Chef''s Selection

If Marco Molino went to see a doctor specialising in classic car addiction, the man in the white coat would spot a lot of familiar symptoms. Does he look at old cars in Classic American when he can’t get to sleep? Check. Has he often owned more cars than he has room to store? Check. Has he taken a friend to view a car and ended up buying another one himself? Again... check. Marco has even bought a car, immediately found an even better example and then bought that as well.

He has the means to chase these dreams because he’s worked hard for a lot of years in a famous family business. Marco’s father, Mario, came to London from Naples in 1962 and in 1965 joined with a gentleman called Peter Boizot to open a pizzeria. This was the start of the Pizza Express chain... which is how we Brits got our first taste of pizza.

Mario and Peter disagreed over Peter’s enthusiasm for live jazz in the restaurants, so in 1972 Mario amicably pulled out of the chain and kept one of the branches, the) to have a five-speed transmission in place of the old four-speed, which made it rev quite high on the motorway. It’s also had rack-and-pinion steering installed, so it steers and handles properly too.”