At Garibaldi, Quality's Assured
By Gregory Leow
UOB Ala Carte Series
Easy Streats Weekender, 30 Oct 2003

FOR a fine-dining restaurant to throw a food promotion is a bigger thing than one might expect.

The owners of Garibaldi Italian Restaurant and Bar will tell you that it is a sheer logistical nightmare and involves a lot of hard work.

So when they announced their mushroom promotion, starting on Saturday and running through November, they did it with a lot of pride and satisfaction – that they had managed to make it happen at all.

The owners, chef de cuisine Roberto Galetti, 33, and general manager Beppe de Vito, 30, had actually intended a mushroom and truffle promotion, but problems with suppliers prevented that.

"Our supplier failed to deliver our truffles twice on schedule. We serve truffles as and when we can get a hold of them. So we fear to advertise it on a month-long basis in case we cannot deliver," said de Vito.

Even his shipments of porcini mushrooms are not certain because for every shipment he gets, he sometimes has to reject as many of half of it.

Porcini mushrooms, according to Galetti, have to be firm and dry. The smell should be fragrant with a hint of nuttiness. The touch has to be crunchy. The crunchier it is, the fresher the porcinis.

"But, sometimes, the porcinis, though big, are too soft or have been eaten away by worms." One problem is that suppliers here know only the quality of the product on paper.

"But people do not know what a freshly packed free-range organic chicken should feel, look and smell like because they have never seen a live one. The same with vegetables...

"If local suppliers demanded the same exacting standards as we do in the restaurant, there would be less heartache all round."

In one case, they had asked for wine from a particular vineyard and year.

But, said De Vito: "They ran out of the 1998 vintages, so they gave us the 1999s, thinking that everything is the same aside from the year. But it is a totally different wine and they could not understand when we complained."

So, Galetti immerses himself in logistics to ensure the freshness of the produce, which he checks himself.

Galetti has marketed Garibaldi as the "most authentic Italian restaurant" here and its specialty dishes that must be available at all times include cod with canellini and truffles, a not-too-sweet tiramisu, their famed beef carpaccio and an understated duck salad with ewe's milk cheese.

Judging from the dishes that I sampled that day, they pretty much meet the mark. The dishes are simply but intelligently put together.

The porcini pasta that I sampled had a mushroom flavour that permeated through the dish, which was enhanced by the egg tagliatelle topped with white wine. The raw parsley sauce topping also did well to support the flavour.

For dessert, try the warm chocolate cake. It tasted as though the chocolate was Valrhona – only the best in the world – while the vanilla icecream is homemade.

In the eight years that de Vito has been in Singapore, the quality of produce available has been improving, he says, which is an encouraging sign.

But there is clearly still a long way to go.

So on your next visit, when you tuck into a pasta with porcini mushrooms, think of all the pain and effort that went into it as well.

Garibaldi's Porcini and Chanterelle mushroom promotion runs through November.

36 Purvis Street, #01-02. Tel: 6837 1468.

OPENING HOURS (daily):
Lunch: Noon to 2.30pm, 6.30pm to 10.30pm