The secret behind Il Mattarello, Hong Kong’s fresh pasta delivery service
Owners Catherine Wong and Filippo Sintoni reveal the keyword is ‘handmade’
When Catherine Wong arrived in Ravenna, a coastal city in north Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region, she had no idea that she would be returning to Hong Kong to start Il Mattarello, making fresh pasta every day and delivering it personally to a crop of fiercely loyal customers.
“My mother said, ‘Oh, another Chinese person coming to steal our ideas,’” recalls Filippo Sintoni, her partner. Nevertheless, his mother, who runs a grocery store, did invite Wong to make pasta with her.
“I came back to Hong Kong and started making fresh pasta for friends’ parties,” Wong says. “Everyone was asking me to come over.”
Soon, she decided there was enough support for her to start a business, and she persuaded Sintoni to come to Hong Kong to partner with her.
Sintoni grew up making pasta, bread and other basic food at his mother’s store. “The city decided they wanted to redevelop the whole street, which included my mother’s shop, so she sold the business. I learned to make pasta from her. In Italy, usually the grandmas are the ones making the pasta, and everyone else just eats it.”
