The proprietor and head chef of R-Toscanis, Ricardo Al-Rikabi,

spent eight years working as a chef for Beatrix, Queen of the

Netherlands, serving some of the same dishes that now grace the

menu of his 120-seat restaurant on Enfield, which he opened at

the end of 2024.

The Netherlands was where Ricardo was raised by his Dutch

mother and Iraqi father, and the family also spent time living in

Kuwait. His parents were sadly killed by the regime in Iraq when

Ricardo was just 22. Ricardo, who has been working in professional

kitchens since the age of 18, was encouraged by his talented young

daughter Wafia to move his family to an English-speaking country

so she’d have a better chance of pursuing a career in music. The

family moved to Australia, where Ricardo worked as a chef in

Adelaide, Canberra and Brisbane. In Brisbane, he was head chef

and then co-owner of a restaurant called Toscanis, which went

on to grow into a successful chain throughout Queensland.

Wafia got her start in performing in public playing guitar and

singing to customers in Toscanis. Ricardo carries on the legacy

in Aotearoa, where the name of his restaurant, R-Toscanis, pays

homage to “the restaurant that holds a special place in my heart”.

The ‘R’ of course stands for Ricardo.

Ricardo continues to stick to his guns, serving the Mediterranean

fare he has always cooked, with influences spanning Italian, Greek

and occasionally Middle Eastern cuisine. For example, his slow-

cooked lamb is marinated in his signature blend of yoghurt, garlic

and fresh herbs, and his baklava is made fresh for the dessert

menu. The lamb, his pizzas and many other dishes bear the

distinctive flavour of wood-fired cooking thanks to the traditional

brick oven in the kitchen, which Ricardio built himself. He feeds this

all day and into the night from the pile of wood stacked below, never

wasting its heat, whether superhot for his hand-stretched pizzas, or

low and steady for the lamb and other tender morsels.