Owner Alvaro Maccioni

Career : Owner of La Famiglia in Langton Street, London SW10 with daughter Marietta who started working in the restaurant aged 16. Opened 1975. Alvaro is a passionate advocate of using fresh, seasonal produce and traditional methods of cooking. He insists that Italian food is specifically regional and a generic generalisation is incorrect. Specialises in Tuscan cuisine. Alvaro believes that 'if a chef cooks like his mother, he is a great chef. - If he cooks like his grandmother, he is even greater!' He arrived in Britain in 1958 and, after working as a chef and waiter, much of it with two Italians called Mario and Franco, often described as the godfathers of London's Sixties trattoria boom, he opened his own place on the King's Road. It was called, simply, Alvaro's and was soon so popular that he decided to take its number out of the phone book. Bridget Bardot went there and so did David Bailey, Michael Caine, Jean Shrimpton and Princess Margaret. Soon he was successful enough to open his own nightclub, Aretusa, and a chain of restaurants followed. In 1972 he sold out to the Golden Egg chain and returned to Italy. Awards : In 1996, Alvaro won first prize from the Accademia Della Cucina Italiana - the first time the prize has been awarded outside Italy. Books : Had Alvaro's Mamma Toscana published by Pavilion in 1998.