Antonio carluccio and gennaro contaldo biography
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Contaldo is the brand ambassador for the luxury Italian holiday specialist Citalia.
Contaldo grew up in the small village of Minori on the Amalfi Coast, developing his love for food from days he spent hunting with his father and grandfather, and collecting herbs for his mother. Antonio Carluccio OBE
Commendatore Antonio Carluccio is an OBE, OMRI and a much loved and respected Italian cookery writer, cook, restauranteur and food expert.
He made a comic appearance as one of Oliver’s sous-chefs on Food Network’s Iron Chef America, in a battle against famed Italian-American chef Mario Batali. He also received an OBE from The Queen in 2007 for services to the catering industry.
In 1981 Antonio opened the Neal Street Restaurant in Covent Garden, London, which traded for 26 years.
Contaldo has appeared on many of Oliver’s television shows, such as The Naked Chef. He regularly appears on Saturday Kitchen as well as his own TV show, the highly successful Two Greedy Italians, BBC2.
“The man cooks like an angel — and no ordinary angel’.”
Matthew Norman
Sunday Telegraph
Gennaro has worked in some of London’s most popular restaurants, such as the late Antonio Carluccio’s ‘Neal Street Restaurant’.
On BBC1’s Saturday morning show Saturday Kitchen, he set a record of 16.36 seconds for making a three-egg omelette. He left Neal Street in 1998.
Contaldo opened the Passione restaurant, in Charlotte Street, London, in 1999. He began working in local restaurants at the age of eight.
Contaldo left Italy in 1969 for London where he got married in 1974 and had three children – he later had another two children with his current partner.
His most recent book, “Panetteria: Gennaro’s Italian Bakery”, was published in September 2016.
Contaldo is also famous for his association with his protégé, Jamie Oliver, whom he first mentored at Neal Street Restaurant in the 1990s. Winners of this award are congratulated for making significant contributions to their industry, which have had a notable impact, and must have demonstrated a lifetime commitment to progress in their field.
Antonio acknowledges there will always be more to learn about the food he is passionate about.
That year he was also runner up in the Sunday Times Cook of the Year.
In April 2003, Contaldo published his first cookbook, Passione, which is dedicated to the Amalfitan style of cooking. He also often appears on Jamie Oliver’s YouTube channel. Passione was awarded ‘Best Italian Restaurant 2005’ by the Tio Pepe Restaurant Awards.
Contaldo also developed menus and trained chefs for Oliver’s UK restaurant chain Jamie’s Italian, in which he is a business partner.
In 2011 he toured the Italian regions alongside Antonio Carluccio in a four-part series for the BBC, “The Two Greedy Italians”. Gennaro’s Italian Bakery was published by Pavilion in 2016 and we’re delighted to announce that a new edition of Gennaro’s first recipe book, ‘Passione’ is available to pre-order on Amazon.
Gennaro starred in ‘Jamie Cooks Italy‘, a culinary tour that explores favourite foods from some of the world’s favourite destinations, and In November 2021, he and Jamie were awarded the prestigious Stella della solidarietà italiana –Order of the Star of Italy – at the Italian Embassy.
He was raised in the rural North West of Italy; this gave Antonio a rare and privileged breadth of culinary knowledge. His third book, Gennaro’s Italian Home Cooking, was published in September 2008, and his fourth, Gennaro’s Easy Italian, was published in March 2010.