 | trained in the grand hotels in London, Paris and
St Petersburg. The guest book of the restaurant was
known as the Libro d’Oro, the golden book. In it you
can see a procession of names of the great, good and
notorious of the day - from the Aga Khan to Mussolini,
and King Farouk of Egypt.
My mother grew up living over restaurant. Despite
being surrounded by the day-to-day business of food
preparation, she did not learn to cook as a child
because all the family’s meals came from the
restaurant’s kitchen. When she became engaged to my
father, she asked the chef, Julio Casella, to teach her
the basics of culinary survival. He was so painfully
shy that, instead, Nonnino had to write out his recipes
in an exercise book, which I still have. My mother
inhereted her fathers creativity and became a
wonderful cook placing her love for food at the centre
of our family life... | |
