A nod to his rich childhood memories spent with his late Puglian grandparents, chef-owner Luca Berardino’s Devon based restaurant, Andria has gone from strength to strength since its opening in August 2020.
Born in Paris, Italian-raised head chef Luca has lived in the UK since the age of four where he spent his childhood between the UK, Paris and Italy, which shaped him into the chef he is today. He takes inspiration from across Europe to help bring together nostalgic dishes and flavours in his Michelin awarded restaurant in the coastal town of Dartmouth.
Named after the Southern Italian hometown of Luca’s ancestors, Andria offers diners the chance to feast on intricately prepared and utterly delicious small plates, which can be shared across the table and crafted into a build-your-own tasting menu.
We caught up with Luca to learn more about his influences, inspirations, his love of tomatoes and how he strives to create uncomplicated yet utterly delicious food at his restaurant in south Devon.
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself, including where you are today, professionally, and what got you here?
I was born in Paris from Southern Italian immigrants, I moved to the UK when I was four, and spent many years travelling back and forth between the UK, Paris and Andria in Italy. As a young child I was well fed, to say the least, so I’ve always enjoyed cooking and eating. I have vivid memories of nonno making orecchiette pasta by hand and nonna making a ragu all day to go with it, I’d literally wake up to the smell of sauce simmering in the morning.
I was obsessed with music so much so my younger years I was a touring musician and, for all I knew, that was my career, until we become bankrupt and I found out I was going to be a dad to my eldest son, Luca, who is now ten. All this happened within a month, it was a whirlwind to say the least.
My second love was food, so I decided at 21 I was going to be a chef and I poured all my love and creativity into pursuing my cooking career, because, quite frankly, me in an office? No chance.
What or who inspired you to become a chef?
My grandparents and parents, we would eat pasta six nights a week, dad would whack up a lasagne and I’d be all: “dad please no more pasta”. He would reply in his thick accent: “it’s not pasta my boy is lasagne!.
I remember on Friday nights I’d be so jealous of my friends eating turkey Twizzlers or fish and chips. I felt hard done by because we were having spaghetti ai Frutti Di mare (spaghetti with seafood), but now I’m so eternally grateful and blessed.
Who has been your biggest influence to get you to where you are today?
The team that I work with relentlessly every day, we have worked together for the last six years, we are all self-taught but we have a real hunger to constantly progress to do each other proud on this journey that we are all on together.
What’s your signature dish?
Scallops, deglazed in a fermented chilli butter with a scallop roe bisque that’s finished with lemongrass, chilli and ginger. We then finish the dish with a fermented carrot kimchi
What are the most important considerations when crafting your menu?
It has to be delicious, relatable and unchallenging for the customer to understand.
Do your personal preferences influence the menu at all?
100 per cent all of our dishes are inspired from real life events and food that we love to eat as chefs. We don’t tend to inspire our dishes from other Michelin kitchens, we have had dishes inspired from a meal deal before, or a Big Mac, even a kebab. Although you won’t see that influence in an obvious manor, you may subconsciously recognise that influence in the levels of comfort and nostalgia within the dish itself.
How would you describe your cooking style?
Stripped back, to the point, bold and unpretentious.
Do you have a favourite time of year or set of ingredients that you look forward to working with?
Spring is amazing for us. As the dark winter fades, a bounty of ingredients come back around into season, and with this brings a wave of creativity and excitement whilst looking back at our previous years’ work, we take the best bits and push forwards.
I am currently working on a chilli crab dish with early season fermented tomato juice as the base. The sauce will be lactic, fruity and briny similar to a Bloody Mary, just cleaner, with a brown crab jelly for depth and picked fresh white crab for sweetness, served in a bowl from the freezer.
What is your favourite ingredient to create with?
I wouldn’t say I have a favourite ingredient, so to speak, but I do love tomatoes. Cliché I know, you’d think I’d be sick of them after my childhood.
What would you be doing if you weren’t a chef?
Musician/guitarist, failing that a plasterer with my brother and dad.
What is your favourite dish to cook at home?
Tacos, specifically the salsa that I make to go with them, I put a lot of energy into getting that salsa just right.
When are you happiest?
Upstairs at Andria cooking and hosting on the chef’s table, sharing food, breaking bread and listening to my guests’ life stories and achievements.
What is your favourite piece of kitchen equipment?
My knife, it’s all I need.
When you’re not in the kitchen where can you be found?
With my partner Leanne and my three kids, the kids love to skateboard so you can usually find me around a skatepark.
What’s your favourite takeaway or comfort food?
Thai food. Or hard to find these days, but a really good margarita pizza, not Neapolitan dough though – romana tonda – super thin super crisp.
Where is your favourite place to dine?
Paul Ainsworth’s No6 in Padstow, or my parents’ house – they eat like kings.
What differences do you find working with local produce as opposed to non-local produce in terms of what you can create and flavour?
It’s difficult right now with prices soaring, our choices are way slimmer, but I can buy English tomatoes for £25 per kg that taste OK. Or I can buy Italian tomatoes from the Milan market for £25 per kg that will blow your mind. I know which ones you would rather, right?
In terms of protein, fish/meat, we buy all from Torbay and the surrounding areas, but when it comes to vegetables, it’s difficult as we don’t grow enough in the UK. So I try to have a balance of price, consistency and quality which will then decide where I buy and what I buy to source for the menu.
How do you go about menu planning? What’s the process from picking the ingredients to getting them fresh into the kitchen and into dishes?
We work with two butchers and four fish suppliers, it does take a lot of tweaking and planning before the fish merchants go to market to source what we need. We then will cook the dish after every lunch and make notes we then go away and 24 hours later come back and do the dish again with the tweaks we have agreed to make as a team. When we think the dish is ready we will serve it to the whole team to gather some feedback before it goes live on the menu.
We are a super small team, so don’t have the benefit of having a dedicated development chef or space. But I like that, it gives us space from the dish and time to think and reflect.
How would you describe the food you create at Andria to someone who’s never experienced it?
Our food is relatable, easy to understand, and undeniably delicious that is disguised as simple, yet can taste complex. Our dishes are inspired by real life and nostalgia; soul food that you want your date to eat and experience.
We try to cook what we, as chefs, want to cook, but never ever forgetting that it’s food that you want to eat.
What’s your favourite flavour combination?
Lemon and coffee.
What is the USP of Andria?
A laid-back Michelin-awarded neighbourhood joint. The food is a DIY taster menu disguised as ‘small plates’. Every ‘plate’ is a dish within its own right, be it a vegetable or a hand dived scallop or a piece of barbecued ribeye, they are all treated with the same love and attention. The music isn’t quiet, we want you to have a good time and enjoy your night away from reality with your loved ones. We are down to earth yet refined, we love what we do for our guests, it’s all about the guests.
What do your future plans entail?
To try and carry on writing our story in this beautiful riverside town in Devon, it’s an unwritten book that I can’t believe is four years old in August.
Factbox
Address: 5 Lower St, Dartmouth TQ6 9AJ
Phone: 01803 833222
Website: andriadartmouth.com
All imagery credit: Andria/Luca Berardino
