Gennaro Contaldo

About

Gennaro Contaldo is an Italian celebrity chef and food writer. He was Jamie Oliver‘s mentor, and starred alongside Antonio Carluccio in Two Greedy Italians.

Gennaro grew up in the small village of Minori on the Amalfi Coast. He developed his love for food from hunting with his father and grandfather.

Contaldo’s inspiration to cook in England was partly due to the availability of game and fungi, both important components of Amalfitan cuisine.

He later worked for London restaurants in St John’s Wood, and at Carluccio’s Neal Street Restaurant in Covent Garden.

He left Neal Street in 1998 and opened Passione. Passione won ‘Best Italian Restaurant 2005’ at the Tio Pepe Restaurant Awards.

Food Writer

In 2003 Gennaro published his first cookbook, Passione. The book is dedicated to the Amalfitan cooking. The cookbook won ‘Gourmand World Cookbook – Best Italian Cuisine Book’ for 2003. He published his second book, Gennaro’s Italian Year, in September 2006. Then published his third book, Gennaro’s Italian Home Cooking, in September 2008, and his fourth, Genarro’s Easy Italian, in March 2010.

Gennaro Contaldo is also famous for his association with his protege, Jamie Oliver. He first mentored Jamie at Neal Street Restaurant in the 1990s. The two chefs have since maintained a close friendship and professional relationship. Contaldo has appeared on many of Oliver’s television shows, such as The Naked Chef, and he also developed menus and trained chefs for Oliver’s UK restaurant chain Jamie’s Italian.

Gennaro has made cooking appearances on numerous television shows. On BBC1’s Saturday morning show Saturday Kitchen, he set a record of 16.36 seconds for making a 3-egg Omelette.

Gennaro is well-known to British audiences for his role in the Two Greedy Italians television programmes alongside Antonio Carluccio, the last of which was aired in 2012 and was called Two Greedy Italians: Still Hungry.

One of the most respected chefs in history, Gennaro Contaldo is in demand as a public speaker and for his cookery presentations.

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