol' elbow grease-the core foundation of handmade pasta-has fallen by the wayside in favour of more marketable (and less laborious) means to the average consumer's wallet. With this need to allocate more energies to the quality and range of 'condimenti', the range of pasta formats naturally had to be kept limited and traditional pasta making techniques were shoved aside for more simplistic methods of production e.g. more reliance on machinery or just completely ditching the important lessons from nonna to make your own by consorting with mass producers of industrialized pasta. Fortunately, for most mass consumers, the impact of this less than ideal initiative is easily diverted with successful implementation of the more 'condimenti' is better ideology and thankfully, most "pasta worshippers" are hip to the notion that pasta is nothing more than a textural back drop for the dish.
"Dress your pasta with sauce and not the other way around...”
The core belief behind the brand is that a pasta dish should always center around the pasta and should not have to compete with the sauce and other embellishments which are nothing more than auxiliary. It is this singular appreciation of pasta as the true protagonist that drew me into its world. The richness and depth of its tradition, techniques and history are as colourful, if not more than the complex sauces and high priced ingredients we are accustomed to seeing and expect in our pasta dishes.
"Focus on technique, skill and processes …”
Ben Fatto is dedicated to the preservation of the art of pasta making, focusing on techniques of the old world. Tradition is kept alive through practise and valuing hand crafted products over a lump of Uni or slivers of truffle that embellish a plate of pasta.
Yum Hwa
Sfoglino