My family values: Giorgio Locatelli

The chef and restaurateur talks about his family
giorgio locatelli and family
Giorgio Locatelli, his wife Plaxy and their children Jack and Margherita. Photograph: Dan Lepard/4th Estate Public Domain

My grandfather lost his electricity company during the war after his brother, a partisan, was shot by the fascists. Afterwards, he was given some money by the government and just after I was born, he bought a big plot of land and built a hotel. Slowly all the family moved into it.

When I was six or seven I really wanted to be a waiter like my cousins and brother. Because I was tiny and noisy and without teeth I was sent to the kitchen and so I grew up with the chefs. I was comfortable there and I've cooked all my life. I can't do anything else.

My parents wanted me to go to school and be a doctor or a lawyer. We had four chefs and they were tragic sometimes. This was the very old, drinking generation, so my parents were a bit scared of me turning out a crazy drunk, off the rails. But then it turned out well so they are very proud, actually.

One grandfather was a very simple man who couldn't even write, but my father's father was a hydroelectric engineer born in Milan. He was a wise man and I think he felt the loss of control during the fascist time. People would come to him for advice but you couldn't talk to him about his brother. He went to pick up the body when he was shot and he would cry about that. He was the only man I'd seen cry in my family until he died and my father cried at his funeral.

When somebody wanted to leave the hotel it was a tragedy, they took it so personally. Oh my God, when I left to go to Switzerland at 16 or 17 my aunty didn't speak to me for two years! My dad was the only one who advocated that you left and my mum understood but my aunt wouldn't let go.

My parents never asked us to do anything they wouldn't do themselves. When London was hit by snow my washer-ups couldn't come in because of it. We decided on a schedule where everybody would do one hour of washing up. To me it was natural to put my own name in – it didn't cross my mind that I wouldn't do it myself.

I have two children. Jack, 20, is from my wife Plaxy's previous marriage. I met him when he was two and even though I am not genetically his father I feel that he is mine – the way he behaves, the things he does, he is my son. He has an unbelievable palette and will eat anything. But sometimes he drives us crazy because he's with his friends and they want a McDonald's, but he says, "Come home, I'll cook you something." I have to get him out of bed to clean up but I'm proud that he doesn't like junk food.

My daughter Margherita (Dita) is 13 and I thought for years, why did this happen to me – to have a daughter who is allergic to so many foods? She was exposed to food from being a tiny little thing and the doctors think that was what caused it, too much too early. She had eczema to the point that she nearly died of blood poisoning at two. She ended up being hospitalised for a month. It was terrible.

Dita loves this business and maybe she will follow me into it. I don't want to impose it on her but you can see that she's completely at ease here with the people. Put her on the phone and you would have no idea she was 13.

I think Dita learned the social side here at the restaurant, with her mother and me. This is our "house". OK, we don't know the people who come here but we make them feel comfortable. This is the way I am. It's a good advantage in life if you can make people feel comfortable.

This article was amended on 2 August 2010. The original photograph was not credited to Dan Lepard/4th Estate. This has been corrected.