Maybe it's a genetic thing, but when it comes to Italian food I get very fussy. There's a long tradition of cooking in Italy, and Italians are, generally speaking, traditionalists. They expect a traditional dish to taste just as it always has - they eschew variations. I mention this only because in this city there are restaurants operating under the Italian flag which would close in a week if they tried to sell the same fare to Italians.

The vast majority of first-generation Italians in this country didn't come from a catering background, they learnt the trade here. That's what sets Roberto Morsiani apart from the others; he was a chef before he came here. Not only that, he was a chef in what is the epicentre of Italian haute-cuisine, the Emilia-Romagna and Bologna in particular. It's no accident that the best-known Italian foods come from this region - Parma ham and Parmesan cheese. The Emilia is a centre of dairy produce, something that is rarely used in other regions of Italy. As a result Emilian cookery abounds with butter, cream and Parmesan cheese. Perhaps not a diet to modern tastes, but undeniably delicious.

Roberto started working in his first restaurant at the age of nine. It was after the war and life was hard. 'If you want to eat well,' his father said, 'get a job in a restaurant.' Little by little he worked his way up the food chain, learning all the while. 'My father's advice turned out to be the best I ever got. I've ended up doing a job that still inspires me.' He worked in many restaurants, but he really started learning his skills at the age of nineteen when he moved to Switzerland, firstly to Zurich and then to Geneva. 'I remember in Geneva I was working under a great chef. When I had a break, instead of taking it, I'd ask to chef if I cook one his dishes. He'd watch me - at first out of curiosity - and then he started to teach me.'

Later he worked aboard ship. 'At that time Italy had great cruise liners, and I was lucky to work on them. They had really fine chefs, so I was able to refine my techniques. After that I came back to Bologna to open my first restaurant, the Bar Vittoria. It went well, and after that I opened several others, but my most successful restaurant was Harry's Bar. All in all, I had twelve restaurants in Bologna, but they still talk about Harry's Bar.' So why Ireland? 'I have an Irish wife, Janet. After fifteen years in Bologna working with me she said 'why don't we try Ireland?' and I couldn't think of a reason not to.' I asked him was he happy with that decision. 'The Irish have embraced me warmly, I feel at home. I have the house of my dreams in Wicklow town with my own studio where I keep all my cookery books. Nearly 800. I only wish I could learn English.'

I couldn't let the subject of 800 cookery books go. Does he read them? 'All the time, even the bad ones. It's a way of breaking habits - I mean, reading other peoples ideas gives me new ideas, new ways to combine foods and flavours. Without that, I'd be scared of stagnating.' Will he ever write his own cookery book? 'I just don't have the time. But I have a dream: occasionally I create an Emilian/Asian fusion dish, and that's what I'd like to do. Create a fusion of Asian and Emilian cookery.' I noticed his careful choice of 'Emilian' rather than Italian. 'It's hard to talk about 'Italian' cookery,' he told me, 'it's completely regionally based. Cooking in Naples is different to cooking in Bologna, in Sicily it's totally different to the Venetian style.'

So what distinguishes his personal style of cooking? 'Cooking is about passion, precision and extreme care. You need delicacy of touch. It's also very personal. I've tried on occasion to use great recipes from other chefs, but in the end I prefer to work with my own. Your passion and love for the task have to shine through. It's not fast food, it's slow, but I'd rather wait and eat well than eat badly in a hurry.'

This passion occasionally leaves Roberto vulnerable. 'Sometimes, if I've had a complaint, I can't sleep. I worry that something may have gone wrong and I didn't notice. But some complaints are helpful. They give me a chance to find ways of improving things.'

I had one last question for him, how does he manage to get his food to taste authentically Italian? 'I import everything I need directly from Bologna. I don't think there's an alternative.'