about us

History of Pasta Reale & Joubere

It all started in 1960 when Virginia Lopalco, her husband Salvatore (Nini) and her brother Roberto Santi opened a family Italian restaurant in Croydon.

Trattoria Bella Venezia was the first Italian restaurant in the area and it became a roaring success. All the pasta served in the restaurant was made by hand; it was, as you can imagine very hard work. Returning from a trip to see family in Italy, Virginia brought back with her a small pasta making machine to save time. The family then bought a slightly larger machine to make some different shapes. The step transformed their future; they were easily able to produce enough fresh pasta for the restaurant and more.

In fact, the customers of the restaurant loved the pasta so much that they bought pasta to take home. Word soon spread about the delicious homemade pasta that could be bought at the restaurant and they sold more and more pasta. The extra pasta made was not to be wasted, so Virginia took the entire surplus to the local Italian deli and convinced them to put it in the chiller on a sale or return basis. There were no returns! Ever!

Then in 1979, Virginia, Salvatore and Roberto took the brave step to put everything they had worked for and owned on the line to set up their first dedicated fresh pasta factory in a small disused Bakery in the heart of West Sussex just outside Balcombe Village. It wasn’t long before many London delicatessens were buying Virginia’s pasta. Deliveries were daily. The hours were long and hard but people kept buying more and more. 14 years and 2 factories later with Harrods and Waitrose now among their customers they took another brave and exciting step to form Pasta Reale Ltd and build a huge 58,000 sq ft purpose built pasta factory. To grow the business further, they had the foresight to recruit a professional Management team.

We still make our pasta in the same factory, although we have extended the building a couple of times in order to meet the ever increasing demand for fresh pasta. Members of the Lopalco family still own and work in the business and it is their dedication that differentiates Pasta Reale from the rest.

Some 20 years on, brings us to 2003. Recognising a gap in the market for high quality, chilled sauces, soups and stocks and other products, we acquired a start up business, Joubère, complete with skilled chefs located in West London. The attraction of Joubère was the high quality of the products and a shared passion for good food. Following further investment, training and development Joubère has expanded and now supplies many major retailers as well as making the Pasta Reale range of pasta sauces.

As the Joubère brand became more widely known, capacity became stretched so we bought another site in Gillingham, Dorset. Applying the same ethical standards the site is now also producing a range of high quality soups and sauces. 4 years later both these business have grown and now supply a very wide range of chilled and shelf stable liquid products which are both recognised and appreciated by consumers throughout the UK. Together the businesses are the Pasta Reale Group of companies dedicated to producing and supplying some of the finest foods in their field available today.