Arrivederci to the godfather of Italian cuisine

Celebrity chef Antonio Carluccio, who has died aged 80, built a multimillion pound food empire around his books, TV shows and restaurant chain

HE WAS known as the man who introduced real Italian cooking to British restaurantgoers. Clients at his flagship eaterie in London’s Covent Garden included Prince Charles, Placido Domingo and Sir Mick Jagger – and in the kitchen a young Jamie Oliver slaved over the pasta.

For the son of a railwayman from southern Italy, Antonio Carluccio, who died yesterday aged 80, certainly made an indelible mark on our culture. Nearly 100 restaurants bear his name, although he sold his share in the company for £5million in 2005. Two years later he received an OBE for services to catering.

In public he was a flamboyant character known for his celebrity chef TV appearances and books, his addiction to the roulette table and his love of whisky. In private he was tormented by inner demons and lived in a modest bungalow in a London suburb with his partner Sabine, more than 20 years his junior.

He had been married three times and it was third wife Priscilla Conran – sister of designer Sir Terence Conran – who helped him make his name as a restaurateur. Carluccio bought his famous restaurant in Neal Street from Sir Terence in 1989 and with Priscilla made it the place to be seen.

Two years later they opened a delicatessen next door and the hugely successful Carluccio concept was born. More and more of the unique combination of restaurant, food shop and deli followed and Carluccio’s quickly became the fastest-growing restaurant chain in the country. The wealth he enjoyed was in stark contrast to his childhood. He was born in 1937 in Vietri sul Mare, Salerno, the fifth of six children. His father worked as a stationmaster in Piedmont and although they were poor the family enjoyed the perk of firstclass travel. Antonio grew up watching his mother prepare food in the kitchen, always taking mental notes.

The family were shattered by the death of his younger brother Enrico, aged 13. Carluccio was 23 and “like a father to him”. Years later he admitted Enrico’s death triggered depression which led to six suicide attempts. He once washed down sleeping pills with whisky and walked to a lake but collapsed on the bank.

Carluccio moved from Italy to Vienna to escape the pain then worked for 13 years as a wine merchant in Germany before becoming a chef. When he moved to London in the 1970s he saw his latest love kissing another man and that triggered another suicide bid. Then he met Priscilla. “We didn’t fall madly in love, it wasn’t like that,” he said. “We were in our 40s, we had both been married before and in that position you just look for someone kind and intelligent, whose company you enjoy.”

GOING to Italian restaurants in London in the 1980s was “very funny,” he once said. “I discovered so many Italian dishes that never existed in Italy. Pollo sorpresa, for example, is a chicken kiev, which is not Italian, nor is spaghetti bolognese. In Italy you never eat spaghetti with a bolognese sauce. Only tagliatelle.”

The godfather of the Italian cucina quickly set about re-educating us – with great success. But his life fell apart when his marriage to Priscilla broke up after 28 years just as he was forced to close his Covent Garden flagship because the landlords wanted to redevelop the site when the lease expired. It was a devastating time. “I was forced to close my main restaurant of 26 years,” he said later. “My marriage had collapsed. My life felt like it was in decline. I felt exhausted and desperate.”

So desperate that he lost thousands at roulette, drank more and more, then again attempted to commit suicide in a restaurant kitchen. He plunged a pair of scissors into his chest but was saved when his personal assistant burst in and dialled 999.

A cover story was concocted, his office claiming he had been cutting bread with a sharp knife when his hand slipped. But if it was an accident, the papers asked, why did he book himself straight into The Priory, the discreet west London psychiatric hospital favoured by celebrities?

For the first time he was forced to admit his depression. “Anyone can have it,” he said. “When things get really bad you become prepared to abandon everything.

“And I was. But I didn’t want the burden of people asking me what I, a successful man, had to be depressed about. So I concealed my feelings and I survived by telling jokes. I wanted people to know that I was jolly. Because that’s how people who didn’t know me always thought of me.”

Nowhere was Carluccio jollier than on his BBC Two TV series The Two Greedy Italians along with chef Gennaro Contaldo. “Cooking can be an incentive for living,” he said. “I’ve received a lot of letters from old men, widowers, wanting to know if they can improve the quality of their life through cooking. And they can! No matter the budget!

“Even, say, baked beans, fried in a little oil, with some salt, garlic and chilli, can transform an ordinary meal into something special and can provide you with a sense of purpose, achievement.