Gennaro Contaldo was helping out in restaurant kitchens along the Amalfi coast at the age of 10.
By the time he came to London in 1969, he reckons he had already worked for more than 20 chefs.
Arriving in England, aged 21, he found work in Putney General Hospital before cooking his way around a London which, in the 1970s, had no idea of what genuine regional Italian cooking was like.
He found himself arguing with unsympathetic bosses: "We don't mix cream with tomatoes"; "ragù doesn't have any oregano in it." One employer wanted to serve Hungarian food with an Italian slant. Another wanted to use canned mince for lasagne.
His luck changed when he became Antonio Carluccio's chef at his Neal Street restaurant. After 12 years, he left to open Passione in 1999. Since then a string of television appearances, including ones with his protégé, Jamie Oliver, have made him one of London's most highly regarded Italian chefs.