A TASTE OF ITALY IN LONDON

When it comes to Italian cuisine in the capital, the choice can be bewildering. But our resident food and wine expert has homed in on restaurants with excellent wine lists, from simple trattorias and pizzerias to Michelin-starred establishments

- FIONA BECKETT

All the world’s major cities have more than their fair share of Italian restaurants, and London – with more than 2,000, according to one recent estimate – is no exception. But over the past 36 years Italian food has had a disproportionate influence on the dining scene here, thanks to one restaurant, The River Café, which opened on the banks of the Thames in Hammersmith in 1987, and placed the same importance on wine as it did on food.

It also spawned a whole generation of entrepreneurial young chefs who adopted the philosophy and set up their own restaurants in the River Café mould. Most notably Jamie Oliver, but also including Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Sam and Sam Clark, Stevie Parle and Theo Randall.

None of them were Italian, and neither were their River Café mentors Ruth Rogers and the late Rose Gray, two women who were just passionate about Italian food. Nor indeed was another ambassador for regional Italian cooking, Angela Hartnett, who came to fame through the Gordon Ramsay stable (but at least has an Italian grandmother). The only Italian to dominate the London scene in quite that way has been Giorgio Locatelli, who opened his eponymous restaurant Locanda Locatelli in 2002.

WINES TO MATCH

Maybe it’s because they were outsiders that these chefs appreciated just what simple Italian food had to offer without having the desire to reinvent it. Coincidentally, the wine offering at many of these establishments was moulded by another outsider, Canadian David Gleave MW, who used to work for Italian importer Enotria before setting up his own business Liberty Wines, and who has consistently championed the huge diversity of Italian wines.