In 2016, the Venezuelan David Rivillo (45 years old) bought his first machine to make pasta at home and never bought it again in the supermarket. He now makes the most beautiful ravioli and spaghetti in the world thanks to his ingenuity and science. Since he was a child he adored this food that the Italians are masters of, but he has gone a step further and elevated it to the category of edible art.
He explains that it took him three years to perfectly master the technique for making fresh pasta. The next step, much more difficult, was to give it color. Vibrant stripes, moiré effects and patterns more reminiscent of Paul Smith’s textiles or colorful stained glass windows illustrate his edible creations, which look just as beautiful once cooked.
“One day I discovered a spice shop in Porto Alegre and I thought about making colorful ravioli with totally natural products, but I wanted to go beyond the typical spinach or squid ink pasta. I tried beetroot to make a ravioli shaped like a heart for Valentine’s Day, but when it was cooked it lost its color…”, explains Rivillo from Porto Alegre (Brazil), where he lives, to Lifestyle Magazine.
He did not despair. In 2019, she was already able to pay tribute to his favorite artist, Carlos Cruz-Díez, a Venezuelan known for his kinetic art who died that year at the age of 95. So he transformed Chromointerference of additive color (1978) into paste, one of Cruz-Díez’s most admired and recognized interventions, created for the terminal area of ??the Simón Bolívar International Airport.
But he was still not satisfied with the color fixation, so this doctor in chemistry from the ICIQ in Tarragona and with postdocs in the Netherlands and Germany became obsessed with finding natural dyes (such as spirulina, paprika, cocoa powder or paprika) that maintain their tone even when dried or cooked.
He lacked time to combine his work at the University of Porto Alegre and delve into his new passion. Until the pandemic lockdown came and with it all the time in the world to experiment.
He discovered the formula (which, obviously, he does not reveal) to achieve the best balance between the consistency of the pasta, the permanence of the color provided by the spices and vegetables and the design, “the combination of light and dark colors helps a lot to the perception vision,” he explains. He discovered that by delving into the theory of colors, which he did not know either.
His idea was never to sell pasta, it was a hobby, he just wanted to reproduce what he saw photographed on Instagram but for his pasta to look as beautiful cooked as it was fresh. Once achieved, he started posting his ravioli, spaghetti, rigatoni or tortellini on Instagram. “It got to a point that a follower told me that he would pay me whatever I asked for, but that he wanted to buy my pasta, because it is unique.”
So he had to learn how to dry it to be able to send it all over the world (he only sells it fresh in Porto Alegre). She was able to say goodbye to the university and now dedicates one hundred percent of her time to this adventure.
A kilo of the pasta that David Rivillo makes costs between 300 and 400 dollars (between 285 and 380 euros), and the boxes of 60 grams, about 36 dollars (34 euros), are high prices, but in keeping with the exclusivity, craftsmanship and the care he puts in choosing the ingredients.
As with luxury chocolates, the closest thing to what Rivillo does, this master of colored paste can also customize his designs to suit the customer. He has already worked for car brands, art galleries and even makes allegorical designs for weddings, such as the purple paste for a bride that he names after that flower.
The only problem with these technicolor carbs? “People take a long time to decide to cook it, because they see it as too pretty.” The same thing happened to him, “but if I didn’t eat it, I couldn’t keep producing.” So he recommends eating it within eight months and cooking it “like normal pasta.” On his Instagram he gives ideas so that it is not masked by the sauces and looks like a work of art on the plate.