Verve talks to Nicolo Vogliotto, owner of Italian restaraunt, Toret.
Nicolo Vigliottoa, co-founder Toret eatery on the edge of New Plymouth, takes a break to tell Verve about creating an authentic Italian experience.
Tell our readers about yourself?
My wife Katie and I opened Toret in December 2020. It was a project we’ve been working for many years, brainstorming ideas with the ultimate aim to create an authentic Italian experience using local and seasonal products.
Were you born in New Zealand?
I was born in Torino in the northwest of Italy and spent most of my life there. I moved to New Zealand firstly back in 2012 for a year, then in 2014 for good.
Your restaurant looks so comforting and authentic. Tell us about your inspiration?
We want our customers to experience real Italian culture. We’ve never been fans of stereotypical Italian restaurants, you know, the ones that try too hard to create an atmosphere that fit a false idea of what Italy is. Italian food is based on the seasonality of the produce and the land where you’re from. You can’t recreate a traditional Italian meal living in New Zealand without the same quality products. We wanted to keep the authenticity while serving what farmers around us grow—locally sourced meat and fish, cooked the right way, following Italian recipes and techniques. This, the way we see it, is Italian cuisine.
How long have you been cooking?
Coming up to 10 years in the hospitality industry.
Did you go back to Italy in search of new recipes?
With covid, so much has changed… We haven’t had chance to go to Italy since we’ve been open. But last time we were there, in 2018, we took inspiration from what we were eating—trying to bring that flavour and experience here to New Zealand.
Tell us about the menu?
We change menu roughly every two months, many dishes come and go quickly—as previously mentioned, it’s about what the farmers around are growing and what is in season.
Italian aside, what’s your favourite food?
Hard to tell, I love a good burger to be honest! I’m a fan of most styles of cooking, they all have their particularities and I love how two different cuisines from the other side of the world can have similar techniques but completely different outcomes of flavour.
What’s your favourite dish on the Toret menu?
Our pastas are really good and definitely my favourites. Our signature dish is tortelloni with kumara and goats’ cheese, tossed in burnt butter and sage and topped with toasted hazelnut. I have a pretty strong sweet tooth and one dessert I really like at the moment is a crostata with Nashi pears from Taranaki and nuts from a local farm.
What inspired these dishes?
Tortelloni—or tortellini—is a classic pasta preparation, versatile and delicious. The filling with kumara comes obviously from living in New Zealand, so a good mix of both culture and product. For the crostata, it was easy— local nuts and local pears in season, easy as one, two, three!
Is there ever any entertainmet?
I do sing in the restaurant, I love to sing—not sure if the costumers feel the same though!
1151 SOUTH ROAD, ŌAKURA 4314
