Anna Del Conte

Anna Del Conte (born 1925) is an Italian-born British food writer whose works cover the history of food as well as providing recipes. Resident in England since 1949, she has been influential in raising the country’s awareness of Italian cuisine: her 1976 Portrait of Pasta has been described as ‘the instrumental force in leading [the English] beyond the land of spag bol, macaroni cheese and tinned ravioli’. In that same interview, she said, "I didn't set out to be a cookery writer. I wanted to be an opera singer. However, since I did not have much musical talent, it was rather unrealistic."

In her Desert Island Discs programme, she said that her husband was her 'chief taster' because he had a British palate, so could tell her what she could expect her readers to feel. She mentioned that she never did any TV cooking series because she felt she came over as a cold person and expressed her view that whatever you do you shouldn't serve bolognese with spaghetti as it's just the wrong shape – tagliatelle is much better. On 22 December 2016 BBC2 aired a programme, 'The Cook Who Changed Our Lives', narrated by Nigella Lawson about Anna's life and impact on British cooking.

Del Conte was awarded the honour of Ufficiale dell'Ordine al merito della Repubblica Italiana on 2 June 2010. It was proposed to the President by the Italian Ambassador, Giancarlo Aragona, and the honour was given in recognition of the importance of Anna Del Conte's work in keeping alive Italy's good image in the UK.

Del Conte's other books include: Secrets of an Italian Kitchen, Entertaining All'Italiana and Cooking with Coco.