Frankie Dettori’s Italian Family Cookbook. Frankie Dettori

Frankie Dettori’s Italian Family Cookbook

I got it.

The décor was entirely down to Marco, as it is with all of his restaurants, for, despite employing an army of designers and experts, ultimately most of the ideas come from him. He has a remarkable eye for detail and seems to know instinctively what works and what doesn’t. For Frankie’s he wanted a classical look that would exude fun with that all-important shot of glamour. He lined every inch of wall space with floor-to-ceiling mirrors then hung six huge glitter balls from the ceiling. The finished product was awesome, a perfect blend of tradition and fun that just oozes glamour.

Everyone fell in love with the four-foot wide glitter balls, me and the kids included. In fact, we liked them so much I nicked one and it’s now hanging in the TV room at home, all four feet of it. My wife Catherine was less than convinced it belongs there, but she was outvoted four to one. Democracy is a wonderful thing, especially when the kids are on your side!

Frankie’s opening night was a star-studded event. Madonna and Guy Ritchie (now regular customers), Claudia Schiffer and Matthew Vaughn, Philip Green and Larry David were there, to name but a few, and from that very first night Frankie’s created a buzz that has increased in volume to a now deafening roar. In the space of two short years we have opened three more Frankie’s restaurants in London: in Selfridges, Chiswick and Putney. We have just opened up in Dubai and Shanghai as well, with plans for Las Vegas in the pipeline. Amazing.

I was in Frankie’s with my brood just a few days ago and when I looked around the restaurant it warmed the cockles of my little Italian heart to see tables of families of all age groups, from grandparents to toddlers, laughing, eating, drinking and having a great time. ‘We’ve done it,’ I thought, ‘now there really is a great restaurant for families.’”

Marco

“The night Frankie popped into Drones for a quick supper was the catalyst for an idea which had been brewing in me for some time: to open a family restaurant that would serve good food with a lot of fun and a little bit of glamour thrown in for good measure. When Frankie and I got talking, I knew I’d found the perfect partner for my venture. His vision of what a good family restaurant should offer and his absolute faith that ‘la famiglia’ is the central component of life mirrored my own. We also had the perfect research group available to us. Between us we had two wives, three grandmothers, two grandfathers and, most important of all, eight kids aged between one and seventeen who all had very clear ideas of their own about what they wanted from a restaurant.

When it came to the menu Frankie and I followed my mother’s philosophy of buying the best and allowing the ingredients to speak for themselves. As well as classical Italian dishes, such as pizza, pasta and the traditional meat and fish, I was also keen to have a good quality burger on the menu along with a few unusual additions, like roast belly of pork and the much underrated calf’s tongue.

Of course, the restaurant business is not just about food: it’s also about entertainment. I wanted to make sure that everyone who ate at Frankie’s would be a little happier when they left than when they came in. With the help of Jean Cristoph, my operations director, and Calum Watson, my executive chef, we turned Frankie’s from an idea into a reality. Two years on, given the amount of families we have coming through the doors every week, it would seem we have achieved our goal.”

CHEF’S NOTE

When cooking I don’t always season with salt, especially when it comes to meat; I like to season using chicken stock cubes (Knorr is my preference). I add a pinch or two when cooking vegetable soups and all meat sauces and gravies. Firstly, this is more forgiving than salt and, secondly, when finishing sauces you don’t have reduce them as much to reach their desired flavour. This makes the finished product lighter rather than over-reduced and over-strong in natural salt.

When cooking vegetables, a crumbled cube in the water vastly improves their flavour. Another great use is when roasting a chicken: create a light paste using chicken stock cubes and some olive oil, then spread this over the breast of the chicken and inside the cavity walls of the bird, rather than seasoning with lots of salt.

Too many chefs turn their noses up at certain products, but when you think about it a burger is not a burger without ketchup; an English breakfast is not a breakfast without HP sauce; fish and chips are not the same without malt vinegar; and that great British institution the ham sandwich is not a proper ham sandwich without English mustard.

Let’s not forget that good food is all about flavour, so never be afraid to cook with these products. Many acclaimed restaurants have these ingredients and more in their dry goods stores and chefs use them freely and without compunction.

Good eating.

Marco Pierre White