AsiaLIFE

Though Phnom Penh residents are familiar with Giorgio Arcasi, the owner of the long-running Pop Café da Giorgio, it is Rosa Arcasi they have to thank for the authentic Italian cuisine. In an AsiaLIFE exclusive, Mai Lynn Miller Nguyen sits down with mother and son to unlock the key to Italian cooking.

Ask anyone to name their favourite cook and chances are you’ll hear that mother knows best. Yet when Giorgio Arcasi of Pop Café brags about his mother’s culinary talents, it’s more than filial bias. The secret behind one of the town’s most frequented restaurants is Mamma Rosa.

Calling himself the “usual hopeless Italian boy”, Giorgio professes he can’t even cook an omelette. So, when he took over what was then a shop and bar in 2003, he asked his mother to design a menu for the restaurant.

“Mamma has come regularly since the beginning,” says Giorgio. “She created many popular dishes from my childhood in Naples. I grew up with fantastic food, I was very lucky.”

Rosa continues to reside in Naples, making recurrent visits to Phnom Penh. Each time she comes, she helps develop Pop Café’s menu, gradually introducing more dishes over the years.

During a lively lunch hour, with the restaurant packed with Italians, Rosa recalls the first time she demonstrated her skills for the kitchen staff.

“It was a pleasant surprise for my mother,” says Giorgio, translating his mother’s words. “She just showed the staff one time how to make the food, and immediately my chef picked it up, she could do it.”

Under Rosa’s direction, the head chef has become like an Italian now, mastering the cuisine. Still, when Giorgio is confronted with a taste that’s not quite right, it is Rosa who ensures the cooking is just right.

“Sometimes I ask her, Mamma, this food is not the way it should be, please check it out,” says Giorgio. “Mamma, I don’t know what is going on. Of course, she is an expert, she tells me immediately what the problem is.”

For the aspiring Italian cook, Rosa advises the use of fresh ingredients, stating that Italian food relies upon the quality of ingredients. “When you buy ingredients, don’t try to save on money,” she says. “Try to buy what you find the best.”

Giorgio observes that this is the reason why his restaurant is so popular. “You see all the Italian people here, they come here for this reason,” he says. “I don’t look at the price, I look for genuine Italian ingredients.” Begin with recipes until you have developed a feel for the food, advises Rosa. However, ultimately Italian cooking is about experimenting, tasting, and enjoying the entire process. “Italian food is not just put 20 grams of basil and 30 grams of tomato sauce and mix it together,” says Giorgio. “You have to cook with love.”

Cooking has always been intuitive for Rosa. Without formal training or the guidance of cookbooks, she has always followed her instincts—the very key to her success. “You need passion,” she says. “With cooking, if you have a good feeling about it, then you will learn quickly. It’s like my garden. You must love to cook just like you love the way that you make your plants grow, taking care of them everyday.”

As mother and son discuss the art of cooking, their Italian approach to dining is plain to see. It is part of la dolce vita, the sweet life. “For Italians, food is not just something that you have to put in your mouth to fill up your stomach and have the energy to go on,” says Giorgio. “It’s more important than that—it’s also a way to get your family and friends together. Food is a very important part of who we are. It’s about enjoying life, enjoying the company of friends and family.”

Pop Café captures this attitude, with an environment as comfortable as a friend’s house. Giorgio has created an extension of the Arcasi home in Napoli, where his mother used to serve the same dishes that Phnom Penh residents enjoy today.

“My favourite is the linguine ai polipetti, the pasta with small octopus, that is a delicacy where I come from,” says Giorgio. “We managed to create the same dish here. At the market, Mamma found some octopus, and they work perfectly.”

With fresh tomatoes in a white wine sauce, the linguine ai polipetti (US$7.50) is a savoury yet slightly sweet delight. Giorgio also suggests beginning a meal with his garlicky tomato basil bruschetta (US$5) and finishing on a sweet note with tiramisu (US$4.50).

And what more can we expect from Mamma Rosa this visit? Giorgio turns to ask the authority, who responds in a rush of enthusiastic Italian. “Mamma has something in mind,” says Giorgio. “She is thinking to make a pasta that in Napoli we call a Sicilian pasta, with meatballs, eggplant, and mozzarella cheese.”

Created with Mamma Rosa’s loving touch, the new dish is bound to be as delicious as all her other specialties. Though many expats may long for the cooking of their own mothers, Pop Café is as close to home cooking as you are likely to find in Phnom Penh.

Pop Café da Giorgio, 371 Sisowath Quay, Tel: 012 562 892, Open daily from 11.30am to 2pm and 6pm to 10pm.