The words “Italian food” don’t exactly scream “gap in the market” – but that’s exactly what Alessandro Savelli, co-founder of Pasta Evangelists, saw in 2016 when he started serving gnocchi to his friends.
“There are many pizza brands, [it’s] a very competitive space… But there wasn’t someone who could say they’re the authority in Italian food in takeaway dining,” Savelli says.
After a rocky start – Dragon’s Den investor Jenny Campbell called the idea “pasta le disaster” in 2018 – Pasta Evangelists’ takeaway offering boomed during the pandemic and was bought by Italian food company Barilla for £40m in 2021. It reported a turnover last year of the same amount.
Now the UK’s leading pasta takeaway service and operator of the nation’s biggest pasta factory, the terracotta-coloured brand is betting big on hospitality and expanding into brick-and-mortar restaurants.
It has opened five pasta restaurants in four months – in Richmond, Greenwich, Chiswick, Guildford and Manchester airport – and has plans to open many more across the UK.
“This is a phenomenal achievement,” Savelli says. “It’s happening really quickly… the vision is to have hundreds of these all over the world.”
Decked out with soft furnishings, old Italian photos and a classic soundtrack, Savelli describes the “beautiful” restaurants as aiming to feel like a “warm summer evening in Tuscany… You can see yourself having an aperitif in the Tuscan countryside with terracotta tiles and having a plate of pasta.”
One of Pasta Evangelists’ restaurants, in Greenwich
Proving the dragons wrong
Savelli started his career as an investment banker – firstly at ABN AMRO and then UBS – but left in 2006. He started a luxury smartphone and accessories business, Savelli Geneve, four years later.
Although he had limited experience in hospitality, he knew he wanted to create a brand to “elevate” Italian cuisine. His second business initially came about in October 2016 when he began to sell gnocchi – his grandmother’s recipe – to friends, but he quickly decided he wanted to expand.
Along with his co-founder Finn Lagun, Savelli appeared on Dragons Den in 2018 and asked for £75,000 from the Dragons for a 2.5 per cent cut of their business, but the duo were resoundingly rejected.
Two years later, lockdowns provided a huge opportunity for the company: In the spring of 2020, Paste Evangelists saw demand quadruple.
“We were having record days, record weeks, a record month, and a record quarter,” Savelli told Food Navigator at the end of March 2020.
It opened its first dedicated takeaway kitchen the same month, in Clapham. Now, it has over 40, one of which is in Harrods department store.
Since then, the brand has only continued to expand, with its £40m takeover by Barilla a major turning point for the business (ironically, dragon Peter Jones had joked about the impossible chances of Pasta Evangelists getting bought for £20m only three years prior to the deal).
A passion for pasta
The main secret to Pasta Evangelists’ success, Savelli says, is love of the food and of Italy.
“It’s not just a business idea… it really has come from the heart,” he says. “Italy is a country with many faults and that’s why I left 26 years ago. But equally, it’s the most beautiful country in the world with the most amazing food in the world… [It] evokes passion.
“Make food that you would give to your children. If you give it to your child… it really means it’s something which you’re very proud of.”
The company makes their pasta fresh and finishes some shapes like tortelloni by hand
The second secret, he says, is attention to detail, and an ability to get “under the skin” of the business. Savelli, who grew up in Italy, still cooks pasta most days, and his fridge is “always full” with new samples.
“I’m a maniac for detail… I personally spend a huge amount of time in all our units – where we make the pasta, where we make the sauces, and at our restaurants,” he says.
He has spent time considering everything from the size of the beef chunks to the timing of when the tomatoes are put in the ragu (so that you can still see the tomatoes when you eat them).
“You have to be trusting… But at the same time, you’ve got to check things, you’ve got to see them yourself and you have to have a view on all aspects of the business,” he says.
Pasta Evangelists goes global
Savelli says Pasta Evangelists’ expansion into brick-and-mortar is only the start of a big shift for the company as it moves from a takeaway service to an in-person one.
“Our physical stores are becoming our number one channel to express the brands,” Savelli says, adding that the opportunity is “a global one” for Pasta Evangelists.
“We’ve got many international players interested from the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Greater China, from the US, Ireland, Greece… We need to be ambitious [because] there are many amazing opportunities out there,” he says.
“The vision is to have hundreds of these all over the world. Italian food is a product which can be transported anywhere.”