Tim Siadatan, 42, is a chef and co-founder of the London restaurants Padella and Trullo. Known for his simple, seasonal, produce-led Italian cooking, he was one of the inaugural cohort on Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen trainee programme in 2002. He worked under top chefs in Sydney and London — at St John and Moro — before launching the casual neighbourhood restaurant Trullo in Islington, alongside his business partner Jordan Frieda, in 2010. The perennially popular pasta bar Padella followed in 2016 in Borough Market. Siadatan grew up in Reading and now lives in Somerset with his wife, Daisy, and their two children, Luna (7) and Inca (4).
My family visited Italy when I was 14 and it marked the moment my palate started to change. We rented a big old classic farmhouse in the Marche region, which was sort of run-down but perfect for our family set-up. We weren’t crazy foodies — I was one of six kids and with so many mouths to feed meals were mostly straightforward.
I vividly remember eating a tomato and thinking, “Oh my God!” I didn’t know they could taste like this. And the olive oil, wow. It wasn’t far from the Adriatic, so we ate lots of anchovies and sardines too. I was a teenager of the Nineties in Reading, so, like other kids at the time, that wasn’t what I was used to. It was a seminal moment as it introduced me to seasonal food.
• Most beautiful places in Italy
I did an epic three-month backpacking trip with some buddies in southeast Asia when I was 17 or 18. We got up to everything teen backpackers get up to — I was on a shoestring budget, but in Thailand I figured I could do something like pot washing in exchange for accommodation and meals. These older ladies were making big vats of green curry and while we couldn’t communicate through language we’d sit down after a shift and communicate through food. We’d be in stitches laughing and it was the meal bringing us together. I remember thinking: “Look at this, the power of food.” I was eating these spicy dishes, crunchy salads and tropical fruit I’d never been exposed to. Another seed was planted: not just new flavours, but the communal vibe.
Cambodia struck me because you could feel the recent atrocities — I’d never seen so many amputees and scarred faces. Going to the Killing Fields knocked me sideways.
Tim’s trip to Barbuda with his wife, Daisy, did not go to plan
GETTY IMAGES
My wife, Daisy, and I went to Barbuda in the Caribbean for our first holiday together … and it was a disaster. The hotel looked great online, but when we rocked up it was horrific. The cabins were filthy, the beach was covered in sandflies and the food? Inedible. Within 24 hours we had to get out, but it was New Year and tricky. We ended up spending a fortune getting some rinky-dink seaplane to Antigua and eventually found somewhere amazing.
We’ve had some shockers with the kids too. It wasn’t Île de Ré, it was us. It all sounded great on paper — cycling around with little trailers, stopping for oysters and crémant — and for most, it is. But it was like an English summer with lots of rain. We had an 18-month-old and a four-year-old, and somewhere halfway someone wanted a poo and they definitely didn’t want to be sitting eating oysters. Daisy and I were looking at each other going, “What are we doing?”, so we drove home.
• Discover our full guide to France
We’ve learnt our lesson now. This summer we went sailing in Croatia, mooring in bays, waterskiing and jumping into the sea, which was a surprising success. There was a bit of concern about our youngest being on a boat for a week, but once we got into it we sort of simmered the anxiety and it was a really magical time with all the cousins together. Vis is synonymous with Italian food and really pretty — the coves around there are breathtaking.
The Croatian island of Vis has plenty of pretty coves to moor up in
ALAMY
I go to Italy at least three times a year, mostly on sourcing trips and producer visits. We’ve done Tuscany around November for the olive oil harvest for the last 15 years. I was in Sicily last summer — Cattaneo, Etna, Menfi and then Pantelleria, a little island. That was pure magic.
Verona has better restaurants than most places I know in Italy pound for pound, so it’s a good spot to take chefs. There’s a misconception that there are good restaurants everywhere in the country, but that’s not my experience. The great food is happening in people’s houses.
• Best Italian cities for food
One of my best trips was to a village called Nerano on the Amalfi coast. There are lots of average restaurants there, but there are a handful of gems tucked in the coves for those in the know. There’s this family-run hotel, Lo Scoglio — the rooms are straightforward but it has an incredible restaurant, one of the best in the world, in my opinion. They have a farm up the hillside and grow their own produce: the food is to die for. It’s on a jetty near a shingly beach full of bronzed Neapolitans in Speedos smoking Marlboro Reds. Everyone’s a bit doughy so you feel quite good on the beach. Daisy and I had just come out the other side of our first kid and the classic stuff of not sleeping, blah, blah, blah. This was the first time it clicked.
I’m half-Iranian and all my Persian family wax lyrical about the country. My mum, who’s English, spent time there when she was younger, but throughout my adult life there’s just been constant turmoil. It’s a crying shame. I hope within my lifetime we’ll see things simmer down and that it becomes somewhere that you can travel to and feel safe.
Padella: Iconic Pasta at Home by Tim Siadatan is out on September 11 (Bloomsbury Publishing £25). To order a copy go to timesbookshop.co.uk. Free UK standard P&P on orders over £25. Special discount available for Times+ members
In our weekly My Hols interview, famous faces from the worlds of film, sport, politics, and more share their travel stories from childhood to the present day. Read more My Hols interviews here
Dining and Cooking