SAPORI RESTAURANT & BAR 

Andrea Scarpati is a serious chef. Working in the kitchen for over 30 years, he hails from the Mezzo Giorno seaside resort that gave the world some of the best chefs, Pizzaiolo and gelato fabricators, he is fair in complexion and not obviously imbued with the fiery nature and wild personality that characterises the region. He shocks me further by telling me that he is a Lazio and not Napoli fan. But none the less, it was the town of his birth that stirred something in Scarpati

“You smell food all day, you grow up with your mamma cooking. The whole day revolves around eating. Living by the sea the real fresh fish. We have all this fantastic produce, from fruit and vegetables. The apricots from Vesuvius are so beautiful. It’s these things I miss”

He’s calm, thoughtful and softly spoken when we chat in the bar at Sapori that is canopied with huge cherry blossoms and dark walls to give you a sense of the orient rather than an Italian restaurant in Leicestershire. The restaurant has been in Anstey since 2011, a partnership between Andrea, his wife and brother in law, Luigi. The imposing red brick building itself is now, alongside being restaurant, family home to Andrea, his wife and their two daughters which I think adds to the warm, genial feeling of the place.

Anstey Is not the kind of place you would expect to find a restaurant of Sapori’s calibre or reputation. Nestled between classical British tearooms, fish and chip shops and the local iconic bakery “Birds” with its iced fingers and ham cobs, you will find focaccia, torrinesi, sourdoughs cooked in the pan and made into deconstructed Panzanella using Petra 6384 (Panettone) and Evolutiva, a flour that Scarpati seems completely enchanted with. He has been a Petra Partner for some 5 years now, and credits the flour as a huge game changer for the business

“Since I started to use Petra its been a huge game changer for our bakery and in our pasta. Everything we use flour in, has gone one, maybe two levels up since we changed to Petra. The support from Petra is pretty good, especially from Giovanni. I got his number so any doubts about flour, he’s on the end of the phone to help you out”

In addition his store room is high with sacks of Petra 9, Unica and the iconic 5063 that is leftover from the national lockdowns during the pandemic.

“We used Petra Unica with a bit of Petra 6384 to slow down the fermentation. It was fun at the beginning, but obviously the pandemic lasted long and it became a bit frustrating. We were doing 250 a week at one point. It became a bit much and now pizza is not on the menu anymore”

What he doesn’t let on is how good and how in demand those Pizza became, in many ways totally unrivalled in the region perhaps. Yes, they started simply: Marinara made with tomatoes kissed by Vesuvius. A simple Margherita with Fior di Latte from Agerola. But then the simple gave way to the sublime; Hand dived Cornish scallops, with Torpedino tomatoes from Sicily on light bases made with his preferred Evolutiva, smoked provola and roast peppers was another favourite alongside a sopresada based pizza.

But you can understand this when you watch the craftsmanship and artisan skill that Scarpati employs into his cooking. He is constantly challenging the old norms and perceptions of Italian food in the UK. He looks to chefs like 2* Daniel Clifford (a fan of Farina Petra) and the imitable Francesco Mazzei not so much for inspiration, but that might be the wrong interpretation. I see Scarpati as original and creative with bagfuls of skill...maybe it’s more an artistic observation of these two heavyweight chefs, safe in the knowledge he is an equal waiting to move out into the pack with these pace setters.

At Sapori you won’t find the classic dishes that were leftover from the trattoria revolution that seemed to persist for 3 decades (and counting) but in this essentially Italian run family restaurant you will find the most incredible, home made pasta.

“When you taste the bread made with Evolutiva, you are tasting the ancient grains of Jordan, Eritrea, Syria, grown in Sicily. This flour will give the bread a back taste of cinnamon, oregano, wild fennel, orange...you find all that in these ancient grains”

It is immediately obvious if you are an online disciple of Sapori and Chef Scarpati on social media (@saporirestaurantuk @andreascarpati_chef for those not in the know) that a sweet tooth lies in the chefs mouth. The desserts constructed over the last few years ranges from a homage to the chefs home town, the famous coral, berries and his fathers love of rum Baba (Terra Mia) , too sweet domes coloured in the red, white and green of the tricoloro that give way to refreshing aperol spritz sorbet fillings (Un Estate Italiana)

Text by Joe Hurd