When your fiery, force-of-nature mother returns to her post as Sydney’s Southern Italian matriarch after a health scare and a brief hiatus, you don’t have much choice but to oblige. And, if you’re Paola Toppi from Rushcutters’ Bay restaurant Bar Machiavelli, you're happy to.
“She’s coming back to oversee everything, and to tell everyone what to do,” Paola tells SBS Food, of her mother Giovanna’s return to the restaurant. “I’m stuck in the kitchen most of the time, so it’ll be good to have her eyes out there on the floor.”
And while Giovanna Toppi may have the eyes of an 82-year-old, with a life of running restaurants in Sydney behind her, she’s sure to miss nothing. An average octogenarian, she is not.
The elder Toppi was born in Naples in the 1930s, and quickly developed a keen sense for cooking in a distinct, Southern Italian style. All through her youth, she cooked for Naples’ aristocratic families, making the best of whatever ingredients were on hand – her family wasn’t wealthy, and the food was scarce during the war years.
Giovanna migrated to Sydney in her 20s and opened La Strada on Macleay Street in Potts Points soon after. It was the silver-spoon Italian joint that launched her career as a legendary Sydney restaurateur; she launched Ristorante Machiavelli in the CBD in 1988, cementing her presence on the scene for good.
All the while, Paola was in the kitchen or running the floor, learning the subtle art of managing a successful restaurant and cooking beautiful Italian dishes through osmosis. The pair developed a shared physical language in the kitchen, to the point where they hardly needed words.
“She was brilliant at what she did,” Paola explains. “That’s how I learned to cook. She was very, very focused, and whenever I worked behind her I always instinctively knew what she wanted. When we worked together, it was seamless. We share a language and a very similar face!”
From her mother, Paola learned the value of perseverance and developed a strong sense of workplace ethics.
As far as I'm concerned, my mother is the best cook in the world...
“Her kitchens were always spotless, and her staff were always happy and well looked after,” she says. “She instilled in me that everything has to be the best of the best.”
The other invaluable lesson? How to make simple food taste great.
“As far as I'm concerned, my mother is the best cook in the world,” says Paola. “Whenever she cooks it comes out amazingly well – doesn’t matter what it is. Even if it’s the simplest of pasta with plain tomato sauce and herbs, she manages to bring out the flavours in a way that no one else can. And all this without measuring or any recipes whatsoever!”
Paola has taken to writing everything Giovanna says and does in the kitchen down so it doesn’t get lost forever.
Get your fork into Paola's crab pappardelle and never look back.
Pappardelle with blue swimmer crab Source: Sharyn Cairns
These days, Giovanna is doing a little less cooking in the Bar Machiavelli kitchen – but don’t let that fool you. Elsewhere on the Internet, Giovanna is compared to Lazarus, the biblical saint who came back from the dead. For all intents and purposes, she’s the boss.
“She’s back with a vengeance,” Paola says. “She’s feeling younger than ever. Physically she can’t make her way around the kitchen so much anymore, but she’s very involved in all other capacities. She’s always there for me, giving me advice on my recipes and keeping the troops in line. And customers love to see her working there.”
Paola shows Maeve O'Meara a few kitchen tricks on Food Safari Water. You can watch the episode on SBS On Demand right here.
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