Antonio Carluccio is known as the godfather of Italian gastronomy, but did you know…
By Paul Barfoot
British food complex
Born on the Amalfi Coast in Southern Italy, and raised in the wooded North-West of Italy, Antonio arrived on British shores in 1975 with a rare and privileged breadth of Italian culinary knowledge. He is regarded by many as the man that single-handedly secured the food of his homeland as a staple on British dining tables – a success that he accredits, in part, to the UK’s lack of faith in its own cooking traditions. "Britain suffers from a crisis of self-confidence about her cuisine. The British cook so much foreign food because they don't know much about their own cuisine," suggested Antonio, whose growing catalogue of Italian cookery books have been bestsellers around the globe.
Building a food empire
The Carluccio brand began to take shape in 1981, when Antonio accepted an invitation from his restaurateur brother-in-law, Sir Terence Conran, to manage his famed eatery on Neal Street in London’s Covent Garden. Antonio subsequently became the proprietor of the business in 1989, and in 1991 he opened a delicatessen next door to the restaurant – a combination that proved a killer concept and spread like wild fire. When the business was floated on the stockmarket in 2005, Antonio netted £10 million from the sale of his 23 diner-delis that were feeding more than 60,000 punters a week. In the four years since, the number of Carluccio outlets has more than doubled, and in the first quarter of 2009, the business was valued at around £34 million.
Quality control
Despite forgoing his say as the Director of the many eateries that bare his name, blood, sweat and tears, Antonio now acts as a two-day-a-month consultant for the chain. To ensure that the company’s growth does not forfeit the quality of the Italian cuisine it plates, Antonio frequently spot checks dishes at random branches. “My benchmark is the zuppa di fagioli. It is the most simple of dishes, but if you do it wrong it means you don’t understand cooking. I order it and immediately see that there is maybe missing salt, or the pasta is overcooked, and give the cook my recommendations,” explained the standard-conscious Mr Carluccio.
Carluccio’s catchphrase
‘Rustic’, ‘authentic’ and ‘wholesome’ are some of the most-commonly used adjectives that critics, reviewers and fans use to describe Antonio’s style of cuisine. Antonio himself cites simplicity and tasty produce as the magic ingredients of his celebrated dishes, which he has dubbed ‘mof mof’, an acronym of ‘minimum of fuss, maximum of flavour’.
Five kitchen must-haves
According to Antonio, there are five essential provisions that any aspiring cook wanting to rustle up the taste of Italy should always have in their kitchen. 1) Olive oil for frying and extra-virgin for raw food like salads. 2) Packs of pasta like spaghetti and linguine. 3) Tomato sauces, either bought or self-made. 4) Salami, speck or Parma ham. 5) Cheese like Parmesan and fresh pecorino. “With these ingredients you can prepare meals in minutes, and they are always ready for use,” championed Carluccio about his simple starter pack for Italian cooking.
Wine aficionado
Antonio’s first step into the restaurant world was as a merchant of Italian wines throughout the 60s and early 70s, both in Germany and the UK. His talent and passion for perfectly pairing wine with food has never waned, and as a basic rule of thumb he recommends a Barbera for Piemontese food, a good Chianti for Tuscan grub, fiery Sicilian wines for local Sicilian food and a Moscato Spumante with dessert.
Food not fame
Antonio is sceptical that many of his contemporary celebrity chefs are more fame-hungry than passionate about spreading the gospel of good food to the masses. "Ken Hom, Madhur Jaffrey, myself and Raymond Blanc, we wanted to make people more interested in food. Now it's all about the fame. I don't like Gordon Ramsay. I liked him at the beginning, before he learnt that he could get attention by constantly saying that word,” announced Carluccio about the foul-mouthed Ramsey, who is as notorious for his use of the F-word as he is for his dishes.
Kitchen reunion
Despite his loathing for celebrity chefs, Antonio was instrumental in the success of two of Britain’s much-loved cooking personalities – Gennaro Contaldo and Jamie Oliver. During the 90s, Contaldo and Oliver developed their culinary skills in the kitchen of Antonio’s Neal Street restaurant. The trio’s friendship broke down when Contaldo and Jamie left to pursue their own careers, and a decade-long public feud, surrounded by rumours of betrayal, ensued. This year, Carluccio finally buried the hatchet with his former cooking counterparts, announcing: “We three chefs – or the three tenors as we are called – came together once again to put the rocky past behind us. Myself, Gennaro Contaldo and Jamie Oliver spent a day cooking, sharing recipes and old memories together,” and three of the UK’s leading lights of Italian cooking were again reunited in their passion for produce and flavours.
High-ranking recognition
Carluccio’s culinary skills have garnered stately nods both in his homeland and in his adopted Britain. In 1998, he was awarded a Commendatore OMRI (the equivalent of a British knighthood) by the President of Italy for services to Italian gastronomy, and in 2007 he received a royal thumbs-up from the British monarchy when he was appointed an honorary OBE.