WHEN I was invited for a slap-up lunch with Gino D’Acampo, I didn’t hesitate to accept – but what followed made the recent downfall of his career less surprising.
I was just days into my new job when I found myself sitting across from the Italian chef as he popped open a bottle of prosecco – and it ended up feeling more like a date than an interview for The Sun.
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The married star, 48, oozed charisma and confidence – but it became glaringly obvious that his career would end in controversy.
Gino brazenly admitted that while most chefs credit a passion for food and fame for inspiring their career – he took the job as a way to seduce women.
He told me about being eight years old and admiring his granddad who would kiss female customers as he schmoozed in the family restaurant.
Forty years on, the under-fire star has been sacked by ITV over allegations of inappropriate and intimidating behaviour on set.
Gino was unashamedly uncompromising during our interview. He knew his own mind and wouldn’t change for anyone.
I remember him being irritated by the camera angle highlighting the dark circles under his eyes.
But it was his transparency about using his profession to become a ladies’ man that was most shocking.
Sitting in one of his – now defunct – restaurants in Camden Town, Gino recalled: “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 had wanted to be a dentist, but ended up being a chef. I think I’ve always had a fascination for jobs that have white jackets – but dentists can’t really kiss patients, they’ll get in trouble… chefs can do it.
“So I followed in my grandfather’s footsteps.”
Before answering whether or not his ploy had worked, Gino took a sip of his pricey prosecco served in a chilled flute.
He smiled before admitting through laughter: “It worked, oh my god it worked.
“I used to come out of the kitchen and ask, ‘is everything alright?’ followed by a kiss. We were always kissing.
“I wouldn’t change that for anything in the world.”
Much has changed since that conversation back in 2018.
In the last few months alone, popular BBC stars like Gregg Wallace and Wynne Evans have been hauled off air over their alleged inappropriate language and behaviour towards women in the work place, which they both deny.
Most recently, a former TV producer told The Sun she was left “shocked and humiliated” when Gino sketched a portrait of a naked woman with her legs open while working on Saturday Cooks in 2007.
Gino has always denied the allegations against him branding them “deeply upsetting”.
ITV cut ties with him removing Family Fortunes from its schedule and bumping him off This Morning.
Once applauded for being a TV personality with “no filter”, Gino regularly made lewd innuendos on air – even stripping totally naked in front of Gordon Ramsay and Fred Sirieix for The Ultimate Road Trip.
In a way, his behaviour was encouraged by show producers, whether it was on daytime telly’s This Morning or Celebrity Juice after the watershed.
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However, looking back on my lunch with Gino, I realise he had correctly predicted his own demise.
He told me he was living “someone else’s dream” because he’d never planned to be a celebrity – especially after a run-in with the law.
Born in Naples, Gino moved to London when he was 19 to work in restaurants.
He started out as a waiter but in 1998 he broke into singer Paul Young’s home and stole £4,000 worth of guitars and a prized platinum disc.
His DNA was discovered on a cigarette butt outside the singer’s bedroom door – and was sentenced to a two-year prison term, of which he served ten months.
He said previously of his jail time: “It was a dreadful experience, but in life I’ve learned to make good come out of everything.
“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.
“People said, ‘You made a mistake – we all do, show me what you’re capable of and move on.’ I got the business up and running and then TV came calling and I was offered guest spots on Great Food Live, Saturday Cooks, This Morning… you name it.”
Gino put his success down to having “no filter” – but admitted to me he believed every time he was on TV it would be his last.
“Before every show I think ‘I’m going to do whatever I want because this is my last show’,” said Gino.
“I’ve been saying that for 15 years.
“As long as I can be myself and do it the way I want to do it, then I will keep going.”
His own words of warning to himself may well turn out to be true, having been accused of aggressive behaviour, using abusive and sexualised language during outbursts on set.
Defending his unfiltered TV appearances, the dad-of-three said previously: “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.
“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.”
What’s striking is that Gino never had any intention of changing.
During the three-hour long lunch, Gino asked if I was married.
Caught off guard, I stuttered, but before I got the chance to reply he’d jumped in, presuming I was about to say “yes”.
“Happily?” he enquired, with a twinkle in his eye.
It sounded like he was chancing his arm and we laughed it off – but others may not have been so amused.
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