Cucina paradiso: Joe Trivelli’s modern Italian home cooking

The River Cafe chef on his mentors in the kitchen and what he cooks for his family. Plus six recipes from his new book, The Modern Italian Cook

The idea of a celebrated restaurant chef compiling a cookbook of dishes that he or she actually cooks at home is almost a joke set-up. Given their antisocial hours, and overexposure to rich flavours, the punchline would be something like: “How many recipes for beans on toast do you need?”

And yet, this is what Joe Trivelli set out to do with his new book, The Modern Italian Cook. By day, he is one of a pair of head chefs at the beloved, game-changing Italian restaurant the River Cafe in west London. But when he’s not cooking there, he’s invariably rustling something up for his wife and two young children. “People always ask me if I like to cook at home,” says Trivelli. “And I know quite a lot of chefs understandably don’t. But I really do.”

My kids still talk about ‘the disgusting pancakes you made us, Dad’