Product Description

Full of colourful and modern recipes that evoke Italian life at its most enticing, PASSIONE is the first cookbook from Gennaro Contaldo - the man who Jamie Oliver calls his 'London Dad'.

Gennaro's passion for fresh, seasonal ingredients and his love of simple food is shared here with the energy for which he is famous. Full of evocative stories from his childhood - free-diving for oysters, foraging for wild mushrooms and bunking off school to go fishing - it becomes clear that his expertise has grown out of a lifetime's passion.



Beautifully illustrated with photographs from his childhood, as well as stunningly modern food photography, PASSIONE reveals the secrets of Gennaro's own basic recipes as well as some of the best-loved dishes from his restaurant - Fillet of Seabream with Honey and Vinegar, Lamb Cutlets with Mixed Herbs and Prosciutto, and Limoncello and Strawberry Ice Cream - and lets Gennaro share his inspirational interpretation of how to cook and eat Italian food.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #130426 in Books
• Published on: 2005-10-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Review
Every Jamie Oliver fan will know the name Gennaro Contaldo: Jamie's mentor, guide, inspiration and frequent guest on his television shows. Owner of Passione, a top Italian restaurant in London, his origins are much more humble. Born on the Amalfi coast, he started work in the local restaurants at the tender age of 8 and moved to Britain in 1969, working in restaurants across the country, honing his skills as a master chef. Here he shares not only his restaurant's best-loved dishes but recipes from "home" - childhood favourites and the Italian coastal region's specialities from where he originates. Simple chicken broth, Neapolitan pizza and risotto "terrone" intermingle with the more exotic tagliolini with black truffle, stuffed globe artichokes and guinea fown with pancetta and raisins. Juices run and saliva builds up over Gennaro's mouth-watering descriptions of the origins of these recipes, the familial ties and sumptuous photographs of Jason Lowe. Interspersed with Gennaro's own family photographs, this is a humbling picture of one of London's top restaurant owners and chefs, dispelling the myth of high falutin' prima donnas and explaining a lot of Jamie Oliver's ethos in the kitchen. - Lucy Watson

About the Author
Gennaro Contaldo began to work in the kitchens of local restaurants in Amalfi at the age of eight. In 1969, he moved to Britain where he travelled from the Midlands to Loch Lomond, training in village restaurants and studying the wild food of the area. He then worked as a chef in several London restaurants before opening his own, Passione, in London's Fitzrovia. Gennaro is currently involved with Jamie Oliver in setting up ‘Jamie’s Italian’, a collection of nationwide restaurants. He lives in London with his partner Liz and their gorgeous twins Chloe and Olivia.

Customer Reviews

Our man from Amalfi
How many times have you read a cook book review and seen those words "The next best thing to eating at the restaurant"? Well, this book is one that for which I don't mind repeating that phrase. Gennaro Contaldo gives you a better idea than anyone or anything what Italian cooking is all about. His writing is lively, enthustiastic and conveyed in a manner which almost makes you feel he's right behind you helping you cook a dish. Like most top chefs these days, he emphasises the importance of seasonal fresh produce. But it's also very refreshing to read that even he will use things like good quality powdered stock now and again when he doesn't have time for the real thing.

Buy this book .. the recipes are simple, healthy and perfect. Having this man as his mentor, it's no wonder Jamie Oliver has been so successful.

Finally the real thing
I am Italian and grew up in Sorrento, very close to Amalfi. For the first time I found in 'Passione' all the delicious recepies of my childhood, without changes and personal adaptations and they are easy! This book is a must for everybody who really wants to know how Southern Italian food ought to taste.

The esence of Italian cooking
I have many books on Italian cooking, but this is my favourite. A few carefully selected recipes - some simple, some complex - represent the distillation of Contaldo's experience. Many feature methods, techniques and combinations of ingredients that you've probably never used before. Some of the methods are transferable, so that once you've mastered his recipes for, say, sea bream or sea bass, you can use the methods for cooking other fish. This book gives you a lifetime's devotion to fine ingredients lovingly combined and prepared.