Original subtitles

- Ah.

Oh, grazie.

- Grazie.

That's really good. Ossobuco.

This is one of my favorite places in the world.

But you'll never guess where it is.

- Okay, I'll give you a hint.

Grazie.

There are more Italians here

than in Bologna or Pisa.

The Ancient Romans saw it as their last frontier.

- No, it's not. It's Trajan.

- It's a place built on tradition and innovation.

And whatever you've heard, the food here is incredible.

Wow, this is so good.

I don't even wanna talk anymore.

I just wanna eat it.

Welcome to London.

I'm Stanley Tucci.

I'm Italian on both sides,

and I've been traveling across Italy to discover

how the food in each of this country's 20 regions

is as unique as the people and their past.

By population alone,

London could be Italy's 21st region.

- My friend, Andrea Riva,

is one of half a million Italians

who have chosen to make London their home.

So why is it, here, that for 150 years,

Italians have found the freedom...

This is completely different than what I saw in Italy.

To create something wonderful.

Do you see how I gave myself the bigger piece?

Mmm, mmm. Oh, my God.

It's so sweet. I love that.

Come on. This is incredible.

London's been my home for about a decade now.

In my mind, no city in the world

can rival its elegance and charm.

It's a magnetic metropolis

twice the size of New York City.

And today, I'm taking you to one of my favorite spots.

So here I am striding along Savile Row,

where some of the best tailors in London are...

In the world are.

Sadly, I have no time for a fitting.

I've got a lunch date at the only restaurant on the block,

the aptly named Sartoria.

That's Italian for "tailor shop."

Ciao. - Oh, Stanley.

- Hi. - How you doing?

- How you doin'?

- Nice to see you. - I'm so happy to see you.

- And you, and you. - You all right?

- Yeah, I'm good. Good. Busy.

- Good. - I'm excited to have you

in my kitchen.

- Francesco Mazzei and I

have known each other for a long time.

I love his food so much

that Felicity and I asked him to cater our wedding.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't know why.

- You're a lucky man. - I know, I know.

I've managed to sneak in

before the lunch crowd arrives, and it turns out

Francesco's cooking a dish I've never tried before.

So what are you gonna make?

- Whoa. My God,

look at the size of that.

- Right.

- That's beautiful.

- Francesco moved to London in the 1990s from Calabria,

one of Italy's poorest regions.

Today, he heads a busy kitchen with a staff of 50.

This one? Jesus, really?

Spicy and unctuous, 'nduja is a Calabrian sausage

that you typically find scraped on a bit of old bread,

not a scallop.

- Okay, look. - Wow.

I have children smaller than that.

Jesus.

Oh, that's beautiful. - Check this out.

- Yeah, that is really, really... whoa.

Look at the color.

That's a lot of paprika. - Beautiful.

- That's like a mad Hungarian got in there.

- Okay.

- Right.

- Yes, wow. - What we're gonna do...

The mashed potato here... - Yeah?

- Scallops. - Oh, my God.

- Just gonna go to the grill.

- Two minutes on the grill,

and then it's time for some pyrotechnics.

- This is dangerous, yeah?

- Ah, that's nice.

- So now...

- Yes.

- And we add the two main ingredients.

This is the 'nduja.

- It's like a candy, practically.

- Yeah, it's quite unusual.

- Whoa. - Kay.

- Whoa.

- Now, salsa verde.

Bread soaked in vinegar, anchovies, parsley, capers,

egg whites, and garlic. - Come on.

- Calabrian extra virgin olive oil.

- Oh, my.

- This Juniper branch, you see it?

It's to give a bit of decoration to the dish.

- Right.

- Scallops here. - That's beautiful.

You were the one who really sort of introduced this...

- Mmm.

That's delicious. - Good.

- It's got so much going on. Mmm.

I could hang around with Francesco all day.

- It looks like you're enjoying it.

- Yeah, I'm loving it. - Thank you.

- But I've got a lunch date upstairs.

John. How are ya?

- So nice to meet you. - So nice to meet you too.

Are you hungry? - Very.

- Good.

I'm being joined by John Dickie,

an historian who's about

as obsessed with Italian food as I am.

- A bit of 'nduja.

Nobody in their right minds, a generation or two ago,

would've thought of Calabria as somewhere that, you know,

had a cuisine to offer the world.

But we're looking in the wrong place

if we think that somehow it was peasants

who magically... - Yes, you're naturally...

- Transplanted this food onto our tables, you know.

The real motors of Italian cuisine are cities...

Parma ham, Bistecca alla Fiorentina,

your pizza Napolitana, and so on and so forth.

- So why has London become

such a fertile place for Italian food?

- Italy is a country where,

for bright, talented, young people, all too often,

it's who you know and not what you know.

Whereas London, it's more competitive.

But as they say in Italian...

Nobody looks at who you are. They look at what you can do.

- Right.

It's here in London

that Francesco has found the freedom

to take an entirely new approach to Calabrian cuisine.

What do we got?

- Talk us through. - This is our black cod

with licorice, red onion jam,

carbonero, olive oil mash, and crispy potatoes.

- Look at that. - Mmm.

- It's incredible.

This is absolutely delicious.

- Oh, thank you.

- What looks like haute cuisine,

is actually an ode to Francesco's

humble Calabrian roots.

- Really? - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

- So in all of the fish, it was a bit of salinity.

We marinate with licorice for a couple of hours,

and then of course, the red onion, Tropea onion.

- So good. - So it's a bit like

a bit of my experience on a plate.

- Where do you see London food going in the future?

- Cheers. - Cheers.

- And thank you so much. Thank you... cheers.

- There are over 3,000 Italian restaurants and delicatessens

in London today.

Look at that.

But this British love affair with Italian food

didn't simply happen overnight.

Oh, my God. It's so sweet.

That's the way it should be sliced.

Look, you can almost see through it.

One man's yearning for the food of his homeland

wound up transforming

this city's culinary landscape forever.

Gennaro Contaldo's simple, genuine approach

to Italian food started a gastronomic revolution.

Look at him, waiting like a sentinel.

Today, he's one of Britain's most adored TV chefs,

and the man who taught Jamie Oliver

practically everything he knows about Italian food.

- This is a church.

Do we have to pray for our food?

- Oh, my God. - This is beautiful.

- I'm never leavin'.

This is Mercato Mayfair, an Italian food hall

housed inside a deconsecrated church.

- There's everything. I don't know where to start.

- I don't know where to stop.

Gennaro's taking me here to pick up some ingredients

for a special dish he wants to cook me.

That's if we can resist the temptation to eat beforehand.

Oh, my God. Look at that.

How come I don't have one of those?

- Oh, look at that.

- This is what I'm talkin' about.

- That's beautiful. Look at the color of that.

I'm Stanley. - Ella.

- Ella.

Where did you learn to make pasta?

- Here. - Oh, wow.

So why did you come to London?

- Because for work. - For work?

- Yeah. - Yeah.

The number of Italians in London has tripled

in the last decade,

driven mainly by young folk like Ella.

I mean they're all Italian. - Yes!

- Even if it's not an Italian restaurant, they're Italian.

But when Gennaro moved here

in 1969, London was Europe's culinary backwater.

There were no real Italian restaurants?

- I walked in a place, and it was doing a carbonara,

and the chef said, "Can I show you how to do the carbonara?"

And they start to makes béchamels with a cheese,

and then the spaghetti was already pre-cooked.

- What? - Yes.

Just said, "Look, I know how to do the proper one."

He said, "Take your jacket and go away."

- He fired you. - He fired me straight away.

- Oh, my God.

- Look at that. Tagliarini.

- Is this what you wanna use? This one?

- Yeah... would be nice with a lovely, lemony pasta.

- Let's get one kilo. - Yeah.

- All right, and we'll take the machine too.

Yeah.

- Being the consummate forager,

Gennaro's whisking me off to the other side of town

to hunt for our next ingredient.

- Look! London Wall.

- A close cousin to arugula, rocket is believed

to have been brought here by the Romans,

who founded this city 2,000 years ago.

And the area around the Roman walls

is said to be a great spot

for this ancient Mediterranean weed.

Caesar? No.

- No, it's not. - It's not Caesar.

- It's Trajan.

Trajan.

- Can we find something rocket?

- What is that?

- I don't think so.

- And it's supposed to be growing out of the wall?

- But they used to call.

- Ah! See, what's that?

- Which one? - That.

- That's a dandelion. That is a chicory, yeah.

- But that's what my grandparents used to get

on the side of the road.

That's not it.

But sadly, no luck.

- There's everything except the rocket.

- This is the end of July, and look at the weather.

My shoes are wet.

On a day like this,

I can't imagine, coming from sunny Amalfi,

that London looked very much like the promised land.

- You know, my village,

you'd never seen such a beautiful place.

- But it wasn't where you were supposed to stay.

- Si! Yeah.

I loved London, and after 50-odd years, I'm still here.

- Yeah. I'm just happy I met you

when I came here. - Yeah, I know.

I'm happy.

- Come on. - Come on. Let's go.

- Let's go cook. - All right.

- Have you got any wild rocket yet?

- No, I have a Roman wall right next to my house.

A quick pitstop at a supermarket,

and we're back at my house

with enough wild rocket for a Roman legion.

- Smell it. - Oh, my God.

- Where I come from, the Amalfi coast,

lemons, lemons, lemons, and squeeze, squeeze, squeeze.

Eat, eat, eat.

- Amalfi lemons are renowned across Italy

for their incredible sweetness.

- Not a lot of pasta recipe involved around the lemon.

Beautiful garlic. Cut 'em a little bit.

Have we got any chili?

- So here... - Yes.

This is nice one.

The chili don't have to be hot. - Yeah.

- Chili bring out the flavor of whatever you eat.

This is joyful. - Yes, yeah.

- But have to be respect.

So what we do with this one, we just leave him like that.

- Don't even cut it.

It's an instant little kick, isn't it?

- And that garlic goes in. Put a little bit of oil.

- I'm using extra virgin olive oil.

- Nice, nice. - Yes,

and I'm gonna bring it up,

like, to a medium heat.

I can smell it already. - The garlic.

- Oh, my God, okay.

- The same time, put salt inside, yes?

- Yes, yes, yes. - Straight in.

Look at that, that is yum.

As soon as it come up, it's ready.

- Yeah. - And if it's a little bit

al dente, it doesn't matter.

Oh, my... look at that! I'm sorry,

I just get excited every time I cook a bit of pasta.

- A little knob of a butter. - That's a big knob.

- Yeah. - Yeah.

- And now, you can get right on top of the chili,

if you press 'em a little bit. - Yeah.

So it's interesting that you use butter.

- Who use butter? The campagna ate lots and lots

of butter. - Lots of buffalo.

- But what actually the butter do... look at that.

Even the creaminess. - Yeah, mix it all.

- Then mix it all like that.

Just a little squeeze of lemon.

- Gennaro's tagliarini with Amalfi lemon and London rocket

may not be a strictly traditional recipe...

- The lovely pepper and the one rocket.

- Look at how beautiful that is.

But it's with beautifully simple and inventive dishes

like this that Gennaro was able to change

London's culinary scene forever.

- Yes... yes? - Oh, my God.

Come on, come on.

- Buon appetito. - Buon appetito.

- Oh, my God.

- The lemon.

- Mmm, wow. Mmm.

- Mmm. - Mmm.

- I love it with the rocket. It's so good.

- Mmm.

- I don't even want to talk anymore

about it or anything.

I just wanna eat it.

Is Felicity here? Felicity?

Sadly, our romantic meal for two

is being interrupted by my wife.

We're gonna make this again quickly for her.

Oh, hi. - Hi, hun.

- You're back. How was the dentist?

- Oh, ever a pleasure. - Let me see.

Oh, it looks good. - Go away.

- How are you?

- We just made this and ate it.

- You didn't make... - No, we couldn't.

- Can we do it now? - We make it now... it's fresh.

It's fresh. - Oh, yum...

- Fantastico.

- A little zest? - Yeah, zesting me.

You are very zesty.

- I've been told that for years.

Thank you.

- Mmm.

Oh, my God.

- Isn't that incredible? - It's amazing.

I'm trying to get a more manageable bite,

but it just keeps coming.

- And just like that, another Londoner converted

by the gospel according to Gennaro Contaldo.

- Would you like to move in? We can form a bubble.

- London's east end was once

a blue-collar, multicultural neighborhood.

But today, the area has blossomed

into a gastronomic hot spot.

At its heart is Spitalfields Market.

I'm walking to meet a friend of mine,

Angela Hartnett, who is an incredible chef,

a Michelin-starred chef,

but one of the most down-to-earth,

loveliest people ever, and who knows more about food

than any of us will ever know.

- Hi, Matthew. I need some chicken.

So probably those carcasses and maybe...

- Angela has invited me over to her house for lunch

with her extended Welsh-Italian family.

- Shin of beef. - But first,

I've gotta actually help her cook.

- I'd like rump as well, 'cause it would be

quite cool to do that.

- May I? - Marvelous.

Oh, hello. - Hi, how are you?

How are you?

- Nice to see you. - Likewise.

- Yes, yes. - Welcome to East London.

- What are you gettin'? - We're gettin' this beautiful

shin of beef. - Okay.

- Lovely sort of veal rump.

These are both gonna be braised down,

and then I want a load of chicken

just to make this lovely, light broth.

We'll take some red to cook with, and we'll take a white.

- That's exciting.

- You can carry the wine, Stan. - Yeah, sure.

Where are we going? - Let's go cook.

- Oh, I'm starving. - Well, you gotta cook

a little bit first, Mr. Tucci. - Oh, yeah, that's right.

- Just like mine, Angela's grandparents were Italian.

They were part of a chain migration to Wales

from a little town in Emilia-Romagna.

What year was this?

- This was after the first world war.

Italy was decimated. - Yeah.

- You know, the poverty there. - Mm.

- And basically, it was the actual... same immigrant story

that you get in America, in the U.S.

- But why South Wales as opposed to England or America?

- One person comes over, then their brother comes over,

then he brings his wife, she brings her brother...

- Right, right. - And suddenly,

you have this tiny village in Italy, Bardi,

near Bologna, near Parma, and all of them

went over to South Wales. You know, bizarrely.

So it's that "who you knew"...

- So you figure, "Well, at least I know this guy."

- Yeah.

- This really is a case of truth

being stranger than fiction.

Almost 80% of the original Welsh-Italian population

can trace their heritage to the same village:

Bardi.

- As the eldest granddaughter,

I was the one who had to do everything.

If Nonna wanted shopping, it was me.

- It was you, yeah. - If I had to go cook,

it was me, or I had to clean. My brother was teased...

Already did nothing.

- Yeah, yeah. - So you probably did nothing,

and your sisters did everything.

Have sympathy for them, Stanley.

- Oh, my God. Yeah.

It was at her nonna's table that Angela first learned

to make agnolini in brodo,

a filled egg pasta

served in a rich broth made traditionally for Christmas.

- This is what we will put into... in a hot...

Is that okay? - Oh, come on.

Oh, come on.

- It's so good.

While the broth simmers away,

we're getting started on the filling for the pasta.

And in here, what do you have? You have...

- I've got celery. I've got carrots.

I've got garlic, and I'm gonna press all of that,

'cause it's so soft now...

- Yeah. - Through a sieve,

and we're gonna put that into the filling.

Just parsing all the veg. - Oh, that's beautiful.

- Just so you don't waste any of that.

And that's gonna go... - Inside the pasta.

- Inside. - There's no meat inside of it.

No. - Traditionally, no.

- Yeah, no, that's gorgeous. Yeah, okay.

Just like in the foggy valleys of Emilia-Romagna...

- Then we add the cheese.

- Breadcrumbs and cheese,

affordable even to the poorest families,

take the place of meat in the filling.

- This is looking good.

I'm not gonna do tons, otherwise,

you'll never get back to West London, Stanley,

that's all I'm saying. - Yeah, that's true.

Do you feel more Italian than British,

or an amalgam of both?

- This is my home country. I love it.

But I definitely think if you've been brought up

with the Italian DNA of just generosity and family,

it's very hard not to keep that in you,

and we're very family.

- Speaking of family,

Angela's mother, Giuliana, her Aunt Viv, and Uncle Ren,

have arrived just in time to do the hard work

of filling the agnolini.

So you were all born here? - Yes.

All born here... or in Wales. - South Wales.

- Yeah, yeah.

- You get that great confusion between cultures

of making pasta, drinking tea. It's just crazy.

- And this is the filling that I made

with Stanley earlier, Mum. - See what it's like.

- Mmm. - Slightly bit more salt on it.

- Bit more salt? Okay, Mum. That's fine.

We can put a little bit more salt.

I'm getting the sense

that in this family, Angela's Michelin star

doesn't count for all that much.

- It's a system to follow.

- It is a lot of work, isn't it?

This is what people did,

'cause you weren't doing anything else.

- Everyone's like quick recipes,

but actually, good recipes take time.

A little bit less than the filling.

Yeah, don't go too big, Mr. Tucci.

- I'm sorry. - I mean, honestly,

you turn your back for one minute,

and it all goes to pot. - I'm nervous.

- Beautiful.

You still haven't lost your touch, Mum.

- No, no, no. - Just press them down,

and then use your stamp.

- Oh, my God. I'm gonna make these

with my kids. - Yeah.

- It's like a little sun. They're so pretty.

- We tend to make about 800.

- On a good day. - There's always a cheer

when we break the 500... - I know.

- And then phone calls go to my aunt's

to check how many they've made.

- So it's a bit of a competition?

Yeah.

- That's enough of this. - Gorgeous.

All right, let's cook 'em.

- Right, so just literally in, and they're gonna come up.

- Oh, my God. This is incredible.

It smells like healthiest thing in the world.

Mmm.

Oh.

- The sun came out! - Yeah.

- It's the end of July, but the scent of agnolini

is making us all feel a little Christmas-y.

Is that enough, Mum?

- Yeah, plenty. - Plenty.

- Buon appetito.

- Yeah. - Buon appetito.

- Thank you. Didn't think you're gonna have

agnolini in the summer,

did you, Ren?

This is terribly exciting.

- I have to say... - Thank you, helpers.

- Thank you. - Cheers.

I've heard a lot about you.

Yeah, it wasn't good.

- Oh, I know. I can imagine.

- Mmm, I can smell them, Angela.

- Yeah. - Yeah, but that's...

that's delicious. - They're very good, Ang.

The broth is delicious. - Mmm.

Mmm.

- This is incredible. - Mmm, very good.

- Absolutely incredible.

What these agnolini lack in meat,

they more than make up for in flavor.

I'm still waiting for Angela's mother's approval.

- What'cha think, mum?

- Quality control. - Very nice, thank you.

Tastes lovely.

- Angela's family gathering together to make and eat

these amazing agnolini brings back memories of home,

even a few generations later.

- And they still do it in Bardi.

- On a Thursday, they will bake this.

- All right, now I'm gonna have to make this at Christmas.

- Yeah, yeah. - Yeah, yeah.

- Well, you've got a team. You've got a team, right?

I have so many children.

- Exactly. - Get them working.

- Yeah.

- I'm in Chelsea, a charming neighborhood

renowned for its tasteful boutiques

and picturesque streets.

I'm going to what might be

the only restaurant of its kind in the world.

Rather than specializing in dishes

from a specific region of Italy,

La Mia Mamma heralds the art of home cooking

in a very unique way.

- Ciao, Signore Stanley, how are you?

- Ciao, ciao, ciao. The place is the brainchild

of Sicilian restauranteur Peppe Corsaro.

- Did you have a restaurant in Sicily?

- No, we didn't, no. But actually,

when I came to London, you know,

I realized I was missing Mamma's food lots.

You know, I lost about 20 kilos.

I was always, you know, "My mom, she does it this way."

One of my friends, you know, we're having a glass of wine,

and he said, "Why don't you bring your mamma?"

You know, he was joking.

The following day, I call my mum,

and she didn't even think twice.

- Every few months, this restaurant

visits a new Italian region.

And not only does the menu change,

so do the chefs.

These daring mothers left their homes

in search of opportunity.

But somehow, they've managed to bring

the best thing about Italy to London.

- Peppe's sister, Sara,

was one of the first mammas to join.

- You see, how many different mammas do you have

at one time in the kitchen?

- Four, five. - Really?

- Yeah, 'cause there's so many beautiful regions in Italy.

Why limit ourselves to one mamma item?

Why don't we bring mamma from different region?

- This idea is a brilliant idea.

- Thank you. - It's brilliant.

This month, the restaurant's menu is set

by mothers Rosanna, Patricia, and Angela.

Since they're from the southern region of Campania,

they're going to teach me a beloved Sunday classic.

So what are we doing? - Okay.

- What are we making? - Ragu.

- Napoletano.

- Ragu Napoletano. - Yes.

- So what is that? Explain that to me.

- Mmm. - Oh...

- Look away now, if you're a vegetarian.

The ragu Napoletano is a symphony of meat:

beef ribs, cuts of pork, sausages,

thinly-cut slices of steak,

are all browned, then poached in red wine...

- And finally,

simmered in a cascade of San Marzano tomatoes

until the meat is falling off the bone.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- Oh, when it bubbles? - Yes!

Or like pops?

Pippiare. I've never heard that.

The aroma of this classic meat-based tomato sauce...

- You have to smell. - Yes.

Is one I awakened to practically

every Sunday morning of my childhood.

- Yeah, but it's a good... - That smells really nice.

- Yes. - And the mammas are indulging

my sense of longing for those years.

- Yes, it's not allowed.

It's like no one is allowed to do it.

- Yeah. - But it's the best part.

Mmm, it's already so good.

You have to do it. La scarpetta.

- Scarpetta, meaning "little shoe,"

is how every Italian child first tastes

their mother's ragu.

Yeah.

- Mmm. - That's gonna be great.

No, you can tell... it has that depth of flavor,

with all that.

- Si. - Incredible.

Amazingly, none of these brave women

had ever worked in a professional kitchen

before coming here.

Few spoke any English at all.

But this city's given them a new lust for life.

- Elementary school teacher? - Si.

- How long have you been here in the restaurant?

- Sexy. - Wow!

That's the one English word you know.

- She's flirting with you. - We could be a thing?

- You know, there's no, like, first course, second course.

It's like a feast. At La Mammas,

they always keep cooking. They keep bringing more food.

You cannot think, "Okay, I'm full."

- Tomato, basil, yeah.

Sepia? - Yeah.

- Oh, beautiful. - Cuttlefish.

Mmm.

Oh!

Oh, my God.

- This is really delicious.

- The ragu, lovingly simmered for six long hours,

just melts in your mouth.

With its promise of opportunity,

this city attracts immigrants from across the globe.

But when each of these adventurous mothers

arrive in London,

they bring a little slice of their own home with them.

I'm about to explode,

but the mammas won't let me leave

without a proper send-off.

Grazie!

- So whenever I'm missing home,

and my mother, I know where to go.

Thank you.

Thank you. It was great.

I'll see you for breakfast.

Okay...

- This is London's beating heart.

Historically, the meeting point between the city's

wealthy west end and working class east was Soho.

It's a place that's always welcomed everyone.

So Italians, too, have left their mark.

100 years ago, these streets were home

to a network of Italian businesses,

feeding and employing the 13,000 Italians

who lived in this little Italy.

The Camisa brothers first opened a grocery store here

on old Compton Street in 1929.

Let me get, then,

some tortellini. - How much would you like?

- Enough for four people who eat a lot.

- Four Italian portions. - Yes, yes.

But in those days,

no British person, rich or poor,

would have stepped foot in a place like this

to try low-class Italian food.

You have the sausage? - Yeah, all done.

Yeah? - Perfect, yes.

Ciao.

- Thanks a lot, bye-bye. - Good to see you, bye.

- Just around the corner, in 1926,

an Italian restaurant set out to change all this

by pretending it wasn't an Italian restaurant at all.

- So it's a cold roast beef salad

with peaches, horseradish, and watercress.

Wow.

- When Quo Vadis first opened its doors,

French haute cuisine was all the rage

in London's high society.

- Ooh, la la.

- Try and stagger this as best you can

to avoid carnage.

Give us five minutes between tables at least, yeah?

- Today, this restaurant is run by Chef Jeremy Lee,

who's preparing us some of Quo Vadis' famous dishes...

- It's complete heaven on Earth.

- From those early trailblazing days.

Oh, it's pretty.

And joining me for lunch,

is an expert in Italian immigration, Terry Copee..

- Oh, hello. - Hi, how are you?

- How nice to see you. - Nice to see you too.

Who like me, loves Italian food.

Hi. - So we have got...

- Yes. - And...

Beautiful.

Thank you.

- The chime at the end... - Yes.

- That's so nice. So this is chicken alla...

principessa, or something like that.

- Mm-hmm. Delicious.

- Let's have a little bit of this sage butter.

Mmm. Do you see how I gave myself

the bigger piece? Isn't that terrible?

Tradition dictates...

- I love it. Saltimbocca means

"to jump in your mouth." - Exactly.

- All right, let's eat.

Oh, delicious.

How's the chicken?

- That is so delicious.

- The saltimbocca I recognize.

But I've never seen pollo alla principessa on a menu before.

- Yeah, that sauce is really tasty.

That's not... - Oh, my God.

- Italian. That's very French...

- It tastes more French to me. - An idea that the sauce is.

- We have to get Jeremy in. Jeremy!

- Hello, my darlings. How are you?

- Good, how are you? - Very well.

- This was delicious. - Did you like those?

- Very much. - Oh, my God.

It's delicious. - There must have been a time

when they were the height of modernity.

Now, it has become almost dishes of antiquity.

- But so tell me, what is that?

- Well, princess' chicken... I mean, anyone's guess really.

But there was a simmering of porcini and shallot in butter,

which is then simmered in white wine.

To which then added a great glug of cream.

So I think, interestingly, it was just like French food.

- So the sauce is the principessa bit?

- Exactly. So I think these dishes

with rich sauces were really very haphazard homage

to an original. - Yeah.

London's crème de la crme lapped up these dishes.

But it was all a sleight of hand dreamed up by Quo Vadis'

notorious owner, Peppino Leoni.

- The saltimbocca

wouldn't have been called that, and certainly,

prosciutto de Parma... - Yeah.

Was jambon de Parm.

- He was introducing Italian foods into a cuisine...

- Sort of surreptitiously, yeah.

- Which was very French. - Yeah.

That's really interesting. - And of course, gradually,

it was translated into Italian food.

- Even though it was Italian. - Even though it was Italian.

- Yes, that's right, and I think France and Italy

have always vied for supremacy.

- Yes, right. - But I think what Peppino did,

was he must've been amongst the first

to glamorize Italian cooking.

- Do we know what kind of person he was?

- I think Leoni was very much a man of his time.

He had fought in the first world war.

- Yes, that's right. - In the Italian army,

and he was very much a patriot.

- Mm-hmm. - I do believe

he was certainly a supporter of fascism.

- Just as Leoni had managed to convince Londoners

to eat Italian food, history got in the way.

A dangerous wave of nationalism

was gripping Italy.

Led by Benito Mussolini,

the fascists weaponized Italian food,

and in 1937, established a headquarters here

in the heart of Little Italy,

to advocate for the supremacy of their own cuisine.

- Italians are now, for the first time, our enemies.

And in Soho, friendly little restaurants

decide to remove evidence of their nationality.

Down come the Italian signs.

- When Italy declared war on Britain,

Leoni was arrested.

But he wasn't the only one.

Every single Italian male over the age of 16

was rounded up and interned in camps outside of London.

When the war ended, some Italians returned to Soho

and went back to doing what they did best.

- Decades later, the food that was once reviled,

is now adored as Londoners have embraced something

that is quintessentially Italian.

Who could've imagined that this little cup of espresso...

Grazie. Would become a symbol

of Italian glamor and the taste of la dulce vida

all over the world?

- I'm heading west out of the center of London

on the trail of a revolution in Italian food.

So much Italian cooking in the city

celebrates authentic ingredients

imported from Italy.

But here, in the suburb of Acton,

a famous Italian product

is being taken in a totally new direction.

Acton, the mozzarella capital of London.

Who knew?

I've come to La Latteria...

Thank you, sir.

A dairy dedicated to the craft

of traditional Italian cheese-making.

The brains behind this mozzarella super lab

is former investment banker, Simona de Vietri.

So what are you doing here?

Mozzarella, what else?

- Why are you making mozzarella in Acton?

- Well, it started with me leaving Italy 20 years ago.

- Yeah? - And my parents,

every time they were coming to see me,

the first thing they would pack was mozzarella.

That was my only time when I used to have mozzarella.

- Leaving her well-paid job in finance,

Simona spent a year searching the world for the perfect milk

to make mozzarella.

But she soon came to realize

that rather than importing ingredients,

she could take a local product and transform it.

All the milk you use is British milk?

- British. - And you like

the British milk? - I love the British milk.

- Why do you like it?

- Because the flavor is slightly richer.

Reason is the grass.

Makes also difference on the color of the milk.

Here is more yellowish. - It is yellow, yeah.

- You see? Did you notice?

- Yeah, this is completely different

than what I saw in Italy.

- The animal eats and then goes straight into the milk.

- Yeah.

The magic of mozzarella begins when rennet is added to milk

to separate the curds and whey.

- Yeah, it's incredible. - Which you can see...

- It's like a magician. - Exact.

You try this. - Like a pork pie.

- Like a cake. - Like a cake.

- Look at that. - Yeah.

- Look at all the milk. - Look at that...

Oh I know. Look at it comin' out.

- It's still warm.

- I love that.

And it's so comforting. The warmth of it and the...

Everything about it.

Oh, it's so good.

Even more wonderful than Simona's mozzarella

is another cheese her team makes

using her mozzarella.

It looks almost identical.

But it's a ball of deliciousness called burrata

from "burro," Italian for "butter."

- So I show you the burratas.

- Oh, yeah. - It's flat.

- That literally looks like a thing of pasta,

like lasagna.

- So then, look what he does now.

He goes from the middle, and he's gonna shred it

into lines of mozzarella.

- Stracciatella.

You mix the Stracciatella with the cream and salt.

Now, this is the filling of your burrata.

- Right. - Can you see

he's making a pouch?

And then put the Stracciatella.

- So that's what burrata is? - That's what it is.

Ta-da!

- So simple. - Very simple.

I mean, in theory.

It's taken time to win Londoners over.

Many chefs initially refused to work with a mozzarella

that wasn't made in southern Italy.

But today, Simona's burrata is earning its place

on the menus of some of the city's top restaurants.

- Burrata? - Thank you so much.

- Now, enjoy. - Thanks a lot.

Thank you.

Ooh, wow. Look at that.

Oh! Come on.

Well...

She was right.

That's really good.

Oh.

Food has always been

an immigrant's strongest link to home.

For over a century, it's how Italian immigrants

have defined who they are, and where they come from.

But enclosed within this little mother of pearl cheese,

is perhaps the future of Italian gastronomy.

That's really delicious.