Disco Sauce: The Unbelievable True Story of Penne Alla Vodka.

Penne Alla Vodka is America's dirty little secret. You can have it hungover from the diner, or for 40 bucks a plate at the finest restaurants. While it's secret origin might surprise you, it's sordid history will baffle you, which is why two best friends decided to deep dive into what's lovingly called "disco sauce" and discover it's secret powers that polarize the culinary world like no other dish,
and that’s The New York Times words, not mine.

FULL FILM BELOW

Grilling celeb chefs, exploring NYC's best markets, having it analyzed by scientists, even sourcing illegal ingredients for this ridiculous dish is no match for these two cooking cousins who will, once and for all, put an end to the debate of what Penne Alla Vodka should be. This is more then just a dish, it's a metaphor for society as a whole. Have we gone food crazy? Yes. Will we ever be satisfied? Never.

Directed and Edited by Roberto Serrini who has always been looking for delicious stories to share. Winner of multiple festival honors and awards including Three Taste Awards, a Gold Cube, and Silver Pencil, his films about food and travel have an overwhelming desire to surprise and delight leaving audiences always hungry for a bit more.

I've always been passionate about making amazing, fun content about the things we unknowingly love. Dedicating a life to travel and documentary, I've had the honor to tell dozens of unique and beautiful stories through my lens. I truly love handcrafting these films, producing, shooting, and editing them on my own terms, so that a unique perspective can always ring true. This, the latest of of my absurd work, will hopefully leave you full, but craving just a bite more.

Disco Sauce: The True Story of Penne Alla Vodka was made to inspire everyone to go out there and have their own food adventure and prove that you didn’t need to be famous, have celebrity or even money to celebrate the one thing we know food is amazing at: bringing a diverse world together. The film is currently being developed into a series with Paul Storck at UTA so stay tuned.

Winner 2023 Telly Award for Best Documentary
Winner 2023 Bob Saget Award for Best Comedy Taste Awards
Winner 2023 US International Award for Best Documentary
Winner 2022 WildSound Film Festival for Documentary Film
Winner 2022 MarCom award for Documentary Film
Winner 2022 Viddy Award for Documentary Film
& many more…

Interview with Filmmaker
Roberto Serrini

Matthew Toffolo of WildSounds sat down with filmmaker and director of “Disco Sauce”, Roberto Serrini, to ask a few questions about the film, the filmmaking process, and future plans. You can read all about it here, or scan down below.

1. What motivated you to make this film?

My previous documentary with Peter was called “Italy In Bocca” and it really put us on the map. We had a few show runners and production companies calling us asking if we were interested in developing the concept into a series. Because we felt like the food film scene was so saturated with these high stake shows we wanted to do something really different that focused on why we love food: because of the way it brings people together. So we wanted to see if we could take a recipe like Penne Alla Vodka, something seemingly inconsequential, and blow it completely out of proportion like they do on all these other cooking shows, really deep diving to the point that you can’t believe anyone went to that kind of trouble to make a simple bowl of pasta. I think it worked.

2. From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this film?

It took a few days to film as it was self produced and during a pandemic, but fortunately everyone was excited to be a part of it and make time to be on camera. Edit wise it took about a month to assemble, do all the animations, graphics, and mix. It will take about a year to work off all the bowls of pasta I ate during the edit process however.

3. How would you describe your film in two words!?

Insatiably irreverent.

4. What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film?

Honestly not overeating while editing … turns out staring at delicious bowls of penne alla vodka for 8 hours a day is not healthy for the mind. As for the actual project, the biggest difficulty was the audio. While we had a lot of interest to make this film a reality, we didn’t have any budget. Fortunately I’m used to self producing content and shooting/editing everything solo. Sound however is something I would have happily put money towards to have the cleanest audio possible, but because we were moving so fast it wasn’t possible to have a dedicated sound guy with us, so my mixer worked overtime in post to make it sound delicious thankfully, but next time hopefully we’ll have the resources to give him the best quality across the board. If you’ve seen the film, you know we’re only about the best quality.

5. What were your initial reactions when watching the audience talking about your film in the feedback video?

My initial reaction in watching the audience reaction to my film was pure smiles and validation. It’s amazing to hear candid reactions and critique from a really wide audience of tastes all arrive at the same conclusion. Even small moments that could easily be overlooked they mentioned and that to me made a film I already love become even more adored and everyone’s excitement to have this developed into a series is really, really exciting.

6. What is next for you? A new film?

Besides developing this doc into a series, I’m finishing a sequel to Italy In Bocca that we shot in Rome with the original writer of the cookbooks. We rented a 500 year old apartment with a stone hearth to cook in and put together an epic meal out of these rare and funky cookbooks. It’s the first thing I’ve shot overseas and I’m really excited to release it given the popularity of the first installment. Careful Stanley Tucci … I’m coming for you;)