Some people have to fly hundreds of miles to get savoury dishes from one of the world’s celebrity chefs in New York or London, but lucky for us, popular Italian chef Michele Celentano’s cooking can be found right in the heart of Hamilton.Mr Celentano, the head chef at Little Venice, has prepared meals for celebrities like Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta Jones and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.He said the secret to his delicious meals is that everything comes from the heart.The chef was born near the Almalfi Coast, in Italy, and has been cooking all his life. “In my family, everyone cooks and loves to bake,” he told The Royal Gazette.“My sister is a professional chef too, and she would help me get a summer job when I was in school working in the restaurants, and it became a passion. Ever since then I started this career.”Some of his favourite meals to make as a youngster were seafood and pasta dishes, like spaghetti bolognese.He said, generally speaking, Italians were very serious about their food and thought it important to have fresh produce, meat and seafood.“Where I grew up the fishermen would bring the fish to you on a boat, so you buy what you need straight off the docks,” he said.Mr Celentano studied culinary arts in Milan, Italy, but argues the most important trait a chef can have cannot really be taught in a classroom — it’s passion.“This is our motto as an Italian chef, mainly we seek to have fresh ingredients, but we also make sure you put your heart into it so people will enjoy it,” he said.Some of the well-known customers that he has served during his culinary career include movie actors, football players and sports coaches.He said it was always exciting to have famous faces in the restaurant.“The last time I had the Douglas family here [at Little Venice], Catherine Zeta Jones called me to the table and I went there and asked if she could autograph the paper that I write our daily specials on.“Instead she asked me to autograph something for her.“It feels to us like they are regular guests when they come to the restaurant, but we know they are not.”The chef said he gets joy from cooking for all of their guests, be it a businessman coming in for lunch or family having a special dinner.He said: “I love working at this place. I give my heart to work at Little Venice and come in at 7 o’clock in the morning.“I am the first person working at the restaurant. I go straight into the kitchen and make little tapas dishes for customers who come into the wine bar in the afternoon.“I do it because cooking is my life. I almost sacrifice my private life for it. It’s almost like what I am giving away to my customers is my sacrifice to make people happy.”Mr Celentano said he aimed to give guests a “fantastic experience” every time they dine there. Some of his best dishes include the in-house ravioli, stuffed with smoked cheeses and eggplant, a popular seafood salad, coated with an olive oil vinegarette, and the caprese salad with fresh buffalo mozzarella and local tomatoes.For dessert, the restaurant is well known for its tiramisu; another crowd-pleaser has been the raspberry cheesecake they introduced to the menu.During his ten years at the Little Venice restaurant, he has worked to bring people a genuine taste of Italy — through using flavours from fresh herbs and other ingredients.His aim has been to recreate that feeling you are on the Amalfi Coast or in Positano; and to give people a reason to come back.“People are my motivation to keep going,” he said. “We have high demanding customers, with CEOs and businessmen always here for lunch and dinner, seven days a week.“These customers are trying new ingredients all the time and have dined around the world in some of the best restaurants, so I try to never disappoint them.”