How The Italian Bowl's Chefs Brought a Virtual Pasta Dish from Video Game to Reality

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You don't have to look too hard to glimpse the ways in which our obsession with food transcends reality on a regular basis. The culinary world is forever influencing gaming culture; whether it's a virtual dish depicted on screen, an iconic scene centered around cooking or eating, or an entire storyline inspired by food, glorious food. And this month, you'll get to experience all that from a fresh perspective for PlayStation to Plate — an innovative new dining concept that invites top local chefs to bring to life virtual food from the PlayStation universe.

Running from Friday, December 3–Sunday, December 12, it'll see three Aussie eateries each create a limited-edition menu item that reimagines an iconic video game dish IRL. The restaurants are serving up their signature creations across all ten days of the pop-up, but you can also have any of the dishes dropped to your door courtesy of Deliveroo.

The Italian Bowl's Thief Pasta

In Sydney's Newtown, pasta restaurant The Italian Bowl took on the task of recreating the Thief's Pasta, from critically acclaimed action-adventure title Uncharted 4: A Thief's End. Owner Alexi Spyridis explains that it was both the treasure-hunting aspect of the game and the virtual dish's heritage that inspired his selection. "[Nathan] Drake (the main character) is searching for treasure and that's what we do in the kitchen: search for those perfect dishes," Spyridis tells Concrete Playground.

The Thief's Pasta features near the start of the game when characters Elena and Nathan enjoy a home-cooked feed while sitting on the couch together at the end of a long day. Spyridis has imagined the virtual dinner as a hearty bowl of penne pasta crafted with Italian sausage, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, olives and bocconcini, saying: "These flavours are common in Italian cooking so it was a pleasure to help bring this to life." There's also a strong appreciation for the way in which we all bond over the sharing of food.

The immersive game-to-reality experience doesn't end there. "We want to bring them into Nate and Elena's world," Spyridis explains. "With every order, customers get a limited-edition Thief's Pasta porcelain bowl wrapped in an old map, a personal note from Elena on the back of a previous travel image, and torn-out diary notes, including sketches and the pasta recipe." Certainly not your standard spag bol, right?

The restaurateur sees a raft of similarities between gaming culture and food culture in general, but especially with Uncharted, musing: "Drake travels all over the world for treasure and that's how Aussies feel about food." Of course, with Spyridis' own restaurant sitting in the multicultural culinary melting pot of Newtown, he sees this thirst for adventure and new flavours first-hand. "We've not been able to travel much over the past two years, so finding other ways to experience travel, either through food or gaming, has helped us get by".

Ask Spyridis and he'll tell you that Uncharted also has some parallels to operating a family-run eatery like The Italian Bowl. "In this game, you have to work together as friends and that's exactly how we run the business, one big family working together. It's not always easy but you always find a way," he muses. "Just like Drake!"

Catch PlayStation to Plate from December 3–12, in Sydney and Melbourne. You'll find each dish featured on the menu at its respective venue, as well as being available for takeaway via Deliveroo.