British chef works on in Pakistan

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	Scarpellino works at the Karachi Sheraton

Cooking in a war zone is not a new experience for Guido Scarpellino, the British executive chef at the Sheraton hotel in Karachi, Pakistan. Scarpellino was working in Cape Town in 1990 when Nelson Mandela was released, and South Africans tore through his kitchen threatening to kill him unless they were fed. He was in Dubai during the Gulf War in 1991 and more recently in Indonesia in 1998, when more than 500 were killed in rioting which forced President Suharto to stand down. He has been in Pakistan for two years and was there during the military coup in October 1999. He is remaining in Karachi for now but keeping in close touch with the British Embassy, which has a contingency plan to airlift expatriates out of the country in the case of a sudden emergency. Scarpellino, 37, has Italian parents but grew up in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire. At the hotel, he manages 100 chefs and 40 stewards. He was married to an Indonesian Muslim for five years. He is frightened by the prospect of war but said he doesn't feel unsafe. "I don't feel vulnerable, but you have to be careful outside," he said. "I have been out at night, but I didn't go out on the day of the national strike \[21 September\]." *Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 4-10 October 2001*