A biography for Gino D'Acampohasn’t been written yet.
“I can cook in front of millions of people on TV, I don't care. But cooking for my own family really freaked me out. If they don't like it, they tell you.”
“My mum and dad weren't wealthy people. We used to have pasta every day, meat once a week, fish was once every two weeks, presents only at Christmas and birthday.”
“I'm the king of napping. I can nap and I snore. Then I wake up, go to the toilet, wash my face, have a coffee and it's like a brand new day.”
“Get on with your life and learn to become a better man and that's the way I live my life.”
“My kids are not allowed to be fussy eaters. The problem with fussy children is their stupid parents. I run a family kitchen and in my house we don't have options. I never had options, why should they?”
“I think if you're a good person and you show that you learned from all the mistakes that you made you move on with your life. Everybody will accept that. Only an idiot will not accept that or keep reminding you of it and keep pointing that finger.”
“French food is too poncy.”
“Very few Italian restaurants in Britain do a good job. They're too scared to show you what real Italian food is like because they think you can't handle it, so they dilute it.”
“I always go back to Italy for holidays because I live half my life on the island of Sardinia.”
“If I'm feeling nostalgic, the first thing I do is open a packet of spaghetti, olive oil in a pan, garlic, a little bit of chili, a sprinkle of fresh parsley, and that's it. It reminds me of my mum.”
“I was a boy, so I decided to get married and then I will be a man.”
“There is no way on Earth I'm going to get a call from 'Bake Off!' It is a British institution. People sit down to watch it with a cup of tea. The last thing they want is Gino D'Acampo!”
“There's no point spending every day with the kids and not talking to each other. I'd rather spend one very intense day together.”
“Every summer I sail to a small island called Cavallo, which lies between Sardinia and Corsica.”
“My mother would never say anything I cooked for her was great. She was always a 'Yeah, but' person. When she tasted my food, I used to say to her 'Don't tell me too straight, lie to me!' She couldn't even understand why I was on television.”
“Italy is a hot country. Wherever you feel heat, your excitement and passion come out. We're hot-blooded, and where there's passion there's love, but also anger, hunger, excitement.”
“I get lots of female attention on social media and some of it is disgusting. But my wife doesn't really care.”
“The personality of a restaurant is very important.”
“One thing we don't have in Italy is the culture of Chinese, Indian, French and Thai food.”
“The problem that people have is that they eat too large portion sizes. Italians have been eating pasta for hundreds and hundreds of years, and we've never been an obese nation. We do the pasta, the pizza, all the cheeses, but it all has to do with how much you eat.”