Andiamo! Citalia Magazine Winter 2023

Everyone in the Amalfi Coast always ate to
the seasons and expressed themselves through
food - and that’s still the same today.
Every single village along the Amalfi Coast are proud of their own
produce and fiercely compete with one another. My father used
to say to me that Minori anchovies are lovelier than any of the
other villages and I never took notice - because as far as I was
concerned, they were all from the same sea! But now as an adult,
I realise he might be right. It turns out there’s a space in the
seabed right by our village that grows a certain algae, which
brings a unique flavour of the sea, and the fish are more silver.
Such a subtle difference, but you can taste the difference from
the anchovies compared to a village one mile away!
Nowadays there's a lot of what we call agroturismo. Quite a few
of my friends are lemon growers and have created albergo agriturismo
out of their houses so that visitors can come in and taste this and that,
all with a glass of limoncello.
Lemons are everything on the Amalfi Coast - not just for your gin and
tonic. Use them for lemonade, to flavour your fish, to disinfect your
table. While researching my book Limoni, I found out that the Queen
always imported Amalfi lemons. She would place a massive bowl of
them on her table because their smell was so inebriating.
If you find lemons growing as you walk
down the hill, it’s okay if you take one
lemon, the growers will forgive you. I always
did as a little boy - you can’t help it!
Where I come from everyone can cook. My whole family - my father,
mama, dad, sister, grandma - would all cook inside the house. We had
a family shop selling natural linen, which is a big product in the Amalfi
Coast. I used to go with my father to meet his many customers. One
morning we went to Maiori, a village about half a mile away, to meet
with his friend Alfonso, who ran a family trattoria.
I begged my father to stay and pick me up later in the afternoon, and
the joke is that he picked me up three years later, because I rarely
left the trattoria! I loved it so much there, and Alfonso would give me
little jobs to do. If someone ordered chicken, I would be sent out the
back to capture a live chicken - the food was that fresh. Over time
I was working there over the school holidays as a summer job, and
that’s what inspired me to become a chef. Aged 20, after travelling
around Italy, I landed in the UK, and I am so blessed that I can now
split my time between England and my beloved birthplace!
The Amalfi Coast is an emotion, in fact all of Italy is an emotion.
You capture moments and they move you, but the feeling stays forever.
A 7 night holiday in the Amalfi Coast, staying at Hotel Santa Caterina, starts from £2,069 per person.
Speak to one of our ​Personal Travel Planners on 01293 765061
Winter 2022/23
Andiamo!