Giorgio Locatelli (born 6 April 1963) is an Italian Michelin starred chef and restaurateur working and living in the United Kingdom.

Early life

Locatelli was brought up in Corgeno in the

comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...

Vergiate Vergiate is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Varese in the Italian region Lombardy, located about 45 km northwest of Milan and about 15 km southwest of Varese. As of 31 December 2018 it had a population of 8,716 Vergiate bo ...

on the banks of

Lake Comabbio Geography Lago di Comabbio is a lake in the Province of Varese, Lombardy, Italy. At an elevation of , its surface area is . Once it was part of the Lake Varese, Lake of Varese, but now the two lakes are connected just by an artificial channel, ...

, northern Italy. His uncle ran a restaurant, giving him an appreciation and understanding of food from an early age.Giorgio Locatelli: ''Made in Italy'' After working for a short spell in local restaurants in Italy and Switzerland, Locatelli went to England in 1986 to join the kitchens of Anton Edelmann at The Savoy. In 1990, Locatelli moved to Paris and worked at Restaurant Laurent and

La Tour d'Argent La Tour d'Argent (English: The Silver Tower) is a historic restaurant in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France. It is located at 15 Quai de la Tournelle. It has a rating of one star from the ''Guide Michelin''. History The restaurant claims ...

. Locatelli was in the army in his youth.

Career

On his return to London a couple of years later, Locatelli opened Olivo Restaurant, Eccleston Street, before opening

Zafferano Zafferano is a restaurant located in London, and was originally run by Giorgio Locatelli on behalf of A–Z Restaurants until 2005. The restaurant was awarded one Michelin star in 1999, which it held until it was stripped from the restaurant in 2 ...

in February 1995. They won "Best Italian Restaurant" at the London Carlton Restaurant Awards for two consecutive years and their first Michelin star in 1999. In February 2002, Locatelli and his wife Plaxy opened their first independent restaurant, Locanda Locatelli, on Seymour Street. The restaurant, which serves traditional Italian dishes, was awarded a Michelin star in 2003, which has been retained every year since. Locatelli has been featured in several TV series: ''Pure Italian'', 2002, aired on the

UK Food Good Food was a cookery channel broadcasting in the United Kingdom and Ireland, latterly as part of the Discovery, Inc. network of channels. The channel originally launched on 5 November 2001 and relaunched in its final format on 22 June 2009 ...

channel; ''Tony and Giorgio'', filmed with entrepreneur Tony Allan, shown on BBC2; and ''Sicily Unpacked'' ''Italy Unpacked'' with art historian

Andrew Graham-Dixon Andrew Michael Graham-Dixon (born 26 December 1960) is a British art historian and broadcaster. Life and career Early life and education Andrew Graham-Dixon is a son of the barrister Anthony Philip Graham-Dixon (1929–2012), Q.C., and (M ...

. ''The Big Family Cooking Showdown'' was also on the BBC with Locatelli as a judge with

Rosemary Shrager Rosemary Jacqueline Shrager (; born 21 January 1951) is a British chef and TV presenter, best known for being an haute cuisine teacher on the reality television programme ''Ladette to Lady'', and as a judge on ''Soapstar Superchef''. She also ...

. The hosts were Zoe Ball and Nadiya Hussain. He has written three cookery books. ''Made in Italy'', was published in September 2006. ''Made in Italy'' has received the Best Food Book award at the

Glenfiddich Food and Drink Awards The Glenfiddich Food and Drink Awards were intended to recognize achievements in writing, publishing and broadcasting on the subjects of food and drink. The awards had been sponsored since 1972 by William Grant & Sons, a family-owned Scottish disti ...

2007. A second book, ''Made in Sicily'', was published in September 2011. ''Made at Home'' was published by 4th Estate in 2017. In January 2019, he became a judge of ''

MasterChef Italia ''MasterChef Italia'' is the Italian version of culinary talent show ''MasterChef''. The first edition was aired from 21 September to 7 December 2011 on Sky Uno. The judges are chefs Bruno Barbieri, Carlo Cracco, Antonino Cannavacciuolo by the ...

''. In May of the same year he was guest in the Italian talk show ''EPCC (''E poi c'è Cattelan'')'' hosted by Alessandro Cattelan. There he announced he would be coming back as judge also for the ninth season of

. He also revealed he feels more British than Italian, having spent so many years in London.

Personal life

Locatelli lives with his English wife Plaxy and their two children, Margherita and Jack, in

Camden, London The London Borough of Camden () is a London borough in Inner London. Camden Town Hall, on Euston Road, lies north of Charing Cross. The borough was established on 1 April 1965 from the area of the former boroughs of Hampstead, Holborn, and St ...

References

External links

Homepage for the Locanda Locatelli restaurant
*
Articles by Giorgio on his publisher's blog, 5th Estate

Giorgio Locatelli, The Guardian
{{DEFAULTSORT:Locatelli, Giorgio 1963 births Living people Italian chefs People from the Province of Varese Italian expatriates in England Italian television chefs