"There wouldn’t have been any problems with the perfect fish soup, cooked up by Giorgio Alessio, the chef patron of one of the UK’s most famous fish restaurants, La Lanterna in Scarborough. It had just a bit of olive oil, onion, tomatoes and a variety of the freshest of sustainable North Sea fish. But Giorgio — Italian born and bred — has embraced his Yorkshireness with abandon and insists on deep-fried bread floating on the soup."

"The sheer brilliance of Giorgio Alessio’s cooking and his fanaticism about using only the finest ingredients make La Lanterna the unlikeliest destination restaurant in the land."

"The battered langoustines turned out to be six gigantic, butterflied crustaceans of scarcely conceivable sweetness and tenderness"

"Lanterna has that touch of alchemy that stands between an OK bowl of pasta and a dish that shoots you down a wormhole all the way to Italy."

"Alessio's spaghetti with a cream-bolstered sauce of velvet crabs is the sort of thing that has you sweeping about the bowl with the pad of your finger."

"So what was the best meal you have eaten this year?” asked my friend over a shared apple tarte tatin. I had a think and came up with dinner at La Lanterna in Scarborough, partly for a mushroom risotto that will never be forgot, but also for a half-hour spent listening to Giorgio Alessio, a superb chef, talk with unbridled Italianate passion about his love of cooking."

"...a great cook in thrall to great ingredients. It’s the soul of real Italian cookery."