"WOULD you like to taste some pasta?" Just two minutes after meeting Gennaro Contaldo at one of the London branches of Jamie's Italian, he's already being the perfect host.
As it's lunchtime, and yes, I am quite hungry, I gratefully accept, and he quickly dispatches a waiter with instructions to ask chef Valentino for "one pasta special of the day", adding in that famous Italian lilt: "Ees for Gennaro".
The bubbly 68-year-old is universally loved by all the chefs he trains at Jamie's Italian restaurants around the globe, and most of all by his protege, Jamie himself, who calls Gennaro his 'London dad'. The feeling is mutual.
"Oh my God, does Jamie do more than me, he goes round and round and round. He's always in touch. At the end of the day, we are cooks, more than anything else. We love cooking."
It's this passion for cooking and good food that Gennaro extols in his cookbook Passione ("kind of my biography"), named after the restaurant he ran in London in the early noughties. First published in 2003 – "that book put me on the map" – it's now been lovingly updated with stories and photos from Gennaro's childhood growing up on Italy's Amalfi Coast.
"I realised how beautiful it was when I left it. After two, maybe three years, I went back and when I reached my village [Minori], everything was ever so small and it was strange," says the chef, who first left home to find his fortune in England as a young man of 20.
"I didn't realise it was me that had grown up by being surrounded by London. You live in a place where the mountains are your back garden, the sea is your swimming pool, the village is your playground, then you come to London and everything – wow! Massive.
"I missed so much the sea, the smell of the herb. Sometimes, I used to have a day off and go back to the sea, maybe Southend. I always wanted to put my hands inside, I knew the sea would touch the shore of my hometown."
In the books, he calls it a "free-range" childhood. The family had no fridge, so everything had to be fresh and they ate with the seasons. His father, a linen merchant, brought animals home he'd been given as payment by local farmers and did most of the cooking, while his mother, who he affectionately calls 'a white witch', sent him out to collect herbs from the mountains, which sparked a lifelong love of foraging (he boasts he can find wild rocket in central London).
"Imagine, come 12 o'clock, you go home through the small alleyways and all the balconies are open and you can hear the crockery and you can smell everything and you can pinpoint... fresh pasta with beans, grilled fish, cooked meat... Nothing came from far away, everything in season."
The pasta special arrives – squid-like calamarata with a pesto of roasted red peppers, garlic and chilli ("spice prolongs life"), with buffalo ricotta – and it's the best thing I've ever tasted.
"It's kind of al dente, but it's a little bit chewy because it's fresh. Al dente means you chew longer, so you taste it and digest it better. You want to keep that flavour in your mouth longer, it's like a glass of wine, it's elegant, smooth."
When he first arrived in London, Gennaro worked as a kitchen porter for a hospital, to get a permit, and eventually ended up at his good friend Antonio Carluccio's Neal Street Restaurant, where he met and mentored Jamie Oliver, before branching out on his own and opening Passione.
He left the restaurant three years before it closed in 2009, a victim of the recession, to collaborate with Jamie on the Jamie's Italian chain.
"He is [like a son], he's got exactly the same – even more – love, and cares and respects food and people, which is so important. I look up to him. My God, he can do it. And we film quite a lot, me and Jamie, we film a new programme which will come out next year. We go round Italy, meet all these beautiful Nonnas [grandmothers] and try to discover these beautiful, almost lost recipes."
He has five of his own children, two with his current partner, and three from his previous marriage, and he's not about to hang up his apron anytime soon.
"This is what's keeping me alive," he says earnestly. "I have days when I think I'm too tired, but the minute I walk inside the kitchen, I feel 25."
:: Gennaro's Passione: The Classic Italian Cookery Book by Gennaro Contaldo is published by Pavilion, priced £20. Below are two recipes from the book for you to try at home.
SPAGHETTI WITH BROAD BEANS, CHERRY TOMATOES AND GOAT'S CHEESE
(Serves 4)
300g fresh broad beans (shelled weight)
300g cherry tomatoes, quartered and deseeded
100ml extra virgin olive oil, plus a little extra to serve
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
20 fresh basil leaves, plus a few extra to garnish
1/2 red chilli, finely chopped (optional)
300g spaghetti
100g mild goat's cheese, diced
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Blanch the broad beans in a large saucepan of lightly salted boiling water for one minute, drain, rinse in cold water and drain again. Slip the skins off the broad beans and set aside. Put the tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, basil, chilli (if using) and some salt and pepper in a large bowl and mix well. Then stir in the broad beans and leave to marinate while you cook the pasta.
Bring a large pan of lightly salted water to the boil and cook the spaghetti until al dente. Drain and add to the tomato and broad bean mixture, together with the goat's cheese. Mix well and serve immediately, sprinkling some freshly ground black pepper, a drizzle of olive oil and a few basil leaves on top of each portion.
KING PRAWNS AND CRAB WITH GARLIC AND CHILLI
(Serves 4)
2 large fresh crabs (ask your fishmonger to prepare for you and reserve the shells)
175ml extra virgin olive oil
12 fresh raw king prawns, shell on
4 garlic cloves, sliced lengthways
2 red chillies, sliced lengthways into strips
2 handfuls of fresh parsley leaves
250ml white wine
1 lemon, cut into quarters, to serve
Bread, to serve
Salt
Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan, add the prawns and cook for one minute over a high heat. Turn them over and cook the other side for another minute. Add the garlic, chillies and crab chunks, season with salt, then reduce the heat and cook for two minutes with the lid on. Add the parsley, increase the heat and pour in the wine and any reserved juices from the crab. Bubble until evaporated, then serve immediately, with lemon quarters and bread.
