My grandfather taught me to keep food simple
TELLY CHEF, GINO D’ACAMPO, VISITED ITALY’S COAST FOR INSPIRATION FOR HIS NEW RECIPE COLLECTION. JACK NEWMAN FINDS OUT MORE
CHARISMATIC TV chef and restaurateur, Gino D’Acampo, reveals that he emulated one of his food heroes for his latest TV show.
“One of my favourite chefs is [the late] Keith Floyd,” he explains. “We did a few cooking shows together. For me, Keith Floyd’s shows are what I do now when I go to Italy.
“When I’m doing Gino’s Italian Escape, I always have him in mind. I go round the region, finding an ingredient, meeting the local people, then I build my kitchen and I start to cook.”
Gino, 41, originally from Torre del Greco, Naples, has travelled along “the most famous coast in Europe”, discovering the local specialities and authentic ingredients associated with Italy’s west coast for his ITV show and accompanying cookbook.
The book takes influence from kitchens in Rome, Tuscany, the Amalfi Coast, and the islands of Sicily and Elba. It’s not just about eating well either, Gino also believes he has “a responsibility to make sure people understand where their ingredients come from”, which actually led to him uncovering a few culinary surprises. “You would never associate liquorice with Italian food,” says Gino, who discovered a taste for Calabrian liquorice while researching the book. “The more I travel, I always learn something new and exciting.”
One of his favourite dishes he stumbled upon, and adapted, is ndunderi (pronounced ‘dune-der-ee’), which he found while exploring the Amalfi Coast. “It’s like gnocchi but instead of potato, they use ricotta. This is another thing which I had no idea they did,” he explains. “It’s so delicate, light and beautiful. Delicious!”
The chef believes overcomplicating is what most people get wrong when attempting to cook Italian food. “The most important thing my grandfather taught me, when I was a little boy, was that Italian food must be kept simple. Spend more time getting the right ingredients and less time in the kitchen – this is the secret.”
From his grandfather’s influence, to his parents’ recipes in the new cookbook (including his mother’s meatballs), it’s clear family is very important. He hopes to pass on his love of cooking to his three children. His eldest, Luciano, is already “a huge foodie – he spends all his pocket money in restaurants and he’s got a great understanding of food”.
Gino and his family spend half the year at his Italian home in Sardinia, and the other six months in England. He hopes his next journey will take him to the Adriatic Coast, “the coast that goes from Venice to Puglia that is not as well-known as Amalfi, but is just as amazing”.
He says: “My kitchen is wherever I am, it could be on the beach, it could be on top of the mountain, or in somebody’s house. That’s the style of cooking I like.”
Gino’s Italian Coastal Escape, by Gino D’Acampo, is published by Hodder & Stoughton, £20
Gino’s Italian Coastal Escape is on ITV, Wednesdays at 8pm