Writer specialising in Italian food, wine, culture and opera. Author of six books including Italy for the Gourmet Traveller. In 2015, he was awarded the Cavaliere della Stella d’Italia. He has worked at La Scala and the Metropolitan Opera and has written programme notes for the Glyndebourne Festival among others. He appears regularly on the BBC, and is a popular speaker at the Oxford Literary Festival. He is opera adviser on Pavarotti, the 2019 biopic by Ron Howard. Twitter: @FredPlotkin