Nicholas Diacono / Facebook
Brothers Nicholas and Tommy Diacono have always been advocates of good old-fashioned homemade food. Starting off as the restaurateurs behind American-style fast food giant New York Best, their ethos was always to use fresh ingredients to set their brand apart from the rest.
Fast forward to their second baby, Fat Louie’s, a smokehouse and bistrot, the brothers took their love of quality meat cuts and barbecue flavours to the next dimension. Well known for its “nose to tail” approach - with fixed items on the menu including bone marrow served with toast, and a raved-about foie gras burger - the duo, along with their in-house Head Chef Luke Sciberras and Sous Chef Leli Bonnici also heavily focus on their ever-changing bistrot specials.
This spring, the team have come up with a sprinkling of zero-food-mile dishes. That’s to say that the star ingredients used are sourced in Malta and very often hand-picked by the owners themselves, sourced from niche organic farms, or even from roping in a few fishermen friends!
We caught up with Nicholas for the lowdown on his three chosen dishes, and the wholesome stories behind them. Here’s what he had to say.
1. Wild Asparagus with indigenous egg & bottarga tal-kubrita
Leli Bonnici / Fat Louie's
"The wild asparagus is picked by myself every morning. The egg comes from our friend in Zebbug, who breeds the indigenous Maltese black chicken. The kubrita (little tunny) was caught last year by our friend Justin Meli, a great sports fisherman. Chef Luke Sciberras cured and dried the bottarga beautifully and put the dish together nicely."
2. Wild malva & smoked ricotta risotto
Fat Louie's / Facebook
"We were trying to come up with exciting vegetarian dishes to add to our menu and we came up with this. A friend of ours from Israel had pointed out the plant - the common mallow - whilst on holiday here and we decided to try it out. After tasting the plant, Chef Luke Sciberras came up with this dish."
3. Snails, fava beans & bacon
Fat Louie's / Facebook
"This dish was more or less a no-brainer, and the ingredients paired up perfectly with one another. Butter, local snails, a touch of chicken stock, bacon and ful (broad beans) is magic"
Thank You Nicholas! We can't wait to try these modern Maltese specials!