On the grill: Farina 00 chef/owner Lewis Marro

At age 23, Lewis Marro, opened his own restaurant, the successful Farina 00 Pasta & Wine, where he makes fresh pasta every day.

Lewis Marro, chef/.owner of Farina 00.

At age 23, Lewis Marro, opened his own restaurant, the successful Farina 00 Pasta & Wine, where he makes fresh pasta every day.

My favourite SA restaurant (not my own) is ... Our place @ Willunga Hill.

The best meal I have ever experienced was ... not to toot my own horn, but I make a pasta dish with a mix of fresh mushrooms, cream, aged parmigiano and truffle oil. We have customers who come in just for that dish.

The worst meal ever was ... a pizza in Adelaide. I won’t say where.

The most embarrassing item in my fridge/pantry is ... minestrone soup “just add water”. A friend saw it on Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares and gave it to me as a joke.

An ingredient I can’t live without is ... filtered water, to make and cook pasta. We also have about seven stocks, and good quality water helps the flavour.

A kitchen tool I can’t live without is ... my pasta machine.

My bucket-list restaurant/food experience would be ... Nancy Silverton’s restaurant Osteria Mozza, in Los Angeles, and in Singapore.

My guilty pleasure is ... Amaro del Capo.

The cookbook I most love is ... The Italian Cookery Course by Katie and Giancarlo Caldesi.

My choice of a last supper would be ... Italian artisanal smallgoods, white anchovies, a big plate of gnocchi with rosemary pork sausage, and then, rabbit leg cooked overnight in a wood oven in a beautiful red wine and tomato sauce – while enjoying a bottle of Nero d’Avola. To finish, tiramisu with a double shot of Amaro del Capo, and a macchiato.

To me, food is ... everywhere. It’s life.