The 53-year-old is originally from the Sicilian capital of Palermo, and has lived in Australia for around 10 years.
People often come to Australia for love and D’Angelo moved to Melbourne out of love for her children, who were set on leaving Palermo and attending university in an English-speaking country.
“Out of a fear of losing them, I chose a country that suited everyone,” D’Angelo said on Tuesday, speaking on the radio program Sapori, Viaggio nel gusto broadcast on Rete Italia.
“A beautiful country, where you can have a good life and do business.”
In 2007, D’Angelo decided to sell her share in the restaurant in Palermo that she had been running for years with a partner.
It was shortly before the global financial crisis, which was particularly devastating in southern Italy.
She travelled to Australia for a holiday and two years later, she returned on a business visa.
“After a year of struggling to find a place to rent, we opened a restaurant called Maccaroni Trattoria in the city,” she said.
“The restaurant still exists but I sold my share to my business partner around four years ago.
“Meanwhile, I had already opened another place in Fitzroy North, called Osteria Italiana.”
In opening Osteria Italiana, D’Angelo had the intuition to fill a huge gap in the market.
“We serve Italian food but we have four menus: a contemporary menu, a vegan menu – where I replicate traditional recipes such as lasagne, fried squid, spaghetti carbonara and schnitzel – a gluten-free menu and a low FODMAP menu, for people who have irritable bowel syndrome, a widespread ailment that Monash University has done a lot of work on.”
During the pandemic, D’Angelo used one level of the spacious three-floor restaurant to make sauce and ready-made meals under the Osteria Italiana brand.
The meals were available in all four diets, identified by different colours: red for contemporary, green for vegan, yellow for gluten-free and blue for low FODMAP.
D’Angelo is also launching a new brand called VegItalian, which combines vegetarian and vegan food with Italian cuisine.
My attempts to convince D’Angelo to reveal the secrets of her cooking were in vain.
“The vegan carbonara? I can’t tell you,” she said.
“The recipe is top secret, but it is very similar to a real carbonara, in taste, consistency and presentation.
“The same goes for my vegan chocolate cheesecake, which no one would believe is vegan, or my vegan pappardelle with cream, mushrooms and truffle.
“When customers ask me how a dish is made, I always answer: ‘With love’.”
D’Angelo is not a vegetarian or vegan, but her desire to learn about different diets stems from her family, which she defines as very complex: her children Sergio and Ambra are both vegetarians, her sister and brother-in-law are pescatarians, another member of the family does not eat any type of dairy and another is allergic to shellfish.
In the past, inviting everyone to dinner was a real challenge.
“My children kept telling me that they missed lasagne, schnitzel and scallops, so I began to make vegetarian versions of different dishes,” D’Angelo explained.
“With a family like mine, I began to wonder how other people managed.
“I knew we couldn’t be the only ones and so I thought of creating a restaurant where these different types of diners could have their own menu.
“Often the families who come to my restaurant are made up of parents who eat everything, a child who is vegan and another who is gluten intolerant... I have many bookings like this.”
Despite the challenges that came with Melbourne’s lockdown, the coronavirus pandemic has sharpened the ingenuity of many chefs, including D’Angelo.
With the new VegItalian brand, she intends to meet the needs of a varied market of vegetarian and vegan consumers, with an online shop for individuals as well as a business-to-business service.
The ambitious chef has already signed a contract with a reception venue, to cater for vegan weddings and other community events.
