From Sardinia to Sydney’s northern beaches: how Giovanni Pilu became one of the country’s best-loved restaurateurs

The northern beaches is full of amazing stories and interesting characters. This week, the Manly Daily talks to Pilu restaurant owner Giovanni Pilu.

Giovanni Pilu at Pilu in Freshwater.

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I was pretty young when I got in to the hospitality industry. When I turned 14, I got my libretto di lavoro or work booklet. It meant I could be legally employed, so I went to work at my uncle Elio and aunty Maria’s restaurant in Olbia in the north of Sardinia for three months during school holidays.

Giovanni Pilu at his restaurant Pilu in Freshwater.

I come from a tiny village with 300 people and Olbia is the biggest town in Sardinia with 50,000 people, so it was a lot of fun to leave the village. Maria and Elio didn’t have kids, so they brought me up in the summer months and spoiled me like a son. I loved it from the start.

The first year I worked, Maria and Elio kept my pay aside for me and said they would give it to me at the end of the season before I went back to school. All my friends had pushbikes and I didn’t have one, so they said I could have the money or a bike. They took me to a shop in the centre of the town in Olbia and said to me, ‘You can either have the money or choose whichever bike you want.’ I was fourteen! I was like, ‘Even that one?’

Giovanni Pilu with wife Marilyn Annecchini

There was this great looking bike — I will never forget it — it was yellow and black and I remember the brand, Carnielli. I said to my uncle, ‘I love that one but it’s too expensive’ and he told me, ‘if you want that one, you can have it’ and he bought it for me. I was riding round town with this flash bike which I chose instead of three months pay.

I couldn’t wait for school to finish so I could go back and do it again. It was becoming something that I really loved. I was studying to be a draftsman and when I was 17, I said to my parents, ‘I don’t like this studying that I’m doing — I’m not going to enjoy it. I love doing what I’m doing with my uncle and aunty and I want to pursue that. I want to get in to the hospitality business.’ They agreed straight away.

I am the oldest child. My brother Martino was a lawyer when he finished university — he passed away when I was 27 — and my sister Alessandra is a doctor with four degrees. They loved studying, but it wasn’t the path for me.

I met my wife Marilyn in Sardinia when I was 22. It was love at first sight. I didn’t speak English but Marilyn, who is Australian, spoke broken Italian as she’s from an Italian family. She was travelling after university.

Giovanni and his now-wife Marilyn in Sardinia shortly after they met.

I was going home one night and a friend said, ‘Come on, let’s have one more beer — there could be some girls in the club!’.

A cousin of mine Francesco, was there — he was going out with a girl called Simona who is now his wife, who Marilyn was visiting. My cousin said, ‘Simona has a friend from Australia you should meet!’ I was like, ‘Australia? Where is this place?’ I couldn’t think where it was!

We started talking and it all fell in to place — it was one of those freaky things.

She cut her trip to other places short and stayed in Sardinia for six months before she had to go back to Australia. When she went back we would talk on the phone and every call would cost me 50,000 Lira ($40).

It went on for months and then I decided to jump on a plane. I had nearly six million Lira ($4500) saved up and I was going to buy my dream motorbike. But instead I bought a ticket.

When I walked in to her parents’ house in Terrey Hills and I felt like I was already a son for them. It felt like I was coming home.

We have two kids, Martino, 18, and Sofia, 15. I remember the day Martino was born clearly. Marilyn had a caesarean, so I had the baby in a room on my own for half an hour. I can still picture him looking at me. It was indescribable — especially because we named him after my brother.

Giovanni Pilu and his son Martino

My brother was 25 when he died. It was a big hit for my mum and for the family. I was at work that night and I got a phone call from my neighbour telling me, ‘Your brother was in an accident — I don’t think he’s going to make it.’ It was shocking.

Marilyn was pregnant at the time, and we didn’t know what we were having. We were sure we were having a girl — then Martino arrived.

I didn’t feel right calling him anything else but I didn’t want Marilyn to feel pressured. But she agreed.

I remember being in that room and just looking at him without saying a word. I will never forget it. Now he is 18 and studying for his HSC at St Augustine’s in Brookvale — and now he’s taller than me.