What’s next...
“GOING forward” those words sound magical… to think that when I first opened Giovanni’s Restaurants, in 1983, we would have had such an exciting journey to date.
A journey of opening restaurants, nightclubs; creating the first purposebuilt café quarter in the UK at Mill Lane, Cardiff; appearing on many television programs and having fond, fantastic and exciting memories of people in Giovanni’s restaurants. I believe that life is to be enjoyed and life is for learning and achieving.
Going forward, of course there are plans for another Giovanni’s restaurant situated at Cardiff Bay – Giovanni’s In The Bay. Also, I will be publishing my first book, with co-author Stephen Truelove, called The Therapy of Cooking, including fantastic recipes and some therapy at the front of the book, so, as you’re cooking, if your mind wanders off to a negative place there’s an answer and there’s coaching on how to get back to what you are doing.
When you cook, you must cook with passion, love and you must never cook or eat when you’re in a negative place.
I have been inspired by both my children – Gianluca (known as Luca Malacrino) who is a film star in the making and living in LA, having filmed Grey’s Anatomy, Criminal Minds and recently worked with Francis Ford Coppola and on his film ‘Elephants’ that comes out this November, and my daughter Ileana Malacrino who is an amazing, up-and-coming, young business woman, living in Amsterdam and Barcelona.
I decided to embark on a career of television myself and you may have seen me on many programmes over the years, including You Bet, Come Dine With Me and Bargain Hunt. We have just filmed with the famous Fred from First Dates and that comes out in the next series of the programme.
The idea is to have my own television program – I know that we have Gino D’Acampo, but there is space for an Italian celebrity chef from Wales.
Over the years, I have felt it is important to contribute and help those less fortunate, so charity is a big thing. So much so, that I have set up my own charity fundraiser called GIOS which stands for Great Individuals Often Succeed. We donate money from dishes that we cook in Giovanni Restaurants to help children with medical conditions.
We have set up a mini zoo for children who suffer from autism, Down’s Syndrome and many other medical conditions and we now have 200 animals for children to come and play. Animal contact can be very therapeutic for children.
I am also launching a new sauce label with a great friend of mine, Armando Volpi. The sauces are called GIO MIO and we have a special brand called Giovanni Malacrino.
One thing I remember being told as a child, by my father, was to make my mind up! Thank God, this is something I have never done and something I never want to do, because once you make your mind up, life gets boring.
I also want to become a soughtafter motivational speaker and life coach in my spare time.
My final piece of advice in life, is to imagine your life as being a movie and you are the star of your movie. The more things that happen (ups and downs) and the more trauma, the better the movie.
To make a blockbuster it must be exciting – have tears, laughter and many more emotions so in life – so visualise, believe and never let anybody tell you that you can’t.
The most important thing I want to say is thank you to my family, my staff and my customers and a few celebrities of course – without you guys there would be no Giovanni’s.