Over the past two decades, Gennaro De Angelis has made a name for himself with his architecture and design company, AGD Italia Architects. He’s designed buildings around the world, but now he’s also taken on a task of designing menus. The owner of Gennaro Italian Restaurant, De Angelis has achieved his dream of opening a restaurant.

To those who know De Angelis, it’s hardly a surprise that he’s expanded his job title to include restaurateur. The man is no stranger to conflicting roles. Growing up, he recalls dealing with an internal debate over what career path to follow.

“One part of me wanted to achieve the best and fight for my beliefs – this part of me wanted to become a lawyer,” he says. “The other part of me is creative. It’s imagination, it’s inventing, it’s passion. This part of me won and I became an architect.”

And that same creativity that turned him into an architect is the driving force behind the opening of Gennaro. He admits that his F&B background derives from his roots; he grew up in a traditional Neapolitan family in New Jersey. He nurtured his heritage, heading to Milan to study at age 17 and picking up his cultural and culinary assimilation into Italy. Initially as a designer, he worked with F&B outlets during his early career, projects that gradually inspired his later move into the restaurant business.

“I didn’t wake up one day and decide to open a restaurant. In the very beginning of my career I designed numerous clubs, restaurants, hotels and bars,” he says. “I found the food and beverage industry to have real art, history and culture – the same elements you can find in the design field.”

But it wasn’t for decades that De Angelis realised his dream of opening a restaurant. First his international design career took off, leading him to the United Arab Emirates, an eye-opening experience after living in America and Italy, and one that eventually landed him in Shanghai.

“When I arrived in the Emirates in 2006, I immediately found myself dealing with a new design market, a different style – actually, another world,” he says. “I discovered that most of the furnishings were arriving from manufacturers from Asia, and in particular China, where the deco design was a mixture of different styles – far from what my design method was.”

Curiosity brought him to explore China, a place he considers the centre of the world and one that suits his designer side well. But the idea of opening a restaurant was still a nagging concept in the back of his mind, one that was initially inspired a chance meeting with Chef Roberto Bernasconi on a football pitch at an Italian American football league match more than 20 years earlier. The two remained friends through the years, and then one day, two decades later, everything fell into place.

De Angelis came to Shanghai to set up the Asia Pacific headquarters of his AGD Italia Architects and by chance ran into Chef Bernasconi. A China veteran, Bernasconi had racked up awards for his Italian cooking in both Shanghai and Qingdao. Then De Angelis met clients of his design firm who were the developers of Mandarine City, offering him the perfect space for his authentic Italian restaurant. He leapt at the opportunity, and his contagious enthusiasm that has helped him in so many other aspects of his life propelled the restaurant forward, making it the success it is today.

“My love and passion is what brings me to my success – in the restaurant business, the design field, the trading – actually, this principle is a way of life,” he says. “I can say the same love and passion I have in my wife Doriana and my two daughters Sophia and Matilde is the same I put in every idea, every creation, every business – it’s just a fantastic feeling.”

Gennaro Italian Restaurant. Mandarine City Clubhouse, 1129 Guyang Lu, near Shuicheng Lu. Tel: 2428 6587. Web: www.gennaro-s.com