I love Manchester. It's a super-cool city and its famous rain is part of the charm.

Naples is famous for its handmade ties so I always buy them there.

French food is too poncy.

Rushing around my restaurants and doing a lot of walking when I film in Italy and a bit of swimming and running keeps me thin.

I usually have a driver, or take a taxi. But I'm down to earth. I like to clean the kitchen, I iron and wash my wife's car! I just don't usually take trains.

I'm very lucky because I can say to my wife, 'Is there any chance we can have shepherd's pie or this or that tonight,' and she does it very well - especially as I don't always want to cook!

I get lots of female attention on social media and some of it is disgusting. But my wife doesn't really care.

There's no point spending every day with the kids and not talking to each other. I'd rather spend one very intense day together.

I'm the type of person who doesn't do television just for the sake of it.

I don't care about flowers or chocolates or anything like that, that's not me.

Get on with your life and learn to become a better man and that's the way I live my life.

For many, the gastronomic heart of Italy is the Emilia-Romagna region. Its capital is Bologna, which is often overlooked by tourists but has a beautiful historic centre and a lively yet chilled-out atmosphere.

Between my brain and my mouth there should be a filter where common sense kicks in before I deliver a word, but I think when God made me he forgot the filter.

My house is very normal - only I have three dishwashers, two fridges and hobs everywhere.

We Italians respect food and ingredients more than anyone else.

Only the French people say French food is the finest cuisine in the world. If you ask anyone else, they will tell you the best food in the world is Italian.

I was a boy, so I decided to get married and then I will be a man.

I thought, 'This is not going to drag me down, this is going to make me a better man.' So I came out of prison a man with a plan, determined to set up a business importing Italian ingredients.

The secret of making a mistake is not to regret it, or regret it until a certain point, but to learn from it.

Food should be simple, colorful and accessible to everybody.

The personality of a restaurant is very important.

My favorite pizza is the real Neapolitan - Italian sausage, friarielli, mozzarella and chilli.

With me and my family, we have nothing to hide.

Everything changed for me when my first son Luciano was born. That moment makes you realize you are not here by yourself any more and it is an experience that changes you.

My only ambition was to have a restaurant and bring real Italian food to this country. Television was never even part of my idea, so I can say without hesitation that I am living someone else's dream.

I am still around too many Italian people to start speaking like a guy from London. I live in Italy for six months of the year, all the people in my restaurants are Italian and it means that when I speak, it is always with an Italian accent in my head.

I like women. I enjoy the company of women. What's wrong with that?

My wife is a very clever woman. She knows when to say something and when to bite her tongue.

I'm the kind of guy who can't stay still.

My favorite breakfast that is nutritious and very quick to do is eggs. Of course not everyday because that's not good for you, but I like to have eggs in the morning at least three times a week as it gives me a lot of energy.

The problem that people have is that they eat too large portion sizes. Italians have been eating pasta for hundreds and hundreds of years, and we've never been an obese nation. We do the pasta, the pizza, all the cheeses, but it all has to do with how much you eat.

I came from a very lower-working-class family in Torre del Greco.

I always remember my mum and dad arguing a lot and one main reason was lack of money. I realized very young that I always wanted to make money so I'd never have the same arguments like my mum and dad.

My father always encouraged me to do whatever I wanted, providing I was happy. He wanted me to go to school, but because I never wanted to, it was the only thing we argued about.

My worst buy has always been cars and boats. I used to own two Ferraris, but as much as they're beautiful, they're a waste of money.

My grandfather used to be a chef and I remember going to his restaurant to peel potatoes and clean his floor. He used to go out and kiss all the girls in the restaurant and I thought 'oh this is good... one day I want to be like him.'

I do what I want, I say what I want and I do it when I want. I live my life the way I want to live it, which I think people appreciate it.

Nowadays, everyone writes a cookbook. Models, singers, whatever, everybody thinks that they can do it and cook on TV. What they don't understand is that if you want to do it well, you need to put in the hours.

My mother would never say anything I cooked for her was great. She was always a 'Yeah, but' person. When she tasted my food, I used to say to her 'Don't tell me too straight, lie to me!' She couldn't even understand why I was on television.

My kids are not allowed to be fussy eaters. The problem with fussy children is their stupid parents. I run a family kitchen and in my house we don't have options. I never had options, why should they?

I'd much prefer to be at home with my family than go out.

We have a big garden; there's a swimming pool, and we keep chickens. I love them. I love getting up in the morning and collecting the eggs.

I'm a great believer in telling my children about turning my life around and I work a lot with younger teenagers when they are in trouble.

It was totally insane doing goat yoga in San Francisco.

There is a huge misconception that you need to spend hours in the kitchen to produce something special.

I had never seen an avocado until I came to London in 1994. They just weren't a feature of southern Italian cuisine.

I always travel with my iPod and I've never read a book in my life. It makes me tired; my brain is not set up for reading.

My grandfather was a chef and would make everything himself, including the wine, and had his own huge pizza oven. All the neighbors used to come over and use it to bake their bread.

I have wonderful memories of growing up on a farm with chickens running all around in the small southern Italian town of Torre del Greco.

Generally, Italians just eat better. They're not doing that thing where they're eating two or three hundred grams of pasta. They're never eating a carbonara sauce with a tub of cream in it.