Antonio Carluccio is an OBE, OMRI and a much loved and respected Italian cookery writer, chef, restaurateur and food expert. He was born on the Amalfi Coast in the South and raised in the wooded North-West has given Antonio a rare and privileged breadth of culinary knowledge. It was here, in Piedmont, at the age of seven that Antonio started his life-long past-time of hunting and collecting mushrooms and fungi with his father.After time spent living in Germany, in 1975 Antonio moved to London and while learning English, traded as a wine merchant of Italian wines. His hobby of studying and collecting wild mushrooms continued to flourish as he found many varieties growing in the English countryside close to London, almost completely undiscovered.Antonio took over the Neal Street Restaurant in Covent Garden in 1981, which traded for 26 years. In 1991 Antonio opened a deli next to the restaurant and in 1998 started the first Carluccio's Caffè in Market Place, London.In 1983 Antonio made his first appearance on BBC 2 talking about Mediterranean food and at the same time was asked to write his first book, An Invitation to Italian Cooking. Subsequently he has written thirteen books, published worldwide and made numerous television programs including the hugely popular Antonio Carluccio's Northern Italian Feast and Southern Italian Feast.In 2011 his travels around Italy were filmed for the popular BBC series Two Greedy Italians, made with friend and fellow chef Gennaro Contaldo. RecognitionIn 1998, Antonio was awarded the Commendatore OMRI by the President of Italy for services to Italian gastronomy, the equivalent of a British knighthood. In 2007 he was awarded an honorary OBE.Carluccio's operates from over 57 UK locations. In addition the company has granted franchises over two territories: the first over Ireland with presently one location open in Dublin; the second over 6 countries in the Middle East including three locations presently open in Dubai.