‘Everyone ought to be talking more about this’: Melbourne Italian pasta spot comes to Sydney for one night only
Lagotto’s Italian-born head chef Matteo Fulchiati brings his hatted Italian cooking to a joint menu with Gowings chef Sean Connolly.
One of Melbourne’s top Italian restaurants, Lagotto, is teaming up with Gowings Bar and Grill to offer Sydneysiders a slice of Victoria’s vibrant dining scene.
On Wednesday, March 12, Lagotto’s Italian-born head chef Matteo Fulchiati will bring his hatted Italian cooking to the QT Sydney boutique hotel for a one-night joint menu with Gowings chef Sean Connolly.
Fulchiati, who is Italian-born but has called Melbourne home for the past decade, has worked at high-profile Victorian venues such as the Lake House and Osteria Ilaria before helming Lagotto.
The chief restaurant critic for The Age and Good Weekend, Besha Rodell, praised Lagotto in a 2023 review, writing: “Everyone ought to be talking more about this spot, and this chef.”
Fulchiati and Connolly will produce a special three-course dinner with snacks, matching Torbreck wines and two Campari cocktails to start and finish the evening.
The menu will highlight Fulchiati’s seasonal focus with dishes such as heirloom tomatoes with black garlic, anchovy and macadamia alongside desserts such as fig leaf and buffalo milk gelato, strawberry granita and strawberry jam.
The night will start with snacks and entrees, including Lagotto’s signature scallop rosti with mussel cream, trout roe and chives.
Pasta will be a big focus on the menu, with dishes such as paccheri with Skull Island prawns in a prawn bisque from Lagotto, and Mount Barker duck lasagne with porcini cappuccino sauce from Gowings.
“I always eat at Lagotto when I’m in Melbourne. I love Matteo’s take on Italian food,” says Connolly, who is QT’s creative director of food and beverage, and recently opened Cygnet at QT Singapore.
“It’s all about having fun with flavours and giving diners something they won’t get anywhere else.”
The event will also feature a Q&A with the chef and Sydney multidisciplinary artist Mikey Freedom, who was commissioned to design an artwork for the occasion. Food lovers may be familiar with Mikey’s work, which has been featured in high-profile Sydney restaurants such as Bastardo and Shell House.
Freedom says the inspiration for the artwork is “about that moment, being in a crowd or loud room, music sounding off and dancing, people and things whirling about, drinks and glasses clinking”.
Tickets for the Lagotto pop-up cost $149 a head and are available here.
Isabel Cant – Isabel is a social media editor for Good Food. Prior to joining Good Food, Isabel worked as a freelance journalist. She was also previously a social media producer for Endemol Shine Australia, working on MasterChef Australia and Dessert Masters.