What's in your refrigerator at any given time says a lot about you. In this series, GQ reached out to famous chefs with a deceptively simple, if revealing, question: What do you cook when you're by yourself and no one's watching?

If you want pasta so good it’ll make you want to cry (no shame in that), go to Michael White. Or maybe more accurately, go to any of his 16 knock-your-date’s-socks-off restaurants scattered throughout the world, including the two-Michelin-starred Marea, Costata in SoHo, Osteria Morini, Ai Fiori (also Michelin rated), Al Molo in Hong Kong, or the recently opened Vaucluse on Park Avenue. Chef White, you see, is an authority on Italian cuisine, despite the fact that he doesn’t have a drop of Italian blood and was born and raised in Wisconsin.

So you’d think a chef synonymous with the word “pasta” would be sick of it by now, but that’s not entirely the case. “A lot of pastry chefs don’t eat sweets,” says White. “I still love pasta, but I eat it maybe once a week.” White knows what’s good and what’s easy. That’s why when he’s off the clock he’s whipping up a bowl of quick-and-easy carbonara, a dish that originated as a hearty meal made for weary coal workers around Rome. White’s version, made with fresh pasta, has all the hallmarks of a classic: a rich, creamy sauce, salty cubes of bacon, coarse black pepper—finished with a handful of arugula to add a fresh note and a nice bite. Best of all, it’s ready to eat in less than 10 minutes.

“There are obviously rules, and I follow lots of rules. When I’m cooking at home, I don’t. Most people cook pasta by the box, but I take it out a couple minutes ahead of time because you want the pasta to cookin the sauce. Never add oil to the water because that creates a barrier between the pasta and sauce. Traditionally carbonara is made with giancoli, which is the cheek, and it’s not smoked. A lot of times when you have carbonara in the United States, it’s made with bacon, which is not correct. But it’s still good. It gets the job done. I’d veer toward a lighter smoked bacon.”

“Even though I’m noted for fresh pasta, I always have dry pasta on hand. I’m actually a big fan of dried pasta. I will say that dry pasta is not created equal. You get what you pay for. There are a lot of nuances to making great pasta. Keep it simple. Home cooks tend to overcomplicate things. Not being bound by a recipe is a good thing. Once you get a little practice, when you start to get a feel for it, you get good at it.”

Late-Night Tagliatelle, Carbonara Style
- 2 oz. bacon
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 egg yolk with 3 tablespoons cream beaten together
- 4 oz. tagliatelle (or about half a cup)
- 2 tablespoons pecorino Romano or Parmigiano cheese
- Handful of arugula
- Freshly ground black pepper

Bring a pot of water to the boil. Add salt to the water. (It should be salty “like the sea,” he says.) Before cooking the pasta, warm a sauté pan to medium high heat. Drizzle the pan with a tablespoon of olive oil. Add bacon and garlic, cook until lightly browned. Drop the pasta into the boiling water. (If it's fresh pasta, it will cook in about a minute.) Add a ladle full of salty pasta water to the sauce pan, strain the pasta, and add the noodles to the pan. Add egg mixture, toss to coat, and add the arugula, black pepper, and grated pecorino cheese. Plate and serve immediately. Grate extra cheese on top with one more twist of black pepper.

Source: GQ, John Lockett, 27^th September 2015
Originally published as: Chef Michael White’s Perfect Late-Night Pasta