Sunderland restaurateur brightens up mealtimes in lockdown with recipe videos on Facebook

Pascal Tamburrino is known to scores of diners in Sunderland for his Mamma Italia restaurant in Hill View, as well for his years running the former Amalfi restaurant in the city centre, which he opened in 1991.

After 30 years in the business, he’s had to temporarily close his Mamma Italia restaurant and its neighbouring The Ashbrooke pub in line with restrictions in place to limit the spread of Covid-19.

But he’s still been able to keep in touch with his regulars by posting daily cooking videos on the Mamma Italia Facebook page so that people can try his recipes at home during lockdown.

The charismatic chef has been racking up thousands of views for his videos of penne mamma, tagliatelle Poyet (a dish he made for former SAFC manager Gus Poyet), pizza and rosemary focaccia.

He said: “We decided to do it for the community and to keep in touch with our customers and it’s ended up being very popular. The first video has had more than 3,000 views.”

It comes as the Sunderland Echo is running our #SupportLocal campaign aimed at promoting the amazing things our local businesses are doing at this difficult time.

Pascal hails from the Lake Maggiore area of Northern Italy but his cooking is also inspired by his parents who are from the South of the country.

Pascal, who named his restaurant after his mum, said: “Cooking in Italy changes with the regions but we’ve done a mix in the videos. Some are traditional dishes and some are ones that have been adapted for England.

“We’re also encouraging people to use up ingredients they already have or leftovers.”

Do you know of any of our local businesses which are going above and beyond to help support their communities as we are all facing restrictions due to the coronavirus outbreak.

If you do, then email the Sunderland Echo at [email protected] or send us a message on Facebook or Twitter. We want to hear from you.

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