This illustrated memoir follows the life story of iconic Sydney restaurateur Beppi Polese.
Beppi is considered the patriarch of Italian restaurants in Sydney. He has been hugely influential in introducing the Australian palate to the flavours of his native Italy, and it was in his restaurant that many Sydneysiders first experienced such modern menu mainstays as mussel, octopus and artichoke.
Born into a farmer’s family in the mountainous Friuliregion of Italy in 1925, Beppi left home at 14 to work in a factory in Milan before taking his first job in food service at the Albergo Doria Svizzerain 1940. His career was interrupted by the events of World War II. Beppi spent time in a concentration camp in Austria near the end of the war, but managed to escape and find his way back to Northern Italy where he fought with the partisans until the end of the war.
Beppi steadily worked his way up the restaurant hierarchy and then in1952, after working in the great hotels of Florence and Venice, he came to Australia, bringing a rich European heritage of food service to his new home. He worked in several leading Sydney restaurants of the time and then opened Beppi’s Restaurant on 10 June 1956.
