From Alba Adriatica to the United Kingdom, Aldo Zilli has become a celebrity chef abroad. Here he recounts his childhood in a humble family but extremely devoted to cooking, his rise to success, and his latest projects.
The chef
That of Aldo Zilli, a celebrity chef from Abruzzo who has been a naturalized British citizen for nearly 50 years, is a story of success, but also of redemption. Born in Alba Adriatica, on the coast of Abruzzo, he is the last of nine children in a family of humble origins and little money, but rich in love and deep-rooted values. "We grew up in a very poor environment, there was a lot of love, but no money. We made do with what we had, my mother tended the garden, we ate what she grew,” he tells the Mirror. It was his mother's love and the atmosphere that pervaded the Zilli home that revealed to Aldo, even as a child, his talent and passion. "My mother was a cook, there were nine of us, and in addition to running the house she also worked at a local hotel in the restaurant business. My love for food came from her, I started making gnocchi and pasta with my mom from the age of eight for the whole family. I was the youngest, one of my brothers was a priest; therefore, on Sundays everyone else always went to church while I cooked with my mother."
It was his passion for cooking that instilled in Aldo the desire to discover the world and its cuisines, so at only 16 years old, he moved to Germany. “My first stop was Germany, as soon as I arrived I was homeless for a couple of weeks, there were no phones then, I couldn't communicate with my family, it was exhausting. Then I got a job in the back of an Italian restaurant as a kitchen worker, there my career began". Soon Aldo proved his ability to juggle the stove and was quickly promoted, but it was when he moved to the United Kingdom at age 19 that he found his America. Now Zilli is sixty-eight years old and boasts a career of great success and satisfaction in the kitchen, but also in front of the cameras (there are numerous culinary programs in which he has participated and still participates) and as an author of books. Aldo is a clear example of what can be called a self-made man whose success is based on the solid principles with which he grew up and of which he is extremely grateful and proud.
At Christmas time, he loves to celebrate gratitude surrounded by his loved ones, remembering Christmases spent in poverty but rich in love. "My ideal Christmas is to invite anyone I can, my immediate family, my wife's family, everyone basically. I like a big Christmas because I grew up with a big family and I never got anything for Christmas when I was a kid, I never got a gift because we didn't exchange gifts back then. So now, I give, I give as much as I can, I give my time, I cook, I do everything." The only thing Zilli asks for as a holiday gift is a letter from his children to him and his wife in remembrance of his childhood Christmases. “Every year my children have to write a letter to me and my wife and put it under our plates like I used to do with my parents. It is a very important tradition for me. In the letter my children write how their year was, what they think of their parents, how we can all improve as a family and how much they love us. We open them on Christmas Day. You are not allowed to open them before then, and we read them aloud around the dining table."
The chef, who is now in the process of opening a new restaurant, “Undercroft,” in London's Mayfair district, cannot avoid, however, celebrating Christmas through food as well, so he tells of his tradition: “I am a seafood chef, I love seafood. I always have my fishmonger deliver some wild sea bass, scallops and fresh lobster, so we have plenty of seafood for Christmas Eve. I don't drink alcohol, but I like to treat everyone to a nice glass of top-quality champagne. I usually choose champagne rather than prosecco. Christmas is special to me; I think everyone should have the best of the best. On the twenty-fifth, when we sit down for lunch, we eat appetizers first, then I usually make tortellini like my mother used to make and roast with lots of vegetables and two or three different kinds of puddings. At least one Christmas pudding must always be on the table, otherwise my mother-in-law might never speak to me again!", he says. The best Christmases for Aldo, however, remain his mother's: "My favorite Christmases are not my own, but the ones I used to spend at my mother's. I loved seeing her love us so much, all the same, all nine of her children sitting around the table. Those vivid memories of her touch me deep inside every year. The food I cook always reminds me of her. She taught me how to make everything from scratch, from gnocchi and tortellini to bread and focaccia. When the bread comes out of the oven, I can smell her scent,” she confides.
