2 Minutes With Gino D’Acampo – Who Snacks On Wotsits And Loves His Pasta

We grill the chef on the important stuff...

Posted on

8 January 2019

All Credits: PA

Cheeky chappie Gino D’Acampo is passionate about Italy and his food heritage – hence his last two cookbooks and accompanying ITV series, Gino’s Adriatic Escape and Gino’s Italian Coastal Escape.

We caught up with him to get into the nitty-gritty of his eating habits…

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We hope you all enjoyed last week's penultimate episode of #GinosItalianCoastalEscape where Gino made his Chicken Skewers! We hope you all enjoyed our taters in My Restaurants we can't wait for next week's episode but we don't want this series to end! xxx

A post shared by Gino My Restaurant (@ginomyrestaurant) on Dec 14, 2018 at 3:38am PST

Your death row meal would be… To be honest, I don’t really care what it is as long as it’s gonna take a hell of a long time to eat! I want to make sure I would last as long as possible. An Italian Christmas meal probably would be the one for me, so I would have five or six hours left!

The thing you still can’t make is… I struggle with Indian cuisine because Indian cuisine is about the understanding of the spices. It’s something that I haven’t been brought up with, spices. In Italy we don’t use a lot of spices.

Your favourite store cupboard essential has to be… A good bottle of extra virgin olive oil.

The kitchen utensil you couldn’t live without has to be… A dishwasher. I hate washing up.

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We hope everyone is tuned into Gordon, Gino and Fred: Road Trip now on ITV! We are screening tonight's show and the next two, in all of our My Restaurants! And all @club_individual members will receive a glass of prosecco, on us Salute! Xxx

A post shared by Gino My Restaurant (@ginomyrestaurant) on Oct 11, 2018 at 1:17pm PDT

If you get hungry late at night, the snack you’ll reach for is… A packet of Wotsits. I’m giving you the truth!

Diet or full-fat? Full-fat, but in moderation. I don’t do light.

You like your eggs… I like them fried and I like them runny. I hate when they’re hard.

Your favourite childhood dinner was… My mother used to make the best spaghetti vongole ever.

Last night you at… I had penne all’amatriciana. It’s a pasta with pancetta, onions and chopped tomatoes. I cooked for my wife and the kids, everybody was home.

If you were getting take away you’d order… Chinese or Thai.

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We had a fantastico day yesterday for the official opening of My Coffee & Deli Bar in Manchester! It was so great to see everyone who came down to meet Gino! xxx

A post shared by Gino My Restaurant (@ginomyrestaurant) on Oct 5, 2018 at 8:49am PDT

The ultimate hangover cure has to be… There’s nothing better than a fried egg and bacon toasted sandwich. I’ve tried everything. Because you need the protein of the eggs, the saltiness of the bacon and the carbs from the bread. You’ve got everything.

You can’t stomach… Anything to do with coriander. I don’t like coriander. I like Thai cuisine, but I don’t like coriander. When there’s any coriander, I hate it. To me, it overpowers the flavours too much. It has a soapy flavour which I don’t like.

Your signature dish is… Anything to do with pasta. I don’t have one specific one. Ask me to cook any kind of pasta, I know that I can do it. I have a passion for it.

Gino’s Italy Coastal Escape: A taste Of Italy From The Aeolian Islands To Elba, by Gino D’Acampo, is published by Hodder & Stoughton, priced £20. Available online now.