Michelin chef from Italy reveals how he really feels about popular grocery store pasta brands. He doesn’t hold back: ‘Barilla hate will not be tolerated’

It can be difficult to sift through all of the grocery store brand pasta available in stores. There are hundreds of available options, which come in all shapes, sizes, configurations, and qualities.

Thankfully, there are countless chefs eager to share their expertise online. One Italian chef is going viral for sharing both his favorite and least favorite grocery store pasta brands.

‘That's one of the best pastas you can find in Italy'

Italian chef Sandro Nardone posted a video on the TikTok account for his California-based, Michelin-starred restaurant, Bello (@bellobysandro). In the video, which has more than 5.7 million views, Nardone presented his opinions on popular pasta brands. He ranked them on a classic meme-style tier list, with the rankings descending in quality: S, A, B, C, and D, with S classifying the best brands and D describing the worst.

The video began in his restaurant's kitchen, mid-shift and in uniform. He started his list by slamming an extremely popular brand: Barilla.

“D, because it's an industrial company,” Nardone immediately said. “They make millions and millions of pounds, and there's no quality there.”

De Cecco, another alternative, got a B. Nardone said it is “an average good pasta” with “good quality for restaurants.” Buitoni, like Barilla, got a D. Then Nardone revealed some of his actual favorites.

“Felicetti or Monograno Felicetti, it's an S,” Nardone said. “That's one of the best pastas you can find in Italy, and it's a great, great, great pasta … I would consider [Rummo] a S too. It's a great pasta … [Di Martino is] one of the top pastas. It's a A. For restaurants, it would be probably one of the best choices, and it's a great pasta, of course.”

Nardone said that Benedetto Cavalieri was a “ great mill for flour,” while placing the brand in S tier. Benedetto Cavalieri produces durum wheat semolina and organic whole wheat pasta that's notable for its rough texture.

Nardone went on to rank even more brands as S tier. He categorized Rustichella d'Abruzzo as “one of the best pastas you can buy.” Then he described Pastificio dei Campi as one of his “top, top, top pastas” even though it “is very hard to find besides finding it in Italy.” His final pick for the S tier was Mancini, which he said came from one of the “top pasta makers in Italy.”

Best high-quality pasta brands according to viewers

Many saw the video as a comprehensive rundown, but not everyone agreed. Several of the viewers in Nardone's comment section had strong feelings about him ranking Barilla as D-tier. Multiple commenters insisted that “Barilla is good.”

“Bro, barilla is top1 pasta you can get in lots of countries that are widely possible to get,” one commenter wrote. “I visited Italy 2 times, Barilla is the best,” echoed another.

“Not correct my friend, Barilla is TOP of QUALITY,” said another viewer.

Meanwhile, other viewers seemed to care very little about supposed brand quality, saying simply that “it all tastes the same” as “pasta is pasta.”

“Maybe im bad at cooking, but i've tried everything from S to D tier and don't really notice a difference,” confessed one commenter. “It tastes good every time, regardless of the pasta brand.”

The average joe might be ambivalent, but Nardone's peers certainly aren't. Francesca Zani, an editor at food magazine Delish, wrote a guide to store-bought pasta titled “I Make Pasta For A Living & This Is The Best Store-Bought Brand You Can Buy.” For the piece, she “blind-tested eight different pasta brands,” four artisanal and four budget.

And yes, she gave her thoughts on Barilla: She appeared to align with Nardone on that front.

“Even though I like and respect Barilla as a brand, in this instance, their pasta came in last place,” Zani wrote. “Two things also stuck out to me: the shape resembled ziti more than rigatoni, and the pieces were ‘teflon cut,' which results in pasta that won't hold on to sauce as well as other options.”

Zani's favorite budget pasta was De Cecco, while her favorite artisanal pasta was Rummo. These generally aligned with Nardone's opinions. Formal rankings from other experts also align with their rankings. The consensus shows that people who do this for a living seem to agree on the best pasta brands.

Buzz News has reached out to both Nardone and Barilla via email.

@bellobysandro Pasta Tier List w/ Michelin Guide Chef Sandro Nardone #fyp #bello #pasta ♬ original sound – Bello by Sandro Nardone

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