Gennaro Contaldo

Born in Minori on the Amalfi Coast, Gennaro Contaldo is one of the most respected chefs in London and is widely known as the man who taught Jamie Oliver all he knows about cooking. Gennaro regularly appears as a guest chef on Saturday Kitchen. He has also appeared on Jamie’s Italy, Jamie’s Kitchen, Oliver’s Twist, Jimmy’s Farm, Countryfile: Summer Diaries and Sky One’s Greatest Dishes in the World. He appeared on the BBC Two series Food Poker in 2007.

In 1999 Gennaro opened his own restaurant Passione, on Charlotte Street in London, which was awarded Best Italian Restaurant 2005 in the Tio Pepe ITV Restaurant Awards.

His first cookbook, also called Passione, was published in 2003 and won the Gourmand World Cookbook Best Italian Cuisine Book 2003, as well as being shortlisted for an André Simon Award. Gennaro’s second book Gennaro’s Italian Year was published in 2006 followed by Gennaro’s Italian Home Cooking two years later. March 2010 saw the arrival of his fourth book Gennaro’s Easy Italian.

Contaldo toured the Italian regions with Antonio Carluccio in a four-part series for the BBC called The Two Greedy Italians. This was followed up by a second series The Two Greedy Italians: Still Hungry which aired in 2012.

Also famed for his association with Jamie Oliver he has developed menus and trained chefs for Jamie’s UK restaurant chain Jamie’s Italian.