I’d only spent a few seconds in Sergio and Pasquale Cinotti’s warm Italian eatery in Newport when I felt transported to their hometown of Caserta, nestled between Rome and Naples. It is unmistakably Italian - a picture of sophistication, a low-lit cosy space with elegant furniture, gallons of wine, and an art-covered ceiling in the style of the Sistine Chapel.
That was until Pasquale showed me their dishes. They are fun, really fun - they’ve just seen the restaurant crowned the best in Wales at the AA Hospitality Awards - and they are like nothing I’ve ever seen before. “Is this authentically Italian?” I ask head chef of Gem 42 Sergio in amazement as Pasquale clinks the edible sherry sphere with a hammer around a mascarpone, chocolate and fermented pear. The dessert arrives at the table with the little hammer. It’s a sort of game - an experience of unbeatable indulgence for all the senses.
“No, it isn’t,” Sergio responds proudly. “A lot of the dishes are around the idea of molecular gastronomy. I saw it for the first time when I travelled to El Bulli restaurant in the south of Spain while completing my course at a food academy in Teano. The restaurant now has three Michelin stars.
“It involves a lot of studying, science, techniques. We work with a university in northern Italy for guidance with our experiments, because they have to be spot on. It’s not just about putting a pan on a stove. It has to be exactly the right temperature, the produce has to match perfectly.
“It’s creativity. If you’re a creative person you move in different directions. We have lovely pear trees in the garden and I just thought, why not?”
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In 2018 they re-opened the stunning restaurant - which was originally the first ever Gemelli in Wales - as Gem 42. With Gemelli, a popular dessert manufacturer in Newport, Cardiff and Monmouthshire, the twins, now 51, were on the cusp of building a hugely successful business empire. But they sold the buildings in Cardiff and Usk, and decided to rediscover their passion, a word which is repeated again and again when Sergio describes his food.
“We started very small, but it exploded almost from the first day,” Pasquale remembered of their first Gemelli restaurant 20 years ago. “By the end of the first year we had 12 people working with us, and we were supplying lots of hotels and restaurants.
“But, how can I say? It started to get bigger and run and run, almost more about the quantity of the product. We never wanted our food to become about production. A few years ago we decided to cut back a little, try to get back to our roots, what we believe in, what we’re passionate about - great quality food that takes you on a journey.”
Why did the brothers, now known across Europe for their creations, decide that Newport was the place for such an extravagant setting? “We are asked that so often,” Pasquale laughed. “Newport has given so much to us."
"We came over to improve our English at college in Newport when we were in food college in Teano,” Sergio interjected. “I met my wife here, I fell in love with Newport. We went to university in Caerleon.”
“Staying here, staying loyal to Newport, it’s a way for us to give back to people who have been so kind to us over the years,” Pasquale said. “Of course, Newport has its challenges, but we are proud we’ve managed to achieve something beautiful here. There is a lot happening in Newport now. There is the new market, lots of new restaurants, bakeries. Things are getting better, and it’s up to us to try to keep that going.”
Their signature menu is made up of ten courses, some of them utterly bizarre - but always delicious and clearly made with the most detailed care. There isn’t a menu as such, much of the produce is picked by Sergio and his team on the day. They are so passionate about supporting their local producers that their website tells visitors exactly how far they’ve travelled for their ingredients - and it’s seldom outside of Gwent.
Their “brigade” of chefs-cum-scientists work in what they refer to as their “lab” rather than kitchen, constantly developing new concoctions to wow diners. Why go to this much effort to make a dessert that will be devoured in minutes?
“You are a journalist,” Sergio responds, “you read an article at the weekend and you might really admire that article and think it’s the most amazing story you’ve read in a long time. You might think to yourself: ‘I want to write an article just like that.’ That’s because you have a passion for your profession, you want to do your best.
“I am the same. I do food, I have a passion for food. Even if I’m going to make a pound, not a million, I will do what I like to do with the food. I want to serve the freshest lobster, the best local produce, I want to go to the farm and grow my own fruit and veg, and make the most interesting meal. Why? Because of passion, not awards.
“I’m not going to do a burger or a sandwich, not because I don’t like that, but I want to do the best I can do. It’s not about showing off to anybody. It’s about finishing a hard day at work and thinking I’ve done my best, and I’ve enjoyed it - that’s the most important thing. I tell my children it’s so important to follow your passion. Do something you enjoy, not for the money. When you are young you think about making money, but it’s not the most important thing.”
Their motto is “tradition with innovation”. Next they bring out a toothbrush and toothpaste on a white board which looks staggeringly realistic. In fact the toothpaste is packed with Chantilly cream and the toothbrush consists of three types of Madagascan chocolate. I can’t help but laugh.
“The tube is completely sealed and pasteurised,” Sergio tells me, leant forward over the table with excitement as though he hasn’t seen this brilliantly fun dessert hundreds of times before. “We have to study and study, how can we make it edible, and not just that, but make it delicious?”
Their current favourite is a lemon dessert which is oxidised so slowly, and for so long, that it turns black. The inside of the lemon then rises to the outer layers and the flavour is trapped in the skin. “Within the first bite you have that rich flavour which hits you,” Pasquale says. “It is sweet, not bitter. Then we fill the outside shell with Buffalo curd and chocolate curls. We use the juice of the lemon for the edible sphere which surrounds the dessert, frozen with liquid nitrogen and granita to give a lovely freshness. A perfect dessert for digestion.
“It’s a dessert for all the senses. That’s what good food is about - it takes you on a journey. Even when you’re eating pasta, there should be an amazing feeling of that pasta in your mouth, it should be unique, visual, enjoyable.”
The restaurant is now home to a small team of seven - Sergio and Pasquale with their team of five chefs - each one as passionate as the next, Sergio says. “When they apply for a job here, I first ask if they went to a food college, then I ask how many years they’ve been cooking, what they like, what their family likes, what their friends like, their favourite food.”
Why does it matter what their friend likes to eat? “It shows they are passionate, that they take an interest, and that they love food. If they are next to me in the lab they must have that.”
No-one would blame the brothers if the recipes which have taken them to the top of Wales’ culinary ranks were held closely to their chests. Yet they have plans to soon start lessons to share their most wacky ideas.
“We have had a great time, and we want to teach the next generation,” Sergio said. “I love teaching. We did a little bit before Covid but we had to stop it, and we are now hoping to do it again soon. It will be somewhere in Newport. New ways of making pasta, new ways to make ice cream, all new techniques and ideas.”
As bills skyrocket, their biggest challenge now is persuading customers to keep eating out. Their signature menu is £180 for 10 courses, and the impact of the war in Ukraine on people’s pockets is not lost on them.
“We are trying to keep prices as low as we can,” Sergio said. “We have also introduced a smaller signature menu at a cheaper price. It is hard at the moment, the price of oil has gone up a lot, all produce has gone up, bills as well. It is one challenge after another. We have families too, we know what it is like at the moment. But it is the same for so many, we know, we don’t want to complain too much.”
Both brothers have children at university in the UK, while most of their family remains in and around Caserta, including two brothers and one sister. Their parents, in their eighties, have recently returned home having spent the summer in Newport. “The summer months are so hot at home,” Sergio said. “So they came here. Mum cooked pasta for all the brigade. Spaghetti alla chitarra - a classic recipe. Sometimes it’s nice to appreciate the classic dishes and strip everything back.”
The pair said they’d been “honoured and humbled” by their latest award, won after an anonymous inspector visited earlier in the year. “I don’t want to say we’ve stopped counting [awards], but our main thing is not to focus on awards and to enjoy our journey," Pasquale said. "This isn’t a point of arrival, it’s a starting point for us. It’s exciting, but we hope to move on and do much more.”
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