Celebrity chef Gino D'Acampo officially launched his new luxury Italian restaurant Luciano in Alderley Edge and has promised that Manchester will be next for what he says is "the best Italian restaurant in the area".
Gino was in Alderley Edge on Monday night to officially unveil the new Luciano menu to a packed restaurant of diners and famous faces including his showbiz pal Christine McGuinness.
And he told the M.E.N. that work is already underway for the first Manchester branch of Luciano, the restaurant named after his eldest son.
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As we revealed earlier this month, Gino's My Restaurant at the Corn Exchange in Manchester is to close this week along with four other Gino restaurants in the UK to be rebranded as a new Italian, Riva Blu.
Gino said that the rebranding was against his wishes, but that he was now moving on with his own plans for an even BIGGER and more lavish restaurant site in Manchester that he said will be ready to launch as Luciano by the spring.
Gino said: "My dad used to say to me for every action there is a reaction. Those five restaurants, they were rebranded without my consent and this is my reaction, I open new ones.
"When one goes, I say let’s do something bigger and better.
"So we are currently working on what will probably be my biggest site yet in Manchester, it's going to be huge, over three floors with a sky lounge, terrace, it's going to be amazing.
"They are busy chiselling away on it as we speak and should open before the Summer."
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Gino is yet to disclose the location, although the MEN understands it will be a plum city centre site for the first Manchester Luciano.
He also says he has plans to open the "biggest Italian restaurant in Birmingham" in the year ahead, as well as new sites in Sheffield and Leeds.
As to what diners can expect at the venue, which is now serving up the fine dining Italian menu at the former Piccolino site in Alderley Edge, Gino says premium, authentic Italian produce and recipes is what it's all about.
Gino says: "When I saw this opportunity, I thought if you want to open the best Italian you choose the best site in Alderley Edge.
"How many great Italian-owned restaurants do you know? Run by people like me who go back to Italy all the time? I'm there every month getting the best ingredients, researching the best recipes, I bring them all back straight away to my restaurants.
"Luciano is the name of my first born child so it has to be a five star Italian restaurant experience and that is what it is."
Signature dishes include arancini tartufo, Gino's favourite napoletana pizzas, linguine vongole, Dover sole and a calamari fritti that he says is "second to none".
Gino says he was keen to open up in Alderley Edge as he has so many friends that now live there.
He laughs: "I have so many friends and they all moved to Cheshire, I say why is everyone moving to Cheshire? They say I need to be here so I open up here."
But while the area is known for its celebrity and footballer residents, Gino says it all goes over his head.
He laughs: "I don’t watch television and I’m not a huge football fan so those kind of things don’t mean anything to me. I don’t do restaurants because of that, I do it because it’s the right place at the right time to open up here."
And in the midst of all his restaurant openings, Gino is also busy on the array of TV shows that fans know and love him for - with new series of Family Fortunes, Gino and Fred and his Italian Adventures all to come in the year ahead.
How does he find the time for it all? "I have a Filofax," he says.
"I organise everything in there to perfection, it has to be written down, that's the way to do it."
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