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ALEX TINTORI
The Head Chef
Under the direction of Tuscan Head Chef and Co-Owner Alex Tintori, with an impressive culinary career spanning over sixteen years, every dish is made with complex, artful technique where foraging and fermentation are at the forefront. What you see on the plate is only half of the story. Flavour is paramount when carefully sourcing sustainable fresh produce, supporting small local producers like Western Plains (Pork), Infinity Blue (Barramundi) and Aurum Poultry (Duck). Foraging is a passion, and on days off you will find Chef Alex along Merri Creek sourcing garlic flowers and wild fennel, or in Daylesford seeking pine mushrooms. Some ingredients will hit the pass freshly prepared, others will receive his fermentation finesse, when Sosta’s kitchen becomes a culinary laboratory.
FERMENTATION, FORAGING & FAMILY
Complex, artful technique. Not just pasta on a plate
Traditional methods, combined with fresh ingredients, showcase a menu filled with house-made items, from the sourdough bread using a Tuscan starter, to the delicately handcrafted silky pastas, complete with sweet tarts and ice-cream. Chef Tintori's love for cooking was nurtured by his family's rich culinary heritage, he is inspired by his most loved regions throughout Italy and how they draw and rely on their surroundings in order to source local fresh produce and native, wild ingredients.
Dishes like Western Plains roast porchetta with fermented cantaloupe melon and pickled green tomatoes have been a customer favourite since opening in September last year. A simple plate of pork you may assume? Think again!
The same technique to create kimchi is also applied to the cantaloupe. Prepared first by removing the skin and seeds.
The flesh is then pureed with rice paste and mixed with salt, onions, house-made fermented capsicum powder as well as house-made pine mushroom garum - Chef Alex’s beloved Daylesford-foraged pine mushrooms were smoked, minced and brined for eight-months to create this special garum ingredient. The final mixture is vacuum packed for 48-hours to ferment in an anaerobic environment. It is then placed atop the succulent porchetta slice, to create the perfect balance of sweet and savoury.
This is just one of many magical processes happening behind the scenes at Sosta.