F Word Series 5 F Word: Prosecco interview

Meet Prosecco's rivals

Date Published:

27/10/2009

Introducing Prosecco, one of the Italian restaurants competing in Gordon's F Word search for Britain's Best Local Restaurant

Read the interview with Prosecco's head chef, Diego Da Re, as he reveals his cooking inspiration - and how it felt to cook for Mr Ramsay himself.

How did you feel when you found out you’d made it into the top 18?

Well it all started off very lighted hearted, and started when someone said they’d nominated us for the F Word programme - and when Heidi (Diego's wife) told me I said, 'I don't care as long as they pay the bill!'.

When we found out we were progressing, it didn’t feel real, it still doesn't feel real. We tend to watch The F Word on television and personally I don’t know if I'm in some kind of Twilight Zone, it feels so blurred; it's incredible.

What was it like when Gordon came to the restaurant to say you were through?

That was a shock! We had the crew come in, one of the producers, and we were trying to work out if they were foodie and knew the technical terms. Jokingly, I then said that if I saw Gordon I would make the 'Loser' sign at him because Scotland had just got kicked out of the World Cup qualifiers - and all of a sudden there was a lot of tension between the guys! Which made me think it might be the main man coming. I’m sure in every kitchen in the country whenever they do something fantastic they say, 'Look at this, imagine Gordon is coming in'; I'm sure that happens.

Heidi then sent a note to the kitchen and had written on it 'It's Gordon'. So not to have the guys panicking I screwed it up and put it in the bin and just said it was some guy who’d come in for lunch. So we started concentrating on the main course and then he came in the kitchen and I was like, 'That's really you isn't it, you’re really tall and you have big feet as well!'. I missed the trick of telling him, 'Gordon f**k off out of my kitchen'. Afterwards you’re always more clever!

Why do you think your restaurant was nominated?

I think we deliver a good package. The food, the way I see it, is a tad above average; it's not poetry but it's a very nice, solid, smart food that gets the job done. In London everything is very high profile and you will go to a restaurant that has the toilet made of gold and you will eat in there just because of the toilet - but the rest of the country, it doesn’t have that extreme angle. You want the whole package; nice big portions, good food at an affordable price. Local, organic if possible and we are doing that. We are delivering good food and good service. I think Prosecco gives this idea of a little, small, independent restaurant, off the track, out of the guides, away from the supermarket kind of chains and, for a lot of people, they say it is so refreshing; so nice to find something slightly different.

What's the inspiration behind your restaurant/cooking?

The person who introduced me to the trade was my Auntie Antonia, she used to cook in Venice. She was a real character. When I was eight I went to Venice for my summer school holiday to live with her and they were having a fantastic life. They lived inside the British consulate and, being in the 1970s, I was starting to have a clue about James Bond and things so, for me, to have to buzz the buzzer of the British consulate to go home, I was always hoping to see James Bond come out!

The transformation that my auntie had in the kitchen; basically in the kitchen she was a viper spitting blood, spitting poison. She was incredible. She was a chef in a trattoria close to the consulate. They had this fantastic, unorthodox, unconformist lifestyle. It was very different from home where my dad was working Monday to Saturday in the factory. My auntie was incredible; she was throwing pans, smashing waiters on the head, she was a nightmare in the kitchen. A lot of jokes as well.

Whenever you read a book about chefs and their rock and roll lifestyle, sex, drugs and rock and roll, I'm sure that was my auntie and my uncle. I’m sure they did it all!

What was it like having to cook for Gordon?

I was sh*tting myself. The guy can cook and I should have done my homework really; I should've learned more about him - I made a couple of mistakes because I had done too much with flavour. I'd gone out of my way to give it that extra flavour and Gordon picked up on that and he was right. I felt a lot of pressure, despite being in my own place. Basically, I was the one who hadn't done things normally and he pointed out a few things that could be improved. He was very happy with the risotto, which is great. The feeling is still unreal, that you're there and Gordon comes through the door!

Tell us about your main course

We're going to do a venison loin, pan-fried with some gin, we're going to have a juniper and bayleaf sauce with it. Some polenta, which is a typical Northern Italian food, and savoy cabbage with pancetta and chestnuts. It's very autumn flavours and reflects the north of Italy. It has more of an Alpine kind of flavour which is something we always try to push with our restaurant, because Italian food is not all about pizza, basil and aubergine. The range is much broader than that.

What would it mean to you, if you were to win?

Imagine you just go for a kick-about with your mates in the park and somebody comes along and says, 'Hey, by the way you're in the final of the Champions League'. And then somehow you even win it. I mean, would that be real?

The feeling that we have about being in the whole competition is totally unreal. I really hope that the whole experience will help my business to progress and probably free me and free Adam (the chef) as well to have the odd Saturday night off! From a business point of view, we're just after a tad more revenue so we can afford a tad more personnel, freeing Adam for a Saturday night off eventually! To have a Saturday night and to go on holiday. That is the reality of the trade. We could open even other restaurants. That would be the hope that it would bring.

Facts about the Prosecco team

Watch the new series of the F Word, Tuesdays from 3rd November at 9pm on Channel 4