Scott Pickett’s really leaning into his love of pasta. Just months after turning the former Broadsheet Kitchen space into Lupo – a carb-focused, hand-rolled-pasta spot in Collingwood – Pickett shows up across town with another Italian diner: Pastore.

“It’s even more traditional Italian. Lupo is pushing the boundaries a little bit more, this is a bit more classical,” says the Matilda and Estelle chef-owner. “It’s not a fine-dining restaurant. The food is simple.”

The simplicity of this vision is a stark contrast to the sleek exuberance of Sofitel’s new luxury Hotel Chadstone, in which the restaurant sits. It’s all waves of glass and marble columns propping up very high ceilings. Pickett tells me hotel management originally pitched the idea of bringing Matilda, his fire-focused South Yarra diner, out east. Hence the woodfired grill.

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“They wanted to bring my restaurant DNA out here – front of house, back of house – they don’t want it to feel like you’re in just another hotel restaurant,” says Pickett. But instead he created Pastore, a 50-seater that borrows a little fire from Matilda and a little Italian inspiration from Lupo.

The space is open, with touches of brass and stone, and is dotted with booths, bars and benches. Pickett’s clearly got a thing for fire, and from the right seat you can see the grill’s flames licking up over the counter of the open kitchen, darting into your peripheral vision or reflected in your Negroni glass.

Pickett and head chef Mirco Speri (Thirty Eight Chairs) play with just a few ingredients in each dish.

We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel by any stretch of the imagination,” Pickett says. “Just execute sharp, classic-inspired Italian dishes.”

Small plates include duck prosciutto on a thin cracker and dotted with tart Davidson plum jam, and flame-roasted peppers bring char to caprino, an Italian goat’s cheese, served with aged balsamic. Raw yellowfin tuna comes with borlotti beans and an umami-rich broth that’s added at the table, and creamy stracciatella and cured egg yolk play support to earthy spring asparagus.

Pickett’s kitchen team includes chefs from Florence, Tuscany and Rome. “You tell them that you want pici and they understand how to make it and roll it. They’ve seen their nonna make it.”

That pici he’s talking about is a thick, round noodle served with a Tuscan sausage ragu, fresh tomato and salted ricotta. In another dish shavings of calamari and bottarga are weaved through spaghetti with a red wine reduction with a little squid ink. A Wagyu lasagne proves simplicity here doesn’t mean rustic or plain.

The other side of the Pastore coin – the open flame – informs the larger dishes. Wood-grilled barramundi marries with burnt blood oranges and fennel. Dry-aged lamb is cooked on the open flame, too. It’s served with charred leeks and sheep’s milk yogurt. A 1.2-kilo dry-aged bistecca fiorentina steak is designed to share.

That flame gets into the desserts, too. The chocolate torta is wood-roasted, lending a smokiness to the combination of chocolate, pistachio and last-season’s preserved cherries.

The wine list, compiled by sommelier Clinton Fox, focuses on Australian examples of Italian varietals. Or you can order a white Negroni, made with native botanicals and Pickett’s own gin.

Pastore
1341 Dandenong Road, Chadstone
(03) 9108 3350

Hours:
Daily 6.30am–9pm

pastorerestaurant.com.au

This article first appeared on Broadsheet on October 31, 2019. Menu items may have changed since publication.