‘The Blue Angel’ opened in 1961, and was named after my father’s idol, Marlene Dietrich. The restaurant was placed on two house plots, which was a proud moment for my family, as it was not a small achievement buying two plots in Sydney. This bet paid off and we were already enjoying a good stream of customers within 6 months. I still remember the very first menu we served in our restaurant; it is still hanging on our wall today. A blend of Italian and French dishes, all priced in Pounds and Shillings. It still states the lobster at 2 pounds 5 shillings. How I miss those days.

As an enterprising young teenager, I was learning the ropes of the restaurant business at the bottom of the staircase. ‘Checkers’ I remember it well. As the youngest waiter I got to serve my share of dishes with ballerinas moving all around me. I never dropped a plate. Don’t ask me how I managed that! I got to serve the guests under the entertaining eyes of Shirley Bassey and Sammy Davis Jr. What a life to have! One year later I moved on to the Silver Spade. Here I met one of my life’s idols Nat King Cole. It was hard to concentrate on work when he entertained. I still see these moments passing before my eyes every day.

From there I moved on to the best place I could have ever gone to. It was ‘Prunies’ on 440 Old South Head Road, Double Bay. What a place that turned out to be. The famous Tony Gemenis himself took me under his wing, and there I truly picked up the passion for the restaurant business. This was the one place where perfection was essential. The most colorful people that Sydney has ever known would be found there. Tony taught me so much that I owe him for. Even now I still think, ‘what would Tony do?’ It is from there I still believe in the idea of preparing certain dishes like ‘steak Diane’, ‘Lobster ala Muricane’ and ‘Crepes Suzette’ at the table of the diners. I still honor Tony by making the crepes like his did 50 years ago.

This is when my father told me that enough was enough, and I moved into the family restaurant. He was a visionary and we knew that we would have to do something unique and special, even though we were already running a good business. We renovated and we did what no other restaurant in Sydney had done before. We had a lobster tank big enough for 100kg. We thought it would be enough. Never were we so wrong! Within two years, we needed a second aquarium holding at least twice as much. So we entered 1970 without knowing we would run short of supplies faster than we thought we would. That year was important to us, because we weren’t expecting one Japanese group of diners to ask for lobster sashimi, and they wanted the biggest lobster we had. It didn’t take long for them to enjoy the 5kg crustacean delight. That was the one direction that took us by surprise, and the one that grew to become over 50% of our frequent diners. The 1970s brought with it, a sudden influx of Japanese diners, and with our success, we were able to purchase the rest of the blocks of houses adjoining our restaurant. Further additions included five more tanks, to accommodate 5000kg of live lobsters, and four private dining rooms. We had grown from a mere 75 guests to a whopping 175. Our guestbook certainly got its share of celebrities and I was filled with such pride that they had chosen our restaurant to dine (our celebrity guests include: Kayama Yuza, Burt Lancaster, Mohammed Ali, Hiroshi Itsuki, several Olympic teams, foreign dignitaries and a former Prime Minister.

Constructive criticism is always embraced and is a way forward for the wise restaurateurs, however, in 1984, the Blue Angel had defended its good name and its culinary methods and shined a light on the truth of the issue. The Blue Angel and Marcello suffered an attempted humiliation from Mr. Schofield and “The Good Living” section of the Sydney Morning Herald. Having been justified by the supreme Court in 1989, before Justice Enderby and the jury of four, in an unprecedented case, we were truly vindicated. However, we are still awaiting a public apology after 20 years. The diners at the Blue Angel are its true critics. It speaks for itself, we are approaching our 50th anniversary in January 2011, for which we have already planned a wonderful celebration by opening a 36L bottle of French Champagne from the Drapier company. All are welcome to this celebration, except the obvious. My esteemed congratulations to all the other restaurateurs who have suffered and been vindicated in the same.

Trips back to Italy were rare for me but this image is one I will cherish which showed my passion for surfing... Marcello Marcobello.