Scots restaurant owner hopes to use top award to maintain integrity of Italian cooking outside of Italy

SCOTS Italian Restaurant Oro has just received the stamp of approval with a True Italian Taste Award from the Italian Government. 

And now owner Domenico Crolla is planning to use his gong to build awareness of how important it is to maintain the integrity of Italian cooking outside of Italy.

Domenico’s Oro was just one of seventy establishments in the world to be presented with a trophy for being one of the top pizzeria restaurants by the Italian ministry of economic development.

Domenico, who has just returned from Rome where he was presented with the award at the acclaimed Cavalieri Waldorf Astoria, said: “Winning an award like this just confirms that our food is to a gold standard.”

The Kilmarnock Road restaurant seats 120 people and is adorned with pizzas created by Domenico, who is known for his pizza portraits.

He is so well known in the industry that he regularly flies off to Vegas and Dubai to judge world pizza making competitions.

Now Domenico is keen to educate people in how important it is to maintain the integrity of Italian cooking outside of Italy.

He explained: “People have to understand that cooking outside of Italy has to change because local ingredients are different and local customs are different.

“You might say that pasta is al dente in Italy but in Scotland people don’t want it al dente. They want it slightly over cooked.

“A cappuccino should be lukewarm but if you give a Scottish person a cappuccino they send it back. The culture is different. In Italy you go to the bar, order a cappuccino and drink it in one go.

“It’s not a conversation piece. It’s a caffeine hit. In Scotland a cappuccino is a conversation piece and you want to sit there for half an hour with this cappuccino and still want it hot after half an hour. It’s a culture thing.

“If you go to Italy and ask for a cappuccino at three pm they will look at you. There, cappuccino is strictly a breakfast thing.

“It’s small things like that. Winning this award and being handpicked from 32 countries around the world we can begin to show people how important it is to keep the quality in everything we do.”