Our family business
If you’ve ever wondered where Aqua gets its Italian inspiration from then meet Emelia Schiavetta, wife of owner Richard Smithson.
Get Emelia on the subject of family food heritage and she’s full of great stories. Her Italian father owned Wimpy bars and brought McCain’s — the chip people — into Italy in the 1960s and went on to build his own successful wholesale food business; her mother was a Cordon Bleu chef and she taught Emelia how to cook haute cuisine; and her brother Marco is the owner of the famous Regency Cafe in London, location of many a London gangster film including Buster and, more recently, Layer Cake.
Having been practically bought up in restaurants and professionally trained at Grosvenor House Hotel in London, Emelia is now happy to be behind the scenes at Aqua Italia “managing a few shifts, working with the interior designers and helping with menus”.
Emelia and Richard take regular trips to Italy to fuel their passion and knowledge of Italian food. Their latest culinary conquest was the two starred Michelin restaurant Piccolo Lago overlooking Lake Mergozzo which she described as “exceptional!”.
Owned by two brothers since 1975, Piccolo Lago is Italy’s El Bulli. Richard ate Linguine with Lobster and Emelia’s Duck Three Ways was “the best duck I have ever tasted”. Combine that with a beautiful lakeside setting, exquisite food and service and attention to detail and you’ve got true Italian inspiration! Highly recommended to Aqua’s customers looking for a fabulous destination in Italy, have a look at their website www.piccololago.it
If you’ve discovered something special on a trip to Italy then we’d love to hear from you – perhaps you can write a travel report? Or maybe you’ve found an unknown ingredient, a dish, an aperitif or wine – then our executive chef Jamie Edwards would love to hear from you. Email him at jamie@aqua-restaurant.com
