Hi, Francesco here. I am the chef owner at L’Anima, the popular Italian restaurant opened in the City of London four years ago. I’ve been cooking for over 30 years and have worked in many famous restaurants around the world, including the Dorchester in London and the Eden Terrazza in Rome.
Ever since I was a child growing up in Cerchiara, Calabria, I loved cooking at my mother’s side. We had a farm and kept our own pigs, chickens, ducks and guinea-fowl. We made our own salami, olive oil and bread. When I was nine I worked in my uncle’s gelateria and learned to make ice-cream and pastries. Cooking is in my blood.
My childhood gave me a great love of family-produced food. Family is key to me, it’s my life. And when I had the opportunity to meet my Welsh Lamb supplier, Elwy Valley Welsh Lamb, the fact that it’s a family-run business was very special to me. It’s like having our own farm next door to us in the City of London.
Welsh Lamb is some of the best-produced meat in the world. I love its sweet, aromatic taste and tender texture. And the wild landscape of Wales with its mountains, pastures, salt-marshes and wild herbs, reminds me of home. As I like to use UK produce in my cooking, there’s no point using anything else. It has to be Welsh Lamb.
So when Prince Charles launched the Welsh Lamb Club at Clarence House in 2010, I was more than happy to be a founding member. I’m also an ambassador for the Slow Food campaign. The values are the same.
My favourite Welsh Lamb dish is spit roast leg of lamb with cannellini beans and homemade sun-blushed tomatoes. It’s the perfect combination. But I like to use the whole of the lamb, including the offal, sweetbreads, and bones for stock. It’s a Southern Italian tradition to use the whole animal. It’s the way we cook back home.