Commendatore Antonio Carluccio, OBE, OMRI is considered the godfather of Italian gastronomy in Britain - his restaurants, books and TV series have inspired countless people to enjoy authentic, regionally diverse Italian cooking.
Antonio Carluccio’s lifelong love of foraging and food began during his childhood in Italy. His mother cooked for the whole family and produced delicious meals even when some ingredients were scarce after Italy joined World War II in 1940. His father was a stationmaster whose job meant that the family lived in both the South and North of Italy during Antonio’s childhood; this exposed him to different regional customs and cuisine, something very important to him in his later work. It was also in childhood that he grew to love foraging for wild ingredients, gathering berries and mushrooms with his brothers, and truffles with a family friend. As a young man, Antonio lived in both Austria and Germany, experiencing and experimenting with new cuisines and adding to his repertoire, whilst also cooking familiar Italian dishes that reminded him of home.
Antonio Carluccio moved to London in 1975 to work as a wine merchant, but he began to be noticed for his cooking when he reached the final of The Sunday Times Cook of the Year competition in 1981. He published his first recipe soon after and was given the opportunity to manage The Neal Street Restaurant in Covent Garden. Antonio transformed the restaurant into a centre of authentic, quality, regional Italian cuisine. He considered himself a cook, not a chef - developing the dishes and managing the restaurant, rather than preparing the food. He introduced dishes made using foraged mushrooms and met Genarro Contaldo, who regularly supplied mushrooms to the restaurant and later worked in the kitchen. In 1991, together with his then wife Priscilla Conran, he opened the first Carluccio’s next door - a deli selling Italian food and ingredients. The first Carluccio’s Caffè (again combining a restaurant and deli) followed in 1999 and 19 more opened in the next six years.
Antonio Carluccio’s first book An Invitation to Italian Cooking was published in 1986, and A Passion for Mushrooms followed two years later. He went on to publish over 20 more books during his career, writing each first draft in pencil. He became a regular contributor to the BBC’s Food and Drink programme and his first solo TV show Antonio Carluccio’s Italian Feast was aired in 1996. He was regularly interviewed as an expert on mushrooms and this also fed into his own work. He became a household name and brought regional Italian cooking to homes across Britain, and the world. In 2011 Antonio and his friend Genarro Contaldo filmed Two Greedy Italians which was brought back for a second series in 2012.
Antonio Carluccio’s influence on Italian gastronomy was acknowledged in his lifetime with the Commendatore OMRI (the Italian equivalent of a knighthood), awarded in 1998 and an honorary OBE in 2007. Antonio continued working on new recipes and ideas throughout his life, including an unpublished book Tutti Frutti which he was working on in 2017, shortly before he passed away. Throughout his career he supported many charities, particularly Action for Hunger and The Clink. Before his death he created The Antonio Carluccio Foundation which gives grants to charities who are working anywhere in the world in the areas of malnutrition and food related training.
