Italian food is the most popular Western cuisine in Thailand, but who would have expected it to provide yet another claim to fame - a world record, no less?

Just recently in Kuala Lumpur, chef Marco Ragnacci achieved his personal best, producing 402 sauces in seven hours, 42 minutes and 10 seconds.

These sauces provided the makings for 1,000 plates, all of which were sold for charity.

This achievement was unofficial, however, as was his previous attempt in 2004, when he produced 382 different sauces in eight hours.

"But no one else can do that," he says proudly.

Pasta dishes, he says, aren't his business - "they're my life".

As he whipped up his favourite pasta dishes at Don Giovanni Italian in the Sofitel Central Plaza Bangkok recently, he explained that he has been working in his parents' restaurants since he was 12.

After he graduated from the Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne, he continued working in restaurants and hotels throughout Europe, until 1993, when he opened his own "pasta bar" in Rapperswil, a small town in Switzerland on the eastern side of Lake Geneva.

At Marco's, you have your choice of over 700 different sauces.

"It's easy," shrugs Ragnacci. "In Italian cooking, you have three basic sauces - plain, creamy and tomato - and you create from there."

The pasta-bar concept is certainly original. Marco's, says the chef, was the first pasta bar to open in Switzerland.

Shaped like a boat, the bar can accommodate around 30 people, all of whom watch as the chef prepares and advises on the sauce and accompaniments of the pasta dish.

Ragnacci, 43, is certainly internationally oriented. His wife Lidia is Spanish, and they married in Hawaii.

Lidia, he said, knows all his recipes. As he journeyed around Southeast Asia, she was back at the pasta bar taking care of guests.

With his enthusiasm for all things pasta, Ragnacci recently launched his first cook book "Pasta at Play".

"I want to show people how easy it is to prepare pasta," he says.

On another personal note, Ragnacci looks extremely fit, having even participated in a triathalon in Zurich.

This year, his internationalism will expand even further as he opens pasta bars around Malaysia and possibly even in Thailand.

Meanwhile, he's thinking about trying out for the "Guinness Book of World Records".

When he does, there are bound to be lots of happy diner and spectators around.

Laurie Rosenthal

The Nation