Heartfelt tradition and the joy of sharing a table – Matteo Galletto reflects on the proud history behind Lucio’s Marina
Those familiar with Italian cuisine will no doubt recognise the Lucio name. After nearly four decades in business, owner Lucio Galletto closed his Sydney establishment in early 2021, auctioning off much of the artwork that lined the restaurant’s walls. But the legacy of Lucio’s didn’t end there. His son, Matteo Galletto, brought both the artwork and Northern Italian food knowledge up to shores of Noosa. We sat down with Matteo ahead of the Noosa Food and Wine Festival to discuss the history behind Lucio’s Marina.
The Lucio’s name has a long history in Australian hospitality – can you tell us a little about the history of the family business?
The family business began in Northern Italy in 1951, when my grandparents and their siblings opened a riverside seafood restaurant on the Ligurian coast. They built a little shack on the beach, fished from the river right out front and started looking after people through food. My father, Lucio, grew up working there before meeting my mother (an Aussie backpacking around Italy) and decided to move to Sydney to open Lucio’s in 1983. The restaurant introduced a more modern, sophisticated take on Italian dining and became Sydney’s longest-running continuously hatted restaurant before closing in 2021. Having grown up in the business and years spent visiting family in Italy, opening Lucio’s Marina in Noosa felt like a return to our roots – a waterside restaurant focused on seafood, hospitality and an attention to detail that made Lucio’s such a success in Sydney for so long.
Lucio’s Marina describes itself as a seafood trattoria rooted in Northern Italian traditions – how do you balance authentic Italian culture with the incredible local produce and seafood available in Noosa?
Authentic Italian food exists in the way it does mainly because of where it’s from. An abundance in local produce helps to create staple dishes – whether it’s game, fish, vegetables or even truffles – these iconic plates are celebrated differently in each region. When you’re on the other side of the world and can source almost anything from anywhere at any time there’s a more deliberate and mindful approach on how Italian traditions are interpreted. We definitely focus on the less-is-more approach from the north-west of Italy where restraint and quality of the produce do much of the work. Inspiration over imitation should be the goal. You’ll find Italian restaurants in London and New York flying in Branzino from the Mediterranean or restaurants in Singapore where every ingredient is flown in from Italy. That’s not interesting for me, I want our focus to centre around the best Australian produce we can get our hands on here in Noosa and then figure out how we interpret that produce in an Italian way. There’s no coral trout or Moreton Bay Bugs in Italy but that doesn’t mean we can’t create amazing Italian dishes from them here.
Many of the artworks from the original Sydney venue now hang in Noosa. Which pieces hold the strongest memories for you?
It took me a while to realise how lucky I was to be surrounded by such incredible art from a young age. Once I started working in the restaurant, meeting these artists and witnessing the mutual admiration they shared with what we did was incredibly humbling. Most of the pieces hanging here in Noosa are deeply personal. There’s a lifelike portrait of a horse by Bryan Westwood that I was fascinated by as a child, a small watercolour depicting the river beside our family restaurant in Italy, and a printer’s proof of a poster by Martin Sharp featuring Vincent van Gogh in Japan – one of my favourite works of his. Beautiful watercolours by Luke Sciberras line the restaurant entrance, while a landscape of Australian wildflowers by Salvatore Zofrea is especially meaningful, having watched it come to life in his studio before it hung on the walls in Sydney. The centrepiece is a portrait of Lucio by John Beard, which captures him perfectly.
Noosa Food & Wine Festival is known for bringing together some of the country’s most respected chefs and restaurateurs – what does being part of the festival represent for Lucio’s Marina?
We strive to be a great restaurant on a national level and Noosa is a very special place to be able to do just that. The Noosa Food and Wine Festival is our annual push to improve, stay contemporary with what’s happening in metropolitan areas while helping to cement Noosa as a true food destination.
During the festival Lucio’s Marina will be hosting the Ligurian Seafood Sagra which is built around the Italian tradition of bringing people together over long tables, seafood and conversation. What does recreating that style of communal celebration in Noosa mean to you personally and what dishes are you most excited for guests to experience?
The ‘sagra’ way of eating is common all over Italy. Whether it’s restaurant workers enjoying a staff meal together after work or hundreds of people dining at long tables as the Palio di Siena happens around them. Dining can feel too formal sometimes and with this event we wanted to curate a casual atmosphere. Working with our head chef Tommaso we’re putting together a meal of some typical Ligurian favourites alongside great Australian produce. As an arrival snack we’re taking the classic Ligurian Farinata (a fermented chickpea and rosemary bread concoction) and turning it into a fried canape with a carpione gel (a typical marinated fish dish from outside Milan) and Culata (a premium round prosciutto from Parma). Guests will also enjoy a recco-style focaccia with antipasti of Vitello Tonnato, a Ligurian Inzimino which will showcase local calamari and Testaroli pasta dating back to pre-Roman Etruscan civilization. To finish, we’re serving local fish with a sauce that brings together the sea and mountains of Liguria.
This event marks the first time you and your father are hosting together since opening in Noosa – how significant is that moment and for the future of the restaurant?
Subscribe for updatesIt’s a privilege to continue the legacy that Lucio built for almost 40 years up here in Noosa. Our goal everyday is to do that legacy justice and being able to present that to people with a person that inspires everything we do is amazing.
When guests walk into Lucio’s Marina today, what feeling or experience do you hope reminds them of the original Lucio’s legacy?
Lucio’s was around for so long that people have strong memories of very different eras of the restaurant. Continuing that legacy was never about creating a replica of what once existed, but rather recreating a feeling of genuine warmth where guests can enjoy food that is innovative and uncompromising. While we don’t explicitly say that’s what we’re aiming for, many people tell me that even though the restaurant is very different from the one in Sydney, they can still feel that shared lineage. For me, that’s the best compliment we could receive.
Noosa Food and Wine Festival returns from Thursday June 11 to Sunday June 14. Tickets are available here.
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