Vancouver's knighted chef almost didn't end up in the kitchen

Legendary Vancouver chef Giuseppe "Pino" Posteraro was recently knighted by the Italian government for his restaurant work buthe saysit was a fluke that he didn't end up in a different career altogether.

The chef-owner of Cioppino's Mediterranean Grill and Enoteca met with Gail Johnson, CBC On The Coast's food columnist, to talk about becoming a knight and how he got there.

Posterarohad been cooking since he was a young child, helping his mother in the kitchen at their home inLago, a rural area in Italy'sCalabriaregion.

"She would turn the simplest of ingredients into a masterpiece,"Posteraro said."She would take plain items from the garden and make something delicious."

Posterarodreamt if becoming a doctor though, not a chef.

He completed two years of medical school in Sicily but decided to focus his career elsewhere after working in a unit with patients on dialysis.

"It was too heartbreaking," he said."I wanted to see people happy."

So he went into cooking, working atMichelin-star restaurants around the world and becoming an instructorGeorge Brown College.

In 1983,Posteraro moved to Toronto where one of his brothers was running a restaurant.

He later moved to Vancouver and, nearly two decades ago, established Cioppino in Yaletown. It has gone on to win all sorts of food and restaurant awards including being on Canada's 100 Best Restaurants list.

Receiving the Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy, the only chef in Canada to do so,tops them all, he says.

"You do it because it's a passion," he said."Apassion for food and cooking and for people."

Running in the family

The honour was established by the Italian government in 1947, although it went by a different name then. It was given to military and civilian citizens who helped rebuild Italy after the Second World War.

The name and the scope changed in the 1980s. Now, the honour is given to select Italian citizens living abroad who have made outstanding contributions to promoting Italian values, culture and way of life and fostering relations.

Posteraro is not the first in his family to be knighted.

His uncle, great uncle and great-great uncle, all named Giuseppino, were also knighted for different reasons from working as a pharmacist to helping immigrants after the Second World War.

With files from On The Coast.