Antonio Carluccio

Antonio Carluccio, OBE, ( born 1937 in Vietri sul Mare, Salerno) is a London-based Italian chef and restaurant operator.

Carluccio was born in southern Italy, but moved with his father employed by the railway and grew up in Piedmont. At 21 he went to study languages ​​to Vienna. From 1962 to 1975 he lived as a wine merchant in Hamburg. In 1975 he moved as an importer of Italian wines to England, where he was manager of Terence Conran's 1981 Neal Street Restaurant in Covent Garden. Since 1989 he is the owner of the premises. His wife Priscilla ( Conran's younger sister ) and it opened in 1991 an Italian grocery store called " Carluccio 's" and operated since 1994, a wholesale business. The first " Carluccio's Caffè " was opened in 1999, there are now a number of other in southeastern England.

Antonio Carluccio is the author of several books on Italian cuisine and has appeared in Food and drink programs of the BBC and in his own television series. Since 1998 he is backing the award Commendatore al Merito della Repubblica Italiana dell'Ordine the Italian Government for his services for the Italian food industry.