2010 Experts & Celebs > Aldo Zilli

Aldo Zilli

Aldo is now a member of the Ready Steady Cook team (BBC 2) which attracts viewers in excess of 2 million – a position he was invited to take after his immensely popular episodes for BBC 1’s Sunday Life (Aldo’s episodes were the highest of the series), where he focused on food waste.

2008 was a very busy year for Aldo with appearances on BBC 1’s Step up to the Plate, ITV 1’s Daily Cooks Challenge, BBC 1’s Eating in the Sun, Channel 5’s Family Recipe, UKTV’s Market Kitchen, BBC 1’s Chelsea Flower Show, BBC 3’s The Real Hustle, BBC 1’s The One Show, ITV 2’s Extra Factor,  ITV 1’s Christmas Cooks Challenge, BBC 1’s Breakfast and Channel 5 News regularly. When not busy with the above shows, Aldo was filming a Tonight with Trevor MacDonald special on diets for ITV 1 which was broadcast in Spring 2009 and a programme on Sleep for BBC 1 primetime, also broadcast in Spring 2009.
2008 was also the year that Aldo continued his phenomenally successful relationship with Kelloggs Optivita with a new advert and accompanying PR campaign. This is the biggest campaign Kelloggs have launched in the UK since Special K in the 1970s.

2009 has seen Aldo as busy as ever with appearances on BBC 2’s Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is – Aldo was pitted against Nick Nairn and won his week’s worth of challenges comfortably. He continues as a favourite on BBC 2’s Ready Steady Cook and ITV 1’s Daily Cooks Challenge.

Thomsonfly have also continued with Aldo Zilli’s in-flight food menu, which they launched in 2006 and are thrilled with the results. On the basis of the success of Thomsonfly, Thomson invited Aldo to re-launch all the food of their ships and granted Aldo his own restaurant, Zilli’s, which is filled to capacity every night.

Aldo’s latest restaurant venture is with Centreparcs, with whom he has opened a healthy eating cafe in Longleat in Spring 2009. This is the first of many such cafés, which Thomson wish to roll out across the group.

Previously, Aldo came to the fore after attracting a huge following on Celebrity Fit Club (ITV 1), where he showcased his dynamic personality and led the successful team to victory, gaining a new slender figure in the process. Aldo has always been synonymous with healthy eating and this was the perfect showcase for his delicious, Mediterranean food.

Aldo also endeared himself to the nation with his winning run on Celebrity X Factor (ITV1) where he and the other 3 singing chefs wowed the audiences with their songs in Italian, French and English - they proved enormously popular making it through to the last stages of the competition. Also in 2007, he filmed Local Food Heroes for UKTV and filmed a two week mini series entitled 'Italian Summer' for GMTV last summer.