Dolce Vito Interview with Vito

Date Published:

12/08/2009

Hannah Williams caught up with Italian restaurateur, Vito from Channel 4 show Dolce Vito, to chat about Britain, Bologna and the glory of Cheddar cheese

Were you born in Italy?

I was born in Italy but I left when I was one year old. I started my first hole in the wall café when I was 19 selling pizza in Southampton. My father used to be a green grocer and he had a passion for dealing with high quality ingredients. I come from a home where I wasn't allowed to use anything but the freshest produce.

Tell us some more about your background…

I gradually expanded and had my first restaurant when I was about 24 or 25 serving food a la carte. But I've never been a chef. I like the kitchen but it doesn't do it for me. I'm a restaurateur and they're two different animals. You have to have a good chef in the kitchen but you've also got to have a showman out front to greet customers as soon as they walk through the door. That's what completes the whole restaurant experience.

Why do you think we have such a bad reputation overseas?

It's like all reputations - when people think about British people they often think hooligans and with food it's exactly the same. People have preconceptions but when they try it it's completely different. Over in Britain we have the highest standards of food production. Since mad cow disease we've improved our production rules and now we've got it right. We're producing some of the best meat in the world in this country.

How did you set about changing people's perceptions of British cuisine?

We've been doing a lot of taste tests because when people taste the produce, they're surprised at the quality. It's stuff they've never had the opportunity to try and they're impressed. I go into Italian restaurants in Bologna and some of them are rubbish. From man to man working in the trade I tell them: 'This isn't good enough'.

When you look even at the mainstream dishes in Britain - fish and chips - they're delicious. But people are not shouting about enough about it. There are great British cheeses out there but people just aren't shouting about them. That's what I'm doing. I'm shouting about them. I'm shouting about Lincolnshire sausages and the like because they're great British products.

What dishes are you serving in the restaurant and what meals have gone down particularly well?

For starters at the moment we got some real classics: cream and coriander soup, prawn cocktail of course, slow cooked spare ribs, we've got a great Ploughman's but the real star of the show in the first course is the Scotch salmon.

For the main dishes we've got fish and chips, fish pie, chicken in sauce cooked the English way, sausage and mash, lamb shank - they're mad for that over here, roast beef with all the trimmings and traditional rump steak.

Then for desserts we've got bread and butter pudding, which the Italians love, apple crumble, a cheese board showcasing British cheeses and cheesecake.

What was the biggest obstacle you had to overcome?

It's very different setting up a business in Italy to doing it in the UK. There is no incentive for Italian people to put their money into setting up a business. It's just tax, tax, tax. And there are so many different levels to go through. The banks are about as interested in serving you as I am in having dinner with Godzilla. We don't realise how lucky we are in the UK.

Did you ever feel like you may have bitten off more than you could chew?

That day in Naples I really wanted to give up. But I'd made a commitment to Channel 4 and something told me I had to keep going.

What stage are you at, at the moment?

We had a big VIP party on the 26th June which was a great success and since that it has been going steady. We're about to go into the holiday season so we'll get ready for a big push after that.

How important was it having Margherita by your side?

Ms Margherita is a formidable woman. I never thought I'd meet anyone like, I never thought I'd meet anyone who could keep up with me. On the night of the VIP launch in front of all the people I asked her, 'Please, will you be my wife'.

And did she say yes?

Well she took a long pause. She hadn't been expecting it but she said yes and after everyone else had gone we sat down with a bottle of Champagne and celebrated.

If you knew then what you know now would you have still gone ahead?

Definitely. You can't buy experience. You can't go into a shop and say I'll have £10 of experience please. You don't learn anything in this life if you don't try. Now we just have to wait and see.

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