Chef turns ‘chicken food’ into Beverly Hills’ trendiest pasta

Chef Edoardo “Edo” Baldi’s father, Giorgio Baldi, founder of the iconic Santa Monica restaurant of the same name, was not impressed when he first heard his son wanted to put corn inside pasta.

“You give corn to chickens,” Edo recalled Giorgio telling him.

Nearly 30 years later, sweet corn pasta has become one of the Baldi family’s most requested dishes. Its newest incarnation, sweet corn tortellini, is now served at Baldi, which opened at the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills in February.

The idea began when Edo tasted a sweet corn soup served with a crab cake at a restaurant. Inspired by the corn’s rich flavor and natural sweetness, he began thinking about how he could transform those flavors into an Italian dish.

Despite his father’s skepticism, Edo created sweet corn agnolotti and put it on the menu, at Giorgio Baldi and his own Beverly Hills hotspot, e. baldi.

The response was immediate.

“We sold them the first night, and it was an explosion,” Edo said. “You knew you had something great when everyone was ordering them and saying, ‘Oh my God, these are so delicious.’”

At Baldi, Edo has reimagined the longtime family favorite as tortellini. The filling combines sweet corn purée with mascarpone, ricotta and Parmigiano cheese. Each piece is shaped by hand before being cooked and finished with butter, Parmigiano, and white truffle olive oil.

Edo said the tortellini’s folds and crevices allow it to hold more filling and better capture the sauce, while preserving the flavors that made the original dish a hit.

The pasta’s success also marked an important moment in Edo’s relationship with his father, who eventually encouraged him to continue experimenting.

“In a sweet way, I got approval from my dad,” Edo said. “From that moment on, my dad was like, ‘Do whatever you want. You go and create more of these kinds of things.’”

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