As you’ll know now, Salvo’s made it through to the show, and were competing against the Bristol-based restaurant Prosecco. “It was a little bit nerve wracking,” says Gip. “We were called from the hotel at 8.30am, and we didn’t get back until 11.30pm. And we had to cook for 50 people!”
The competition saw the two restaurants having to cook a ravioli starter of their choice, any main they wanted, and a frangipane tart with a lemon mascarpone to Gordon’s exact recipe. Salvo’s made a tortellini with ricotta and spinach for starter and pork fillet with sweet peppers and vinegar for their mains. The 50 customers then decide whether they’d happily pay for each dish, with the restaurant that gets the most paying customers winning overall.
“Gordon gave us 20 minutes to gird our loins and get ourselves ready and then the orders started coming in, and after every course we got judged. My wife thought I was having a bloody heart attack - the funny thing is, I thought I was having a heart attack at one point when my voice went and my throat constricted. It must have been the stress. I’m not usually that kind of guy but it was really demanding with a lot of cameras and it was very hot in there. I haven’t broken a sweat like that in 20 years.”
Throughout, Gip did his best to keep his opposite number on his toes. “I enjoyed talking to him, whispering nasty things to him in Neapolitan because he was a Northern Italian. I decided to mutter Neapolitan profanities to him throughout until he told me to shut up - the cheeky young whipper snapper!”
Of course, a big part of ‘The F Word’ is working alongside the famous Gordon Ramsey, and he clearly earned Gip’s respect. “He was a very interesting person,” Gip says, “because he has an explosive character on TV, leaning forward, bashing his hands - he is quite an intense guy. However, it’s obvious he’s got a lot of knowledge. He is a massive motivator; he inspires his chefs to go on and be the leaders of his various restaurants around the world. And I got a little taste of that and I can really say that while he was shouting at us to get a fucking move on and so on, he’s quietly also giving you tips, guiding you - just what a good motivator and an inspirational guy should do.”
The good news from the show is that Salvo’s won - which means they stand a chance of now being voted the top local restaurant in the country. “At the end of the 12 weeks somebody will be crowned the best local restaurant in the UK,” says Gip, “while I don’t think we’ll get that far, if we did, it would be amazing. But to get to the best local Italian is a massive achievement. I was quite surprised. We cook damn good food and I think some of the best Italian food that I’ve tasted, but you can’t say, ‘we are the best Italian’, because there are people out there who are charging three times as much and importing everything. We can’t import everything. I’d like to think that if you’re paying £100 for a meal that it would be fantastic.
“However, I’m really proud of being best local Italian. I’ll challenge any place in the country that have got a neighbourhood Italian like ours. That’s why I’m so flipping chuffed because it is a neighbourhood restaurant. This is not about me, it’s about the restaurant, it’s about the customers. We cook the food and they put the neighbourhood part of it by coming in. Am I made up? You are bloody dead right I’m made up!”
We’ll bet getting a table at one Leeds’ best Italian restaurants has just got a whole lot tougher. Congratulations to Salvo’s!
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