Interview with Food-Fanatic Filmmaker Roberto Serrini about latest doc Disco Sauce

In Roberto Serrini’s latest documentary, “Disco Sauce: The True Story of Penne Alla Vodka”, the food-fanatic filmmaker takes a deep dive into this controversial Italian-American classic, pushing the boundaries of culinary tradition to the point of almost landing himself in jail for the dish. With what seems like an innocuous comfort-classic, Serrini paints an irreverent, exciting, and sometimes dangerous, account of trying to recreate the perfect version of the dish. It’s culinary cinema like we’ve never seen before, and had lots of questions for the filmmaker to set the story straight.

Q: I mean, I’ve never heard of anyone going to jail for pasta. Was this a real threat? What did you do?

A: Very real, and frankly I would risk it again, it was that good.  Like most Italian recipes there are only a handful of ingredients that make up this dish; tomatoes, chili, vodka and cream. I was only interested in using the absolute best and original ingredients, and when it came to cream, it had to be raw straight from the farm. Unfortunately raw dairy is very illegal to sell in NYC, but we found a way.

Q: If it’s that illegal how did you buy it?

A: Well I had to go on the dark web, which is what I call Facebook Groups. They have a Raw Milk group there, and posing as a mother looking for raw milk for my newborn, a nice fellow told me about an under-the-radar farmer’s market in the city, and gave me the name of a contact that I should drop his name to. I went in, made the connection, and bought raw cream basically in an alley in Brooklyn the next day like it was a drug deal in the 80’s. I’m pretty sure the whole experience made it taste that much better.

Q: Did it really make a difference? So many cooking shows and chefs are always saying the ingredients are the only thing that matter, but breaking the law seems a bit aggressive for a pasta dish.

A: Of course it matters! For a few reasons. One, yes, raw unpasteurized cream is amazing, it’s like a new level of complexity and deliciousness and if you’ve ever had cheese in Europe you’ll know what I mean. Second, part of beauty of food is how it brings the world together. All the amazing people you can meet through food if you put the effort in. That’s why I go to specialty shops and chat up chefs about their favorite recipes, not solely for better ingredients, but so I get to meet all these amazing people. 

Q: You do get to meet some amazing people in your latest film, from celebrity chefs to amazing spice ladies. Did you ever feel like the subject of your film, Penne Alla Vodka, wasn’t a worthy subject for all these professionals.

A: Ha. Of course it wasn’t. I mean that was the point. I was racking my brain on what my next food film was going to be with all these complex and rare recipes, and I literally looked down and saw Penne Alla Vodka and asked myself “what even is this?”. I think we take lots of food for granted, pizza, curries, fried chicken, but they all have these deep and epic origin stories to them if you care to look. It proves the point that it doesn’t need to be fancy, or you need to be a celebrity, to go have a food adventure. You can do it with something as stupid as Penne Alla Vodka. 

Q: Disco Sauce is definitely an adventure, I would even go as far to say an absurd one. Is there a reason you made it so over the top?

A: I love food, and cooking shows, and travel shows, but I think what is missing from most of them is the feeling I get when I’m around amazing food, or cooking, or with people who are really passionate about food. Don’t get me wrong, I love Stanly Tucci and him trying to find Italy, but there is no real drama there for me. Stanley Tucci will be Stanley Tucci if he finds Italy or not. For me it’s life or death out there. It's real drama because I’m putting what I love on the line. I get excited about discovering dishes, and ingredients and learning all these amazing stories from meeting these other passionate people that I want to show that on camera. I want to show an audience what food feels like to me since you can’t eat the screen. 

Q: After such insanity with Disco Sauce what are your plans to top it?

A: You name it. Every dish is an adventure, because it’s not what’s on the plate in front of you, it’s about all the ingredients that go into the dish that make it magical. And obviously that’s a metaphor for the people that make the dish possible. The shopkeepers and artisans, the next-gen chefs that are bringing unique flavors to their communities. Every dish has an amazing adventure behind it, even stupid ol’ Penne Alla Vodka. 

“Disco Sauce: The True Story of Penne Alla Vodka” is currently in its film festival run and has won some initial prestigious awards, including Best Documentary at the Wildsounds Film Festival, a Platinum MarCom, a Platinum Viddy, and the Bob Saget awards for Best Comedy at the Taste Awards this year. More about the film and a rather insane trailer giving you a taste of what it’s all about is available at www.italyinbocca.com/discosauce