It hardly seems credible now that in those frugal post war years of the early 1950s, from a hopeful couple's dream of leaving Italy for new life in West Yorkshire should grow a proud reputation for fine food, prepared and served to highest standards – sparking a passion which now makes Leeds a recognised centre of culinary excellence.
For that renown thank Salvo and Nunzia Dammone. There are, of course, others to whom Leeds owes a debt of expanding waistbands but certainly these two newly-weds – who arrived in the city from the southern Italian town of Salerno in 1955 – were among the first to set continental cats among tired English pigeons and excite Yorkshire's jaded tastebuds.
From that point, nothing was to be the same again.
Now, more than 50 years later, the Dammone family tradition is continued by Salvo's and Nunzia's two sons John and Gip who own and run Salvo's restaurant and their nearby Salumeria (Italian delicatessen) in Headingley, Leeds.
Though menus may have changed and the meticulous way in which authentic Italian specialties, artisan cheeses, hams and family-grown wines are sourced have altered, the same fervour for food with flair and flourish is served with every mouthful.
In recognition of their life's work, the Dammone brothers have been showered with national, regional and local awards for exceptional dishes now rated as among the best in the country by national food critics.
"Our parents came here because work was scarce in southern Italy, it was as simple as that," said John, chatting over a lunch of olives, prosciuto, smoked organic belly pork, pasta, skewered prawns with tomato and basil salsa, beef steak with creamy melted gorgonzola...Italians love their lunches.
"They arrived in 1955 and a few years later dad bought his first espresso bar and café, The Unicorn in Stanningley. The whole family moved in to live 'above the shop'. The whole family included, as well as my mother and father, my two elder brothers Gip and Lucci, and my Uncle Pinu and Auntie Pina."
It wasn't long before hungry Leeds factory workers were demanding more than a cup of coffee. Nunzia may well have been responsible for one of the first burger servings in Leeds – but it was burger with something of a Neapolitan twist.
She turned out typically Italian meatballs, flattened them into buns and scored instant hits. Knowing no more than southern Italian cooking, it wasn't long before Nunzia was preparing dishes such as Braised Steak Pizzaiola as a staple for working men and women in Stanningley.
Nothing wrong with pizzaiola, even now. But in those days the culinary landscape of Leeds presented a sparser, less colourful picture than it does now.
"The established 'foreign' food was confined to a few Chinese and Indian restaurants," said Gip. "The Italian families who came to Leeds in those early days injected a wholly new dimension. The four principals-founded restaurants that are still very strong in spite of keen competition – Salvo's, The Flying Pizza, Bibi's and Da Mario's."
The enduring love affair between Brits and Italians has food at its core and if the route to a Yorkshireman's heart is via his belly, the fast lane will be the one offering hearty pasta sauces from Bologna, roast suckling pig from Sardinia, rare locally-produced Florentine beefsteaks.
Our love of terrific food grows ever more obsessional – as West Yorkshire's huge and diverse selection of restaurants underlines – but it doesn't pass Gip's notice that the more the English develop their passion for food, the less they want to pay for it and the less time they want to spend preparing it.
He's a bit of an evangelist, where good eating is concerned. Gip Dammone is capable of over-excitement when extolling the merits of a cheese, describing the pedigree of a steak or the preparation of a hand-made chocolate.
He and his brother have evolved their parents' early business plan into something of a missionary role. They work towards an end to flavour-free junk with invitations to delicious, wholesome eating and a healthier appreciation of good food's true purpose.
"The more we know about food, the more we understand the importance of its high quality, the less we want to pay for it," said Gip.
"Good, fresh food doesn't have to be expensive but diets have to be varied and tastes a little more adventurous to take best advantage of the seasonal and locally produced.
"There's a puzzling attitude to food in this country which is alien to most Italians. People who are happy to spend £200 on a pair of shoes because 'you only get what you pay for' will argue with a butcher if the beef joint is £1 more than it was last week.
"We have an uncle in Sicily who will delay his lunch if he knows the local fisherman supplying his favourite restaurant will be landing his next catch in three or four hours time. The fish the bar owner already has will be less than 12 hours old but Rococo waits for the next landing because he wants the best. That's not a preference most English people would recognise."
In common with many of the committed chefs and restaurateurs in Leeds – who regularly eat at each others places, incidentally – the Dammone brothers go to extraordinary lengths to source fresh, locally, organically produced and efficiently imported ingredients for their menus.
While their customers appreciate that commitment, it's when shopping for and cooking at home (or not) we tend to fall victim to supermarket domination and a culture driving us towards the cheapest, most deeply cost-cut foodstuffs. And appreciation of food at home has descended now to watching the best of it in the hands of celebrity chefs on TV – then microwaving a packet of pretend chips.
Salvo Dammone, who apparently suffered itchy feet for most of his life, upped sticks and returned to Italy with his family in 1972, going back to Nunzia's home town of Salerno, where he opened a trattoria. But it was after only two years there that he answered again the beckoning call of Leeds. His dream was to open a truly authentic Italian restaurant in West Yorkshire.
"It took 18 months of searching and many visits to all parts of Leeds before my dad found a steak house called The Brunch Grill," said John.
"We had found the site we were looking for and once the deal was done we set about converting the place into an Italian Restaurant. A large part of the building work was done by us and all the labouring and some of the basic construction was done by family and friends.
"I remember spending two days dismantling the blue formica tables of the old brunch and unceremoniously consigning them to the skip.
"At the back of the current Salvo's there is a slightly wonky layer of brickwork which I can claim credit for... if that's the word for it.
"Right up until the last minute the actual name of the restaurant was not fully decided. There were many names on the shortlist. It nearly ended being called Garibaldi's and we still have some of the original mock-up menus Gip designed for this.
"Garibaldi famously led his army of Camiccie nere (Black shirts) to liberate and unite the whole of Italy in the late 1800s," John explained.
"Family legend has it that Garibaldi's army had two Dammones in it so my family were descendants of Italy's most famous liberating army. In the end however we found out there was a very popular biscuit at the time with the same name so we eventually decided on simply my father's first name. Salvo's Restaurant was born and opened the doors for its first customers in August 1976.
"Nearly two million customers have come through the doors since that day almost 30 years ago and our family's aim is to keep them coming for many years to come."
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