Sydney chef Eugenio Maiale nearly loses hand in pasta disaster

Eugenio Maiale opens a Sydney pasta bar next month, but the high-profile Italian chef has had a dangerous pre-opening encounter with a pasta machine.

"It swallowed all my fingers, I was trapped in it for five minutes before we could reverse it," he recalls.

Maiale, who is adding to his restaurant stable of A Tavola and Besser with the pasta-leaning Flour Eggs Water at the Harold Park Tramsheds says the machine, newly arrived from Italy, had an electrical irregularity that led to the accident.

"The ambulance people couldn't believe I didn't break anything. What's for certain is my pastas are handmade. I put my heart, soul and body into it."