'Five star' street food served in most unlikely place in Exeter

Even in freezing cold temperatures, surrounded by a blanket of snow, popular food van Fresh Pasta has remained open this week to warm the bellies of those who have come to love its freshly cooked authentic Italian street food. For the past year, experienced chef and former restaurant owner Claudiu Turdeanu has chosen the unlikely location of Wonford in Exeter to serve up what can only be described as five star cuisine that could easily be found in any award-winning establishment.

Now affectionately known as the 'pasta man', Claudiu has worked as a chef for three decades but due to health reasons that left him unable to walk for a period of time, he had to leave the restaurant sector. But what he couldn't give up was cooking.

After getting back on his feet, he decided to invest in a food van and after being unable to find a suitable location for it in Exeter city centre, he decided the perfect home for it was by the side of the road next to Choy's Fish and Chips in Wonford Street.

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Claudiu recalled: "I couldn't leave the kitchen for good so I created this kitchen I now serve from. Why did I choose pasta? I love it! The second reason is there was a gap in the market for good pasta in Exeter. I saw the van as a way of bringing something healthy and even fancy like you would get in a restaurant out onto the street.

"I love street food as everything is fresh. Everything I create is made from scratch, just like when I was a head chef. I buy the ingredients fresh from local suppliers.

"The pasta is all handmade, apart from the macaroni which is from Italy, as is the parmesan. It is not a big menu but the variety we can do with a few pastas is so big."

One of the best-sellers is its cheese wheel alfredo - cooked pasta tossed into a hollowed-out cheese wheel - which can be topped with chicken if requested, and is also available with a vegetarian hard cheese alternative.

Also very popular is the spicy crab and n'duja tagliatelle which is created from Claudiu's own unique recipe. He describes it as a fusion between Italy and England and it is made using mixed crab sourced from Brixham and nduja spices from Italy.

He said: "It contains so many spices and herbs which work very well together, but it is not extremely spicy. It's a little bit creamy and that kills a bit of the sharpness from the spices and makes it very pleasant for the palate.

"I don't have a favourite dish I make but I like that one a lot."

The menu - which caters for all dietary requirements - also includes burgers and breakfast baps which has been introduced due to demand for them, but Claudiu says he only uses local meat and serves grilled chicken thighs which are more flavoursome. A new addition to its specials menu is a festive turkey burger.

The friendly welcome you receive at the food van isn't just from Claudiu. Much of the time he is joined by his 23-year-old son Dragos who is a student at the University of Exeter. He calls him his 'right hand man'.

Dragos said: "I have been eating pasta since I was a toddler. It is still amazing and I eat it at least once a day.

"When we launched the food van, people were really happy to be able to buy food that was healthy and wasn't fish and chips."

Many customers are locals, as well as staff working at the nearby Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital who appreciate being fuelled by healthy, filling food. Customers also come from far and wide because of the reputation of the food.

On Google it has a five star rating with one person raving 'I have no words to explain how delicious it was', and another adding 'it was phenomenal'.

Claudiu was born in Transylvania, Romania, but developed a love of Italian food after living in Italy for 16 years. The 50-year-old opened his own restaurant there but then chose to relocate to Devon with his family nine years ago for his son's university education.

He lives in Wonford and has previously worked as head chef at Woodbury Park Hotel, Mill on the Exe, and The Ley Arms in Kenn.

Enjoying his new career path, Claudiu said: "I love it, especially as I can have more time with my family. Before I worked very long, unsociable hours and never had Christmas or New Years Eve off. Now I can spend it with my family.

"My aim was always to bring a smile to the faces of my customers and when you hear people go 'ummm' when they are eating that's the best thing ever. Happiness comes from food."

To test that out, I sampled some dishes from the menu that were swiftly and expertly made freshly before my very eyes. The first one I tucked into was the cheese wheel alfredo with tagliatelle , priced £10. Parmesan was scraped from the huge cheese wheel and then when the pasta dish was made it was poured into the cheese wheel and tossed around to make it even more cheesy.

The pasta was incredibly fresh, perfectly cooked and almost melted in my mouth. Being a big cheese lover, the more cheese the better and there was plenty in it to create a deliciously creamy sauce that was not overpowering or rich, complimented by the fresh parsley and just the right amount of sauce. I could instantly tell why it is one of the bestsellers.

I wasn't expecting the spicy crab and n'duja tagliatelle, priced £14, to beat it but it did. It has been a long time since I have eaten crab and I had forgotten how good it tastes, perhaps because it was made with such fresh ingredients. The spice was enough to give it a good kick, without taking away the delicate taste of the crab and there was more than enough to generously coat the pasta.

The bolognese with gnocchi, priced £10, was easily the best bolognese I have tasted, possibly as it is slow cooked for hours by Claudiu to give it such an incredible flavour. It was not acidic at all, and the quality of the Italian tomatoes with a generous helping of garlic shone through. The gnocchi was impressively not stodgy but very filling.

But for me, the unexpected star of the show was the pumpkin gnocchi with a butter, sage and parmesan sauce, priced £12. I have never devoured such tasty gnocchi created from the pumpkin and the sauce made a welcomed difference from the usual pasta sauces. It was not sickly in the slightest and was enhanced by the sage and plentiful helpings of parmesan.

The dish was scattered with pumpkin seeds which gave the texture a pleasant crunch. In truth, I wasn't expecting to like it but it was the one dish that I just couldn't stop tucking in to.

As pre-warned by Claudia, I did indeed leave with a big smile on my face created by the amazing taste sensations I had experienced. The portions were generous and considering the high-quality of the food, it is more the good value for the money.

On my walk back home, by sheer coincidence or fate, I bumped into my lovely Italian friend. After telling him where I had been, he said he had visited the food van himself a couple of times.

When I asked him how authentic it was and how he rated it, he replied it was 'very good'. Compared to my humble English palete, I don't think you get higher praise than that.

Fresh Pasta can be found in Wonford five days a week from Tuesday to Saturday. It is open from 11.30am to 7.30pm. The food van can be booked for different events. In the summer it travels to festivals such as Bear Grylls's Gone Wild Festival at Powderham Castle, and it has regular slots at The Coaver Club in Exeter and The Five Bells in Clyst Hydon.