Island Life Magazine Ltd October/November 2009 | Page 98

life

FOOD & DRINK

Chiaro, a slice of Italy
AN Italian restaurant, which

were made in Napoli. “We

uses the best ingredients and

took three months to develop

yet is affordable enough to

our pizza dough, which is

eat in two or three times a

topped with our own tomato

week. That was the task Tim

ragu. But we only charge

Blackshaw set himself when

£6.50 for a Margherita.”

he was offered the chance to
transform the dining room

to keep away. “Summer

of the Hotel Picardie into a

visitors were turning up night

non-resident restaurant.

after night,” Tim says, which

“We wanted to make it

indicates how varied the menu

family-friendly but modern,

is, and the specials board

and the ingredients to be as

reflects the restaurant’s ability

local as possible – to cut down

to showcase what comes its

on air miles – and pasta to be

way. “A guy turned up last

the finest. There’s no point in

week with a couple of wild

putting a fantastic bolognaise

sea bass caught in Bonchurch

sauce on cheap commercial

– so we put them on that

pasta,” says Tim.

night.”

Chiaro is a gleaming modern
space of walnut and chrome:
you won’t find any raffia

All in all, Chiaro is a little
piece of Italy in Ventnor.
Chiaro at The Picardie, The

covered Chianti bottles

Esplanade, Ventnor, PO38 1JX.

hanging round these walls.

Tel: [phone]

Pizzas are
thin-crusted,
not doughy
or stodgy,
and
somehow
manage to
taste just
like they
98

Once discovered, it’s difficult