BERARDINO GENTILE:BERARDINO GENTILE, who has died aged 91, was a restaurateur in Dublin for almost four decades and was associated with two of the city's best-known Italian restaurants, Bernardo's and Quo Vadis.
He and his brother Mario opened Bernardo’s in Lincoln Place in 1954 and he set up on his own at Quo Vadis in St Andrew Street in 1960. It quickly became a popular haunt of journalists as well as music and theatre people.
At one point it was almost possible to go through life in Dublin eating only at restaurants owned by Gentile brothers. Students ate at the Coffee Inn, owned by his brother Antonio. When they got older they could graduate to lunches at Bernardo’s owned by Mario, and then have dinner with Berardino in Quo Vadis. If it was full or diners wanted a change, the fourth brother, Angelo, might be able to make a table available in Le Caprice, next door to Quo Vadis.
Berardino Gentile was born in 1920 in Prato di Amatrice, 150 miles northeast of Rome, one of seven children of Domenico and Elisabetta Gentile. His father and uncles were all chefs and, as if to underline his culinary lineage, there is a pasta sauce named after his home town.
He came to Ireland in 1952 to work for the Italian ambassador, having worked in Rome and in Vienna at the American Embassy.
A special table at Bernardo’s was reserved for a group of rising politicians – Charles Haughey, Brian Lenihan and Donagh O’Malley. Interviewed in 1991, Berardino remembered a certain minister ordering wine after the midnight deadline. “I said ‘No’, but he was a minister. I served him and locked the door.” He remembered the minister drank Chianti.
He also remembered senior Catholic churchmen dining at the restaurant, some of whom had studied in Rome and knew their food. They included a future archbishop of Dublin.
Opening Quo Vadis, Berardino introduced a range of pasta dishes new to Ireland, as well as classic Italian veal dishes and scampi. Charles Acton, this newspaper’s long-serving classical music critic and bon viveur, sampled the fare for the paper’s Table for Two column in 1985. He was struck by how Berardino made sure that every customer, “however late”, was made welcome.
He and his companion then enjoyed a “classic” minestrone, spaghetti carbonara which was a “joy” and a “gorgeous” veal alla limone. Acton had nothing but praise for “a delightful meal in a relaxing atmosphere”.
After nearly 31 years educating Dubliners of the delights of Italian cuisine, doing it seven days a week for 24 of those years and often working more than 12 hours a day, Berardino Gentile retired in 1991.
As a young man he liked hunting and fishing, and in later life enjoyed family reunions in Italy.
He married Anna Cafolla in 1961. Although born in Dublin, her family is from Casalaticco, near Cassino. He is survived by Anna, their daughter Claudia and sons Domenico and Marco.
Berardino Gentile: born March 6th, 1920; died April 20th, 2011.