If you like Italian food – authentic Italian food, traditional, honest home-style cooking with rich, hearty flavours – then your taste buds are in for a treat at new Upper Queen Street restaurant, Alla Prossima.
Chef Gabriele Marangoni has been enchanting Aucklanders for eight years at Mt Eden favourite, Pasta & Cuore. Now he’s moving closer to the city and taking on the executive chef role at Alla Prossima, a stand-alone restaurant in Nigel McKenna’s new Abstract Hotel in Upper Queen Street.
There he has prepared a menu specialising in Emiliano-Romagnola cuisine. Italians refer to the region surrounding Bologna as the beating heart of Italian cuisine, and for so many reasons. Think Prosciutto di Parma, Mortadella, Parmigiano-Reggiano, Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena, Lambrusco. All are from Emiliano-Romagnola where, through an alchemy founded on soil, climate and passion, skilled artisan producers use practices handed down through generations to transform the fine, local produce into truly unique culinary delights
Gabriele learned his craft as a child in his family’s restaurant in Bologna and honed his skills in restaurants throughout Europe. He settled in New Zealand in 2016 and now, in 2024, he’s ready to stamp his mark on Auckland dining under his own name.
Says Gabriele: “With Emiliano-Romagnola cuisine, simplicity is a choice, but authenticity and integrity are not negotiable: discerning customers love to know the story behind what they are eating and where it comes from. Most of our products are sourced from the region, the land of slow food and fast cars, where the products have a very long aging time, thanks to a perfect microclimate which is difficult to reproduce anywhere else in the world.
“Our passion is to combine these traditional products with fresh ingredients sourced from local suppliers, selecting the best of what New Zealand producers have to offer by way of vegetables and premium meats. Then, using traditional techniques we create exceptionally delicious hand-crafted pasta dishes which celebrate the rich tradition of Italian cuisine.”
Nigel McKenna, Founder and Director of Templeton Group, owners of Abstract Hotel, says Gabriele has seized the opportunity to express his own culinary vision at Alla Prossima: “This is not a hotel restaurant. It’s an amazing Italian restaurant with an exceptional chef. It just happens to be in a hotel, and we’re proud to be hosting it at Abstract.
“Those who have had the pleasure of enjoying Gabriele’s cuisine will be delighted to know where to find him again. We’re confident that not only will they seek him out, but when they’ve enjoyed his new menu they’ll continue to come back again and again. Hence the name: Alla Prossima – until next time.”
Alla Prossima, Abstract Hotel, 8 Upper Queen Street, T: 09 320 1671, www.allaprossima.co.nz
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