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MANILA, Philippines – Who is the London-based Italian chef regarded as the “Godfather of Italian Gastronomy”?
He was born in 1937 in Salerno, Italy. Being born on the Amalfi Coast in the south and raised in the wooded northwest gave him the rare and privileged breadth of culinary knowledge. It was in Piedmont, at the age of seven, that he started his lifelong pastime of hunting and collecting mushrooms and fungi with his father.
After living in Germany, he moved to London in 1975 and while learning English, traded as a wine merchant of Italian wines. His hobby of studying and collecting wild mushrooms continued to flourish as he found many varieties growing in the English countryside close to London and almost completely undiscovered.
He took over the Neal Street Restaurant in Covent Garden in 1981, which traded for 26 years. In 1991, he opened a deli next to the restaurant and in 1998 started the first cafe named after him in Market Place, London. After 10 years in the cafe business, he is no longer a director, but continues to work with the team on menu development and chef training while also concentrating on new projects.
In 1983, he made his first appearance on BBC2, talking about Mediterranean food and at the same time was asked to write his first book, An Invitation to Italian Cooking. He has written 13 books since, including A Passion for Mushrooms (1988), Passion for Pasta (1993), Italian Feast (1996), Complete Italian Food (1997), Southern Italian Feast (1998), The Complete Mushroom Book (2003), and Italia (2005).
He has also made numerous television programs, including the hugely popular Northern Italian Feast and Southern Italian Feast.
In 1998, he was awarded the Commendiatore OMRI by the President of Italy for services to Italian gastronomy, the equivalent of British knighthood. In 2007, he was awarded an honorary OBE. In September 2008, he celebrated 50 years of championing, cooking, and eating genuine regional Italian food and wine. It was a long way from the time he started cooking simple pasta suppers for himself and his flat mate on a two-ring stove in Vienna in 1958.
Known for his gentle manner, gruff voice, and wild crop of white hair, he is regarded as the Godfather of Italian Gastronomy.
He acknowledges that there will always be something more to learn about the food he is passionate about.
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Last week’s question: Who is the American architect and educator who founded the New York Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies?
Answer: Peter Eisenman
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