How did you persuade your family to be on camera for this series?!
It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a couple of years. I’d done some work with my daughter Mia and she was very good, surrounded with cameras and all of that. I done something before with Luciano so I knew he’d be alright. Rocco I was sure about it. The one I wasn’t sure about was Jessica, my wife, because she doesn’t really like to get involved in it. But the lockdown sort of helped, because we were all very eager to do something different, so that was the right timing. I said, ‘Let’s go to Italy, I’ll take each of you around Italy!’ So, it’s probably the only thing I can thank Covid for! The activities, they were less sure about. Kayaking? The D’Acampos do not do activities! You will see that how that turns out!
Your children were born and bred in Britain. Is it important to you that they feel a strong connection to their Italian roots?
It’s one of the things that I think about every day, it’s enormously important for me. Every day I try to give them examples of how we would do it if we were in Italy or what would happen. It’s something that I care a lot because clearly, I’m Italian and I love Italy. But I love the UK too and I don’t want them to choose Italy over the UK, I just want them to understand where I come from and where my family comes from. So whenever I can, I do that. In fact, we now live six months of the year in Sardinia so they get a fair injection of Italy, it’s very balanced, even though they don’t speak Italian! I want them to have both worlds, and we are lucky to have the chance to do that.
What was your most memorable moment filming this series?
I think when I took my son Rocco to Torre Del Greco, which was the town that I was born – that probably was the highlight of the series for me. To be able to take Rocco around Naples on a scooter, and for him to understand the mentality of Neapolitan people, definitely a highlight for me. It’s important for them to understand where the craziness comes from! Then we went to see the grave of my father which I had never been, which was another cool thing to do. We ate buffalo mozzarella together, because that’s what I used to do with my dad.
Each episode of the series focuses on a different family member, was it special to have this chance to spend quality time one-to-one during filming?
Yes because I think when it’s everybody together, you kind of talk to everybody but you don’t really talk, you just jump from one question to another. But to be able to spend those days that we did filming together and to experience it with them one by one, I thought it was a much better way to do it. And I think if we ever going to do something in the future again I would love to do that because you dedicate your time to one person, which nowadays is quite a difficult thing to do. It’s always everybody together, it’s never one to one.
Would you encourage your children to become chefs or restaurateurs?
to be honest I will be very surprised if they don’t go into the restaurant business because they all love food and they all love to go out and eat in restaurants. And I think they will all be smart enough to see it’s there and they can make a good living out of it. I would! But I don’t know, maybe they will have a vocation for becoming a doctor or a priest, you can’t go against that! They see my passion but they also see that it can be a very dangerous business – you can make a lot of money but you can lose a lot of money, look what happened with Covid for example.
Do you have a favourite dish you cooked in this series?
I can easily choose my favourite child but I cannot easily choose my favourite recipe! Don’t ask me to choose my favourite! Today my favourite will be different to my favourite tomorrow. It depends too much on that moment. What have you been eating the past two days? Where are you? What fresh ingredients are available? Italians will not accept buying anything out of season. You will not get strawberries in November in Italy, like you do in the UK.
Can you share your top three tips for cooking good Italian food?
Italian cooking is sometimes misunderstood, the number one tip that I give to people is to keep it simple. Don’t use too many ingredients. Italian cooking is not about using lots of ingredients together. It should be four or five and choose them well. Don’t overdo it. Also don’t overcook the ingredients, that’s another tip I can give. Italian cuisine is something very quick, you choose the right ingredients, you keep it simple, you cook and leave the texture so all the vegetables are nice and crispy and the pasta is al dente and the sauce is not overcooked. Everything needs to come together. If you have a recipe with two or three different herbs, three spices, onions, garlic and so on, by that time your palate gets completely messed up. It’s too many things to take in!
