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Published: 15 December 2010

The TSSS are delighted to announce our new Patron Comm. Antonio Carluccio OBE.
Antonio very kindly agreed to become patron of the TSSS. We felt he was already doing so much to help and support the TSSS it was only right that he be asked to become patron. We were so pleased that he accepted and we very much look forward to getting to know him over the coming months. Antonio has a wonderful PA called Anna Louise she has been a great help to the TSSS already and we very much look forward to working with both Antonio and Anna Louise. So watch this space for regular updates plus look on Face Book, Twitter etc don’t forget to check out www.tss.org.uk you can also go to www.antonio-carluccio.co.uk
Below some information about Antonio. In September 2008, Antonio Carluccio, the much loved and respected Italian cookery writer, celebrated 50 years of championing, cooking and eating genuine, regional Italian food and wine. In 1958 at the age of 21 he began to cook simple pasta suppers for himself and his flat-mate on a two-ring stove in Vienna. Now, known for his gentle manner, gruff voice and his wild crop of white hair, Antonio is regarded as the Godfather of Italian gastronomy.
Being born on the Amalfi Coast in the South and raised in the wooded North-West has given Antonio a rare and privileged breadth of culinary knowledge. It was here, in Piedmont, at the age of seven that Antonio started his life-long past-time of hunting and collecting mushrooms and funghi with his father.
After time spent living in Germany, in 1975 Antonio moved to London and while learning English, traded as a wine merchant of Italian wines. His hobby of studying and collecting wild mushrooms continued to flourish as he found many varieties growing in the English countryside close to London, almost completely undiscovered.
Antonio took over the Neal Street Restaurant in Covent Garden in 1981, which traded for 26 years. In 1991 Antonio opened a deli next to the restaurant and in 1998 started the first Carluccio's Caffè in Market Place, London. After ten years developing the Carluccio's caffè business Antonio is no longer a director but continues to work with the Carluccio's team on menu development and chef training whilst also concentrating on new projects.
In 1983 Antonio made his first appearance on BBC 2 talking about Mediterranean food and at the same time was asked to write his first book, An Invitation to Italian Cooking. Subsequently he has written thirteen books, published worldwide and made numerous television programmes including the hugely popular Antonio Carluccio's Northern Italian Feast and Southern Italian Feast.
In 1998, Antonio was awarded the Commendatore OMRI by the President of Italy for services to Italian gastronomy, the equivalent of a British knighthood. In 2007 he was awarded an honorary OBE.
Antonio acknowledges there will always be more to learn about the food he is passionate about. Above all he believes it is important to remain loyal to the ingredients and cooking traditions of his country.

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Published: 03 August 2009

Thumbelina: A Swallow’s Tale
Monday 10 August to Saturday 15 August at 11.30am. Duration: 1hr.
Venue 40, Quaker Meeting House, Edinburgh. Tickets: £8/£6

By night, he was tickling the ivories for the London West End production of The Sound Of Music. By day, international concert pianist Chris Seed was composing his own piece of musical magic. And he did so, on his remarkable left-handed piano.
The result is Thumbelina: A Swallow’s Tale, a new musical version of the Hans Christian Anderson story, which receives its world premiere with just six performances only at the Edinburgh Fringe.
Grown from a seed, Thumbelina – a tiny girl who believes she is simply too different ever to be accepted by others – gives children a touching coming-of-age story with the message that anyone can find their place in this big wide world, though sometimes that might take a lot of courage and perseverance.
Staged through dance and song by a combination of actors and puppets, the show is a fun, dreamlike adventure sure to enchant children (6+) and parents alike. As they follow her sometimes hair-raising adventures, audiences encounter her friend the Swallow, Mrs Toad, Monsieur Maybug, Flutter Butterfly, Mr Mole and the Prince of the Flowers.
A pre-show workshop will help children get the most from the production with an opportunity to meet the characters at the end.
Left-handed Chris spent his career conforming to conventional pianos until 1997 when he commissioned a Dutch firm to build the world’s first left-handed grand piano. While he easily switches between left and right-handed keyboards, Chris reveals that several ‘well-known’ pianists have been a little embarrassed after looking like novices as they attempt to play his unique piano. While Chris performs at all six performances of Thumbelina: A Swallow’s Tale, logistics sadly mean the leftie piano has to be left at home.
The collaboration between Chris and lyricist Maxine Gallagher is all down to a chance meeting in November 2007 on the 23.05 train from Waterloo. As conversation between the strangers progressed, Chris confided that he’d composed music for a new stage show that still needed a lyricist. As it happens, his travelling companion had been a finalist in several songwriting competitions and had long harboured an ambition to pen the words for a musical. (You can’t make this sort of thing up – and honest, we didn’t. Just as that really is the surname.