When did you first realise you had a talent for cooking?
I grew up with my parents in Italy and a post war refugee also lived and worked on the property, who taught me to cook risotto when I was about five or six. He became my mentor and gave me my first lessons about the restaurant business. When I was eight I converted the sandpit into a restaurant; I made mud pies and grass salad and wrote out bills.
Where is your favourite place to eat Italian food in west London?
Assagi [39 Chepstow Place, W2] in Notting Hill, because it is real.
What is the one Italian ingredient you can’t live without?
Parmesan.
You have written over 30 books. What has been your most challenging cookbook to write?
The one I’m writing now; a culinary autobiography. I have to delve deep into old memories including taste memories. I’m on my second re-write.
You must have a lot of patience?
You have to have a lot of patience to be a chef. The best cooking involves waiting for things to happen – waiting for meat to rest; dough to rise…
What is your secret tip to making perfect pasta?
Make sure you have plenty of water – five litres per kilo of pasta – and make sure it’s boiling properly.
You have been teaching people to cook for years. Has there ever been a pupil that you just couldn’t teach?
There have been plenty, but probably the most difficult student arrived to a pasta-making course with a wheat intolerance. We soldiered on using his suggested rice flour, but it didn’t work.
What inspired you to start teaching?
I qualified as a chef in Rome and started working in a kitchen in the ‘70s. But after six months I returned to my tutor with horrifying stories of aggression and said I wanted to become a teacher. I retrained as a teacher for a further three years. I have since taught qualified, professional chefs. Interestingly, a factor of a recession is that a lot of kitchens switch to induction rather than using a naked flame to bring down the cost of insurance and consequently more women work in the kitchen because the kitchen isn’t so hot.
What has been your biggest kitchen nightmare?
Turning up to work at a wedding without being able to locate the gas supply to switch it on. I was sharing the building with the service and could hear them preparing while we couldn’t cook. At the 11th hour someone rushed in and switched it on. It was pretty hair-raising.
I have also been chef to parties, whose hosts – with more money than manners – haven’t shown up. Obviously you shouldn’t serve until the host arrives, but how drunk are you going to let the guests get?
Where do you like to relax?
On Folegandros, a Greek island.
What’s your most memorable moment?
There have been so many, but I recently met Stanley Tucci, who co-directed Big Night, a fab film about Italians and Italian food, at a reception – he was wonderful.
What is in your fridge right now?
There’s always masses of food in my fridge. I’ve got baba al rum, an Italian dessert; lots of bread dough; various meats marinating and English fruits such as blackberries and blackcurrants.
Where do you find inspiration for your recipes?
Food memories; going out to eat in wonderful places; talking to other people. I also find the food markets very inspirational. I love Portobello Farmer’s Market and there are so many more springing up.
What are your plans for the rest of the year?
I have a big family wedding to cater for, which is a constant cause of hilarity and strain. I also coordinate the cookery theatres at various food festivals, which include the Cheese & Wine Festival, the Real Food Harvest Festival and the Chocolate Festival.
