Angelo the chef
Angelo comes from the tiny village of S’Agata sui due Golfi. It sits high on a hill between Sorrento and Positano in southern Italy, pretty close to heaven really. I met him nearly 40 years ago and I briefly lived in S’Agata too.
He has lived in Australia since 1974 and has only once been back to visit his family. He is the youngest of 7 children. Some of his brothers and a sister still live in the village. I have visited them a few times and it feels as though I never left when I sit at the kitchen table with Agata and Maria and their children. These children were actually children when I was there all those years ago. Now they are middle aged like me, with grown children of their own.
I am doing this post so that his family can see him and a little of what he does. He has become a very successful and popular chef in Brisbane and the Gold Coast. He will soon retire and perhaps go back to Italy.
I went to visit him at Va Bene, the restaurant in Brisbane where he works and he rustled up some yummy food for me.
chopping
chopping the mushrooms
These were quickly pan fried and plated to wait patiently for the steak to be ready.
the mushroom base
doesn't this look delicious?
As well as cooking the steak, he had the sauce for some gnocchi bubbling away and the gnocchi steaming in a big pot.
gnocchi sauce
cooking the gnocchi
all in together
Angelo probably learned to cook at his mother’s knee. He was quite a lot younger than the others and spent lots of time with her while the others were at school or work.
concentrating
Take a look at the finished dishes.
Yum!
Yum! again
Angelo with his kitchen mates, Robert and Ignatious
Angelo in his kitchen
If I close my eyes and listen to Angelo speak, he still has black hair and I am 19 and living far away from home in a small village in Italy.
This is for Maria, Agata, Rosa, Annamaria and all the others in S’Agata. I’m coming to see you in October.
Click here to meet some of the family and see a beautiful part of the coast near S’Agata.
