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MANILA, Philippines – Who is the Italian-born celebrity chef who has become the leading exponent of Italian cuisine in Australia through his restaurants and books?
He was born in 1954 in the small town of Gottolengo, Lombardi in Northern Italy. His family migrated to Australia in 1961 by ship, and spent a brief period at the Boneglia Migrant Reception and Training Center near Wodonga before settling in Blacktown, New South Wales, west of Sydney.
With his mother Franca and grandmother Angelina as his main culinary influences, he together with his family thought of transposing his family’s home-cooking into a restaurant situation.
He discovered that “there are a lot of Italians in Australia hooked on nostalgia for the homeland, who have really never left Italy, and have this nostalgic idea of what Italy was like.”
This prompted him to open The Restaurant in partnership with his family in 1983 (which has since been renamed after him in 1993), which won the Sydney Morning Herald Three Hat Award in 1994.
Bel Mondo opened in 1996 and was immediately showered with awards, including the Insegna del Ristorante from the Italian Government. In 1998 and 1999, Bel Monde was awarded the Best Sydney City Restaurant by American Express, and also won the Best NSW Restaurant in 1999.
For he and his family, it has always been about maintaining a fine line between home cooking and restaurant cooking. “You have to make it special enough so people want to come out, but at the same time, maintain the simplicity and the flavor,” he says.
What is amazing is how they have kept the Italian taste within the sophistication of Sydney, the hype of the food writers, and the demands placed on them to fit within the perceived needs.
He says they have maintained it because “we had the templates there in Italian cooking. We don’t feel that we have to create something new all the time. Our Italian background has given us the framework in which to create and cook. All we really do is apply the ingredients here to the Italian approach and method of cooking.”
As such, some of his best selling recipes include roast eggplant, peperonata, and bocconcin; sea scallops with bolito of beetroot and onion with anchovy dressing; roast suckling illabo lamb with rosemary and roast potatoes; and goat milk panna cotta with fresh mango and Champagne jelly.
Today, he is often invited to cook, teach, and speak on food in Australia and overseas including the International Olive Oil Council in New Zealand, and Mediterranean Gastronomy Conference in Italy. In 2002, he represented the Taste of Australia in New York with Neil Perry and Kylie Kowng, and in October of the same year, he was the winner of the inaugural International ICF Award presented in Italy.
He also enjoys success as a food writer with his best-selling book Fresh from Italy, Italian Cooking for the Australian Kitchen, which is now on its third edition, and his second book, Bel Mondo Beautiful World.
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Last week’s question: Name one of the designers of Malacañang Palace when it was reconstructed in the 1870s.
Answer: Andres San Juan de San Pedro
Winner: Socorro Reyes of QC
Text your answer to 0917-9498721 with your name and address. One winner will be chosen through a raffle of texts with the correct answer. The winner will receive P2,000 worth of SM gift certificates for use at Our Home, SM Department Store, or SM Supermarket. They can claim their prize at Our Home in SM Megamall. Call the store manager at 634-1950, 634-1943. Bring photocopies of two valid IDs and a clipping of the Design Quiz issue in which you appear as winner.
