"Enzo Apicella , one of the funniest men I know, if one can understand anything of what he says, whether in Italian or English"

Quentin Crewe (Well I forget the rest)

"A bold new look took in place: white walls, ceramic tiles, curved archways leading from one room to the rest and spotlights epitomized what came to be known as the 'trat' or, to give it its full name, the trattoria"

Simon Hopkinson & Lindsey Bareham (The prawn cocktail years)

"Enzo Apicella who was to go on to design many a Pizza Express as well as other restaurant in the cool functional style that was is hallmark. This was pioneering work"

 Terence Conran (Terence Conran on restaurant)

In the early 1960s Alan Fletcher, Eduardo Palozzi, Enzo Apicella, Len Deighton, David Bailey, Terence Conran: these were people who altered Britain's visual culture and opened out a whole generation's cognisance of pleasure.

Fiona Mac Carthy - The Guardian (The line of beauty)

The Meridian Restaurant on the Fulham road, wich Apicella has owned since buying out a partner who put cooking marsala in zabaglione...

Mary Blume - International Heral Tribune

After studying briefly at the film school in Rome (1947) he took up freelance design work; illustration and print journalism before co-founding Melodramma, an opera magazine, in Venice (1953).

When this folded he came to England (1954) and began designing posters for Schweppes (1956) and sets for TV (e.g. ABC TV's 'Bid for Fame'), as well as producing cartoon films. Self-taught, his cartoons have been published in Corriere della sera, La Stampa, Ici Paris, Krokodil, Boz, Economist (including covers), Private Eye, Manifesto (journalism and political cartoons), Liberazione (political cartoons) and Harpers&Queen.

He has also worked as an interior designer for more than 140 restaurants, notably 70 for the Pizza Express chain (for wich he also designed the corporate identity), and has produced murals (e.g. Misha Black at the Research Design Unit). In addition he was a co-founder of the Arethusa club and Meridiana Restaurant in London and co-owner of Condotti Restaurant in Mayfair. 'One of the creator of the Swinging Sixties in London' (Bevis Hillier, Vogue), Apicella draws with a fine line and a subtle use of colour.

'His cartoons are a major talent displaying an economy of line and the exploitation of space which put him, in my view, into the same class as our mutual friend, the late Mark Boxer' (George Melly). Apart from his political cartoons he is particularly at home with sophisticated caption-less jokes about the world of food, restaurants and chefs. A life-size seated wax-work dummy of him was created by ex-Madame Tussaud's sculptor Lynn Kramer for the Meridiana Restaurant (1974).

Mark Bryant