Italian Street Kitchen puts a new spin on pasta and pizza in Parramatta
Crab ravioli and green-based pizzas are on the menu at the chain’s new George Street address.
When Italian Street Kitchen opens in Parramatta on Thursday, June 8, Italian twins Giulio and Enrico Marchese will power its kitchen.
If there’s a sense of “simpatico” today between head chef Giulio and pizzaiolo Enrico, it wasn’t always that way.
“We were always fighting when we were young, it makes our mother very happy to see us working together now,” Giulio says.
“He’s older than me [by two minutes] but karma played a role, now I’m the boss.”
The playfulness between the two subsides when talk turns to food. They’ve used the Parramatta opening as a testing ground for ISK’s international push – it opens in Dubai in October.
There’ll be no pork on the menu in Dubai, so they’ve started to tweak dishes in Australia to gear up for that kitchen mindset. “There’s no pork in our bolognese,” Giulio says.
ISK, which started as a tiny 40-seater in Neutral Bay before branching out to Brisbane and Perth, trades in dishes such as crab ravioli in seafood bisque, and slow-cooked lamb ragu with casareccia pasta, horseradish and pecorino cheese.
When the twins discovered ISK had a slant toward women clientele, they decided to make it even more female-friendly.
“[Our friend] Isabella Cavuoto travels to Italy with us, sourcing new product, and helped with a new green-based pizza we have on the menu,” Giulio says.
One product they no longer source from Italy is flour. When supply was disrupted during the pandemic, they started looking locally and now use a bespoke blend from Provenance Flour and Malt in Narrabri. But the pizzas are still topped with tomatoes from Italy.
Open daily lunch and dinner.
Shop 1, 180 George Street, Parramatta, italianstreetkitchen.com
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