Gaby Pierotti

TEN years ago this week mourners gathered at a memorial mass for Gaby Pierotti.

I hope you remember him, because his deli, I Camisa & Son, has always been a special feature in Soho, long before every stop in the area was a Pret A Manger. It’s been at its current site in Old Compton Street since 1961.

And Gaby injected so much passion into the business that its ongoing success surely still has a debt to him in some way.

He would no doubt have been horrified by the reports of its potential closure last year, like many of us were.

But then delighted by more recent ones that say it has a new lease for at least two more years.

It had been his pride and joy for more than three decades, as he brought in cuisine from his native Tuscany and had queues snaking out of the door.

This is a place where Soho residents, office workers and famous faces all drop in, and nobody bats an eyelid if you’re a celebrity.

Among his many fans were food writer and TV chef Nigella Lawson and MotoGPworld champion Valentino Rossi, while A-listers Ralph Fiennes and Keira Knightley were also among his customers.

Maybe the business meant even more to him because he was a Soho resident himself, living in a flat close to the deli.

In his time off – it wasn’t always clear when that was, given he invested 12-hour days into work – he’d enjoy a glass of wine in the French House in nearby Dean Street.

He did leave Soho sometimes, though. As a huge Chelsea fan he’d also be found at Stamford Bridge on matchdays.

When he retired and decided to spend more time returning to northern Italy, he handed it over to Christina Onuta, who had worked at the deli for 15 years and seemed just as in love with the place.

She explained after his death at 65 in February 2013 that she would try and run it as he had and was sourcing the oil and olives – and the famous Parma ham – from the same producers.

Although now run by Italian importer Alivini, that spirit still runs through it and is why so many people wanted to sign a petition demanding it be saved in any way possible.

The Soho Society cannot have had many more tweets go as viral when it announced that negotiations with landlords Shaftesbury had resulted in some success.

Let it live long into the future – buy its pasta – but don’t forget Gaby, chatting away behind he counter.

He was once the heart and the soul of this famous deli.