Antonio Carluccio

Antonio Carluccio

Carluccio in Glasgow
Born Antonio Carluccio
April 1937 (age 78)
Vietri sul Mare, Salerno, Italy
Residence London, England
Nationality Italian
Other names Antonio Carluccio OBE OMRI
Ethnicity Italian
Occupation Chef
Author
Businessman
Years active 1958-present
Known for His cookery
His books
Being the owner of Carluccio's
Home town Borgofranco d'Ivrea, Piedmont
Website Antonio-Carluccio.co.uk

Antonio Carluccio, OBE OMRI (born 19 April 1937) is an Italian chef, restaurateur and food expert, based in London. He is perhaps best known for his partnership with fellow Italian chef Gennaro Contaldo and their BBC Two television series Two Greedy Italians.

Biography

Antonio Carluccio was born in Vietri sul Mare, Salerno, Italy. His father was a stationmaster, and he moved with his father's job when he was young and grew up in Piedmont. Living near the northwest, an area with great vegetation, as a child Antonio would hunt through the forest for different mushrooms and fungi with his father.

Career

Carluccio moved to Vienna at age 21 to study languages. He lived in Germany from 1962 to 1975, working as a wine merchant in Hamburg. He came to the United Kingdom in 1975 to work as a wine merchant, importing Italian wines.

Carluccio became the manager of Terence Conran's Neal Street Restaurant in Covent Garden in 1981, and became its owner in 1989. Under Carluccio, British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver began his professional career at the Neal Street Restaurant, which closed in 2006.

Carluccio has written twenty books on Italian cuisine and appeared on television in the BBC's Food and Drink Programme, and in his own series Antonio Carluccio's Italian Feasts in 1996. In 2011 his travels around Italy were filmed for the BBC series Two Greedy Italians.

In 2008, it was reported that Antonio Carluccio had stabbed himself in the chest.[1] He was taken to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and later discharged.

Carluccio later admitted himself to The Priory clinic, and reports said that he was suffering from exhaustion and that the incident was an accident.[2] His close friend and fellow chef Gennaro Contaldo said that it was an accident and he was exhausted when it happened.[3] In an interview from March 2009, Carluccio revealed that it was an accident that occurred while cutting a loaf of bread.

However, in his autobiography Carluccio admitted he had suffered a history of depression, and the accident was in fact a suicide attempt, which was interrupted by his personal assistant.[4]

In 2012 Antonio Carluccio was awarded the AA Lifetime Achievement Award and released his memoirs 'A Recipe For Life'.

Carluccio's

In 1991, Antonio and his then wife opened an Italian food shop, named Carluccio's. They expanded this in 1994 to a wholesale business.

In 1999, the first "Carluccio's Caffè" was opened in Market Place, London. A joint authentic Italian restaurant with integrated food shop, the premises opened to serve light, Italian-based breakfasts to diners. The chain expanded, initially across southeast England, and subsequently across the UK. In 2005, Carluccio's listed on the Alternative Investment Market as a PLC. In 2010 the company received a takeover offer from the Landmark Group, a Dubai-based enterprise, valuing Carluccio's at £90m. The transaction was approved by the shareholders and completed in October 2010.

Today, Carluccio's operates from over 80 UK locations. In addition the company has granted franchises over two territories: the first over Ireland with presently two locations[5] open in Dublin; the second over 6 countries in the Middle East including three locations presently open in Dubai.[6]

After ten years of development, Antonio rejoined the company as a consultant.

In 2007 it was reported that the company paid waiting staff less than the UK minimum wage,[7] and expected staff to make up the remaining remuneration through customers' tips. Soon after this was revealed, the UK law was changed to ensure that companies must meet the minimum required remuneration initially and that tips should not be counted towards an employee's paid salary level.

Awards

Carluccio was given the national honour of Commendatore dell'Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana by the Italian government, the equivalent to a British knighthood, in 1998 for his contribution to the Italian food industry. In 2007 he was awarded an OBE. In 2012 Antonio Carluccio was awarded the AA Lifetime Achievement Award.

Books

DVDs

References

  1. ↑ Allen, Nick (12 September 2008). "Antonio Carluccio, TV chef, stabbed". The Daily Telegraph (London). Retrieved 25 April 2010.
  2. ↑ Mendick, Robert (24 September 2008). "Carluccio didn't try to kill himself, it was just a slip of the knife, says close friend". Daily Mail (London).
  3. ↑ "Carluccio didn't try to kill himself, it was just a slip of the knife, says close friend". Daily Mail (London). 24 September 2008.
  4. ↑ "Antonio Carluccio: Getting back my appetite for life". Independent (London). 7 October 2012.
  5. ↑ http://www.carluccios.com/restaurants/dublin
  6. ↑ "Interim Report 2010" (PDF). Carluccio's. Retrieved 2010-08-19.
  7. ↑ Toynbee, Polly (25 May 2007). "McJobs are giving Britain a reputation as Europe's offshore banana republic". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 2014-06-09.

External links

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