Five Minutes With Enrico Sgarbossa, the Italian Chef Bringing Padellino Pizza to South Australia

When Enrico Sgarbossa left his homeland of Italy for Australia in 2010, he dreamt of educating people Down Under about the art of truly great pizza. More than anything, he wanted to teach Australians about pizza dough: the base (pun intended) of any good slice.

He had his work cut out for him, starting from the bottom when he first arrived in Sydney. After first working at a small Italian takeaway joint, he had gigs at Pizza e Birra and Vacanza. In 2014, while working at Bellevue Hill’s Bar Mia, he took out the Italian category in the Giro Pizza di Europe pizza-making competition. Not long after, he was approached by Italian flour mill Molino Agugiaro to take on a role as a flour technician – experience that came in handing when opening Pizza al Taglio, his own Surry Hills pizzeria, in 2016.

When the challenges of the Sydney hospitality scene wore him down, Sgarbossa moved to the slightly sleepier South Australia and began cooking at Adelaide Hills eco-winery Tilbrook Estate, where he also runs a pizza school.

Sgarbossa sat down with Broadsheet to chat the tranquillity of the Adelaide Hills, the differences between the Sydney and South Australian restaurant scenes, and all things padellino – the thick, Torinese pan-baked pizza he’s pioneering in South Australia.

When did you first fall in love with cooking?
I had the typical Italian upbringing, cooking with my mum and grandmother. We always went to a pizzeria on Friday nights. One night, my mum asked me to keep an eye on the pizza oven and tell her when our pizza was ready. I stood there staring at the effect of fire and heat on dough. It always stuck in my mind.

What were your first impressions of Sydney?
Back in 2010 it seemed to me that Sydney had three main pizzerias: Da Mario, Pizza e Birra, and Lucio. Italian communities in areas like Haberfield and Leichhardt had pizzerias, but there was a real lack of them in wider Sydney. There was, of course, Domino’s and old-school bakery stuff, but skill-wise it was a disaster.

Opening Al Taglio wasn’t easy, was it?
When I opened my restaurant in 2016, I had the skills and was serving a great product but not many people came. It was quite empty for the first year or so and that was frustrating. The funny thing was that some of the city’s best chefs would eat in the restaurant every Monday, yet no-one was talking about us.

Pizza is a complicated thing. If you go to eat pasta or steak and it’s burnt or overcooked, you notice straight away. For pizza, there is not as much understanding so everything is passed off as good. That was the hardest part for me, because technically speaking I can tell you if a pizza is good or not, but it also comes down to personal taste.

The restaurant eventually did very well and won a lot of awards, but my mental health suffered and I eventually sold it. I was making a decent living but I wasn’t happy.

What led you to South Australia?
When I went back home to see my family, my mum took me to the mountains. I walked through the Dolomites, and when I returned to Sydney I knew I didn’t want to live in Surry Hills surrounded by concrete anymore.

A chef friend had moved to Adelaide and said, “Enrico, come and visit.” As soon as we landed, I felt like I was home. People say there is nothing to do in Adelaide, but as soon as we arrived, we thought, “This is fantastic.” The air is different, people are different, it’s relaxed. It’s just a 40-minute drive between the beach and hills. And there are wineries everywhere! Mount Barker is very similar to my home town back in Italy.

After hitting the tools at Tilbrook Estate cellar door, you started making padellino. Can you explain it to us?
Padellino is extremely crunchy on top, and light as a cloud in the middle. It’s getting popular among fine-dining pizzerias in Italy, where people have been making it for 10 or so years, but it was never the right time for me to launch it in Australia – until now. The beauty of this pizza is that it really can be a fine-dining product or street food. I’ve used it to make ham-and-cheese toasties but it can also be used for gourmet and fine dining.

How is it made?
You cook it in three steps. It’s more complicated than Roman pizza dough because you need a first and a second rising for the sourdough base. I actually picked up a baking method from Japan called yudane, where a gel is made by mixing flour and hot water, and then inserted into the dough, making it very, very soft.

I was the first one, technically speaking, to do it [with pizza] in Australia, and chefs are starting to make it in Melbourne and Sydney. I’m glad they do it, because it means I’ve inspired someone. I’m proud of everything I make, but this is particularly special because it combines skills, technique and creativity in one product. My wife, Akiha, is Japanese and a lot of my pizzas have a Japanese twist. Like our padellino gyoza – it’s amazing.

What’s it like serving Italian food at an eco cellar door?
I’m fulfilled by the fact that then I can work in nature with cows grazing nearby and an organic farm next door where I buy produce. I structure my menu around things Tony Scarfo of Scarfo Organics grows for me. Tony’s been around for 50 years and lost his house in the same bushfire that destroyed Tilbrook in 2019.

Everything on the menu is South Australian, including cheese from La Vera. To be honest, I think it’s better than any Italian mozzarella.

Who can take lessons at your pizza school?
There’s an option for professional pizza makers who want to open their own place or learn a specific technique, and an amateur pizza class that I run that once a month. It’s quite unexpected to have a pizza school in an Adelaide Hills winery. People come from all over Australia and are wowed because it’s so beautiful.

I’m inspired by Ecole Internationale de Boulangerie, a famous baking school in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France. Working there would be my dream, but being here at Tilbrook Estate reminds me of that – being surrounded by nature when you’re learning something really changes and inspires you.

tilbrookestate.com.au
pizzatraining.com.au

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