La Tavolata will offer Italian feasts in Trentham’s celebrated restaurant du Fermier while owner and chef Annie Smithers visits France. Local chef Carly Lauder and hospitality professional Ingrid Gaiotto will bring food, wine and story to the table. 

Chef Carly Lauder said they wanted to bring food back to its grassroots.

“Ingrid and I came together to talk about La Tavolata and our frustration all these Masterchef style systems where everyone has taken food way out of context to what it really is, which is basically a nourishing form of life,” she said. 

“We want to use the food as the gel to bring everyone back together rather than making food something that everyone has to score out of ten. We will be using produce from Annie’s garden and sustainable and ethically produced meat, so really telling a story of eating good food that is healthy and nourishing an sustainable.”

La Tavolata offers a shared dining experience where diners help themselves to food placed in the middle of the table. 

Italian migrant Ingrid Gaiotto said she will be displaying her own family photos on the tables of the restaurant to share her story. 

“Usually there is a menu on the table, what we wanted was to put a story about La Tavolata,” she said. “What Carly and I are hoping for is something other than excitement, we want it to be almost the underbelly of things. What we are interested in is the raw stuff, what it is that connects us; it’s story, it’s food, it’s gathering.”