By: Kelsey Warren
It’s rare in New York to take stock of where the food we’re eating comes from at any of the city’s 18,000 restaurants.
But, at the event hosted by Slow Food NYC at Community Wine & Spirits in Chelsea, featuring Snail of Approval awardee Roscioli, we were reminded of why and how we can do this both as restaurants and eaters.
Mattia Moliterni, manager of Roscioli, captivated a group of New York foodies on a Wednesday night in March with his telling of how he brought Roscioli, a lauded, authentic Roman-cuisine concept in Rome, to NYC. Focused on quality ingredient sourcing and its “alimentari” (grocery store) ethos with its walls stocked with pasta, wine, and sauces, he shared how we can bring “slow food” to city restaurants by keeping ingredients front and center.
After working in restaurant startups and event production for many years, Mattia, a Roman native, was hired by Roscioli as a consultant for the opening of Rimessa Roscioli in Rome in 2017. The following year, he pioneered the start-up of Roscioli Wine Club, expanding his expertise to the world of logistics, export and e-commerce. In 2023, he opened Roscioli NYC of which he is currently the managing partner. He now looks to expand the brand throughout the US.
Mattia shared his practice of “slow food” – the movement to preserve traditional and regional cuisine and encourage the farming of plants, seeds, and livestock characteristic of the local ecosystem. While. historically, practicing slow food might have meant driving hours to find the best tomatoes, wheat, and meats in the Tuscan countryside for dinner the same night in Rome, today it can mean visiting all the local East Coast farmers yearly that Roscioli sources from for its NYC restaurant, even though many restaurant managers would stop after securing suppliers in the first year. Roscioli spends time as a team exploring both Italy and the Northeast US, meeting farmers and producers and discovering new local foods they can bring to the table seasonally. For Mattia, that kind of exploration and collaboration brings joy to the restaurant operations. Once they find great ingredients, they try not to get overly creative with them in the kitchen. The ingredients are the focus.
Mattia acknowledged he strives for a balance between more local East Coast growers and his traditional Italian network. This allows him to practice “slow food” for the products he can find to his liking domestically, such as vegetables and some cheeses, while he imports wheat and other ingredients from Italy he hasn’t quite found to his caliber stateside. He said he’s encouraged by the movement he sees in the US letting ingredients steal the spotlight. And, he is encouraged by the change we could see in the future: “When the US decides to move on something…we move fast”, he jests, sharing that he hopes more restaurateurs will see the power of local, fresh ingredients and focus their attention there going forward.
Mattia joked that his chef doesn’t have a budget when it comes to sourcing the highest quality ingredients. The challenge, understandably, is this is not the standard. Restaurants, especially in New York where rents are high and trends are fast, do not always have the ability to do this.
Given the price of local sourcing, how can we expect Mattia’s counterparts in other NYC restaurants to take the more expensive road? The answer, in Mattia’s eyes, is supporting the restaurants who do so now - growing awareness of stories like his and bringing people to love the ingredients like they do at Roscioli. He listed off many in NYC that bring the same ethos to quality ingredients. I tried one, Travelers, Poets, & Friends, that Friday night, and enjoyed the meal infinitely more knowing that my mozzarella was hand-picked and pasta was sculpted that day.
My farewell wish: Enjoy Roscioli in Soho to support great patrons of the Slow Food movement like Mattia (if you can get in!), and any other Slow Food “Snail of Approval” spots, and you’re helping local sourcing and quality ingredients find their way from the hills of Tuscany to the streets of NYC.
Mattia Moliterni of Roscioli NYC shared his journey with the slow food movement at Slow Food NYC’s recent Slow Wine event at Community Wine & Spirits.
