Meet the chef: Italian cooking tips with Antonio Carluccio

What’s On has an Antonio Carluccio interview to celebrate the opening of another Carluccio’s in Dubai. Get Italian cooking tips and hints.

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To celebrate the opening of the seventh Carluccio’s restaurant in Dubai, What’s On sat down with founder, the legendary Antonio Carluccio.

The chef explains his history in the business, and then the most important things you need to know about cooking good Italian food.

My first memory of food is a rice and cabbage soup my mother used to make when I was four. It was very bad, but I was hungry so I ate.
When I was a child, we lived in a railway station. Bushes of wild rucola grew nearby and I would go out and pick them for my mother. When I eat rucola now I remember being young.
I am not a chef, I am cook. My first job was in a kitchen in Vienna, Austria, when I was 20. I discovered a passion for cooking.
The ingredient I cannot live without is olive oil. I also love tomato, flour – to make either pasta or gnocchi – basil and garlic.

If it’s your first visit to Italy, I suggest you eat pasta in the south. But the north is risotto country.
I was born in the south and brought up in north of Italy. My father was a nomad. My parents had six children, and not one of us was born in the same place.
I once went to Switzerland in an aeroplane. I asked for more tea, but they told me it was coffee. It was so weak and so bad I thought it was tea.
The dish I eat most is pasta. There are about 600 shapes of pasta and which one I eat depends on my mood.

ANTONIO CARLUCCIO’S GOLDEN RULES OF ITALIAN COOKING

Arabian Ranches, The Village, Dubai. Tel: (056) 2063854. Taxi: Arabian Ranches 2. facebook.com/CarlucciosME
The Beach, JBR, Dubai, Sun to Wed 8am to midnight, Thur to Sat 8am to 2am. Tel: (04) 5520802. Taxi: The Beach, JBR. facebook.com/CarlucciosME