Google tells me that, actually, the original expression was about skinny chefs, the suggestion being that a thin chef clearly doesn’t enjoy sampling his or her, purportedly delicious creations.
It was Gordon Ramsey who coined the fat chef alternative saying it was clearly fat chefs who couldn’t be trusted because their size suggested they eaten all the best bits.
My mind only turned to this conundrum because we have eaten in a restaurant run by the Fat Chef Company and I wondered is this meant to be a good thing or a bad thing. Should chefs be fat, or thin, to be trustworthy or to run a good restaurant?
The restaurant in question is La Trattoria in Helmsley, one of two (the other is in Malton) run by the aforesaid company.
More idle Googling revealed that the man behind the Fat Chef Company is called Francois Strydom, he is an experienced chef as well as owner and his picture suggests that he is neither fat nor thin. Can his Fat Chef company be trusted to turned out an excellent Italian meal?
Up to a point.
Firstly, the plus points, number one being the La Trattoria’s location next to the town hall in Helmsley’s much-visited market place, the favourite haunt of motorcycle enthusiasts on a weekend and other visitors who like the ambience of an upmarket, picture-postcard Cotswold town but don’t want to travel 200-plus miles to get there.
The honey-stoned building that houses La Trattoria featured a few tables outside overlooking the market place and some pretty splendid hanging baskets. Inside it is rather dark but no doubt atmospherically cosy after dark.
(Image: Malcolm Warne)
The staff are welcoming, young and there were plenty of them. Mr Strydom (whose online likeness is a faithful one – he is indeed neither fat nor thin) was behind the bar and directed us upstairs to what appeared to be the principal dining space offering good views over the market place. The bright yellow upholstery and walls lifted the gloom which was made darker by the bright sunshine outside.
The menu is novel (for an Italian restaurant in these parts) and varied although pizza and pasta very much lies at its heart.
(Image: Malcolm Warne)
I broke my Golden Rule by ordering pasta. I love it but the Golden Rule – never order pasta in a restaurant – arose from a realisation years ago that nine times out of ten I can always cooked better pasta at home. And that’s not boasting because cooking pasta correctly is not rocket science, or any form of science really, but the degree of firmness and the looseness of any sauce is very personal and subjective.
But what I can’t do easily at home is get hold of fresh clams which makes my all-time fave pasta dish – alle vongole – impossible to prepare. Never try using the clams that come in a jar, pickled. It doesn’t matter how much you rinse off the pickling vinegar, the sharpness lingers and it just doesn’t work.
So linguine alle vongole (£17) was a must and the trust I placed in the chef (who may be fat or thin) to approximate the joy I first experienced in a little back-street Italian restaurant off London’s Fulham Road almost 50 years was rewarded.
(Image: Malcolm Warne)
Bang-on al dente linguine, plenty of mostly fat and juicy clams in their shells, and a light white wine and garlic sauce with anchovy and capers for punch. It could only have been improved by perhaps a little more chilli.
The sourdough bread with good extra virgin oil and balsamic vinegar that we shared as a sort of starter was a bargain at £3, the giant olives at £4 perhaps less so.
The tomato and onion salad (£5) and the fat fries (included with the lasagne) were also fine.
Sylvia’s lasagne (£18) was all kinds of wrong, unfortunately. The portion was huge but that was the limit of its excellence. Too many layers of overcooked pasta, too much tomato sauce and very little ragu. I know this was originally a dish designed to make scarce and expensive ingredients like meat go a long way but we were not in impoverished southern Italy during the Middle Ages.
The top layer was also burnt. Not by much and but still unquestionably sizzled. Without any doubt, Sylvia could have made a much better version at home.
So the Golden Rule still holds.
The bill was £60, including a glass of prosecco and medium-sized glass of house white.
On paying, the terminal automatically offered the option of adding a gratuity of five, ten, 15 or 20 per cent. We were happy to add ten per cent.
La Trattoria
Market Place, Helmsley, YO62 5BL
Tel: 01439 771044 Web: fatchefcompany.co.uk
Open: seven days a week 9am-3pm (last food orders 2pm), 5pm-11.30pm (last food orders 8.45pm)
Ratings (out of ten): Food quality 7 Service 8 Surroundings 6 Value 8
Dining and Cooking