Profile

Aldo Zilli is chef patron of the Zilli Fish group and is one of Soho's most flamboyant restaurateurs. Owner of Zilli Fish (the flagship restaurant), Zilli Café, Zilli Green and Zilli Bar, Aldo is a larger than life personality whose profile has rocketed in recent years.

Biography

Aldo is now a member of the Ready Steady Cook team (BBC 2) which attracts viewers in excess of 2 million – a position he was invited to take after his immensely popular episodes for BBC 1’s Sunday Life (Aldo’s episodes were the highest of the series), where he focused on food waste.

2008 was a very busy year for Aldo with appearances on BBC 1’s Step up to the Plate, ITV 1’s Daily Cooks Challenge, BBC 1’s Eating in the Sun, Channel 5’s Family Recipe, UKTV’s Market Kitchen, BBC 1’s Chelsea Flower Show, BBC 3’s The Real Hustle, BBC 1’s The One Show, ITV 2’s Extra Factor,  ITV 1’s Christmas Cooks Challenge, BBC 1’s Breakfast and Channel 5 News regularly. When not busy with the above shows, Aldo was filming a Tonight with Trevor MacDonald special on diets for ITV 1 which was broadcast in Spring 2009 and a programme on Sleep for BBC 1 primetime, also broadcast in Spring 2009.

2008 was also the year that Aldo continued his phenomenally successful relationship with Kelloggs Optivita with a new advert and accompanying PR campaign. This is the biggest campaign Kelloggs have launched in the UK since Special K in the 1970s.

2009 saw Aldo as busy as ever with appearances on BBC 2’s Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is – Aldo was pitted against Nick Nairn and won his week’s worth of challenges comfortably. He continues as a favourite on BBC 2’s Ready Steady Cook and ITV 1’s Daily Cooks Challenge.

Thomsonfly have also continued with Aldo Zilli’s in-flight food menu, which they launched in 2006 and are thrilled with the results. On the basis of the success of Thomsonfly, Thomson invited Aldo to re-launch all the food of their ships and granted Aldo his own restaurant, Zilli’s, which is filled to capacity every night.

Aldo’s latest restaurant ventures are with Centreparcs, with whom he has opened a healthy eating cafe in Longleat in Spring 2009. This is the first of many such cafés, which Thomson wish to roll out across the group. 2010 saw him open the phenomenally successful Zilli Green, a vegetarian restaurant in Soho.

Previously, Aldo came to the fore after attracting a huge following on Celebrity Fit Club (ITV 1), where he showcased his dynamic personality and led the successful team to victory, gaining a new slender figure in the process. Aldo has always been synonymous with healthy eating and this was the perfect showcase for his delicious, Mediterranean food.

Aldo also endeared himself to the nation with his winning run on Celebrity X Factor (ITV1) where he and the other 3 singing chefs wowed the audiences with their songs in Italian, French and English - they proved enormously popular making it through to the last stages of the competition. Also in 2007, he filmed Local Food Heroes for UKTV and filmed a two week mini series entitled 'Italian Summer' for GMTV last summer.

He has recorded several series for Carlton Food Network including One Man and His Hob in 2001 as well as Perfect Pasta with Aldo Zilli; Aldo's Italian Job and Aldo and Friends. In 2000 he co-presented a series for CFN called Two Chefs In Cape with Brian Turner and he has guested on a number of programmes including BBC2's Food & Drink, The Weakest Link, The Vanessa Show, The Generation Game, Channel 4's Light Lunch and The Food Factory for ITV.

Aldo has been resident chef for The Sun newspaper, and has written several books: Sainsbury's Quick and Easy Italian Food; Aldo's Italian Food For Friends (1998) and Zilli Fish (1999), Foolproof Italian (BBC Books) March 2001 and Simon & Schuster published The Zilli Cook Book in October 2003. His latest books are Fish Cook (Jacqui Small Books, 2006) and his autobiography, Being Zilli (John Blake, 2008).  Aldo latest cookery book entitled Zilli Fit, was released in January 2010. He is currently working on the follow on.

Updated 15/04/2010