IT TOOK a uniquely Italian recipe of scrambled eggs mixed with parmesan cheese and cream to help a Woodstock Bed and Breakfast become the best in England.

Italian-born Francesco Totta serves his strapazzate – meaning scrambled – each day at The Glove House in Oxford Street.

Made with locally-sourced eggs and served up with bacon from Chipping Norton, the breakfast is one of the reasons why AA inspectors voted it Guest Accommodation of the Year for England for 2015.

Mr Totta said: “It’s scrambled eggs mixed with parmesan.

Then last of all you put the cream in. This is the secret.

“It’s not something too important but it means when people come here they find something a little bit different.”

The 52-year-old, from Turin, once worked as an engineer building pasta factories in Italy.

He moved to London 10 years ago and fell in love with banker Caroline Totta nee Frost, now 49, in 2006.

The pair met on a blind date – fittingly at a Carluccio’s restaurant in London.

It was not long before romance blossomed and they decided to start a new adventure together. They bought the 400-year-old Georgian townhouse in Woodstock in 2013, with the aim of renovating it as a B&B.

The couple married in Woodstock town hall in May 2013, just a month before the guesthouse – which was once a glove factory – opened.

Mrs Totta, who was born in Charlbury and graduated from Worcester College at Oxford University, said: “We both just had the feeling we wanted to change our lives about four years ago.

“It just happened that this lovely property was up for sale.

“I wanted my children to go to school in Oxfordshire and my family still live here.

She said customer service was key to their success.

Mrs Totta added: “It’s wanting to make sure that we give the best that we can in everything we provide.

“People have responded and we’re lucky that we have got a lot of local support.”

Mrs Totta said other secrets of the couple’s success include decorating the rooms with antiques and art the couple have collected over the years, having an espresso machine in every room and using high quality spa products in the bathrooms.

She said the beautiful West Oxfordshire location also played a key role.

The pair, who have four children between them, attended a special champagne lunch organised by the AA for its annual awards ceremony at a London hotel on Monday.

Mrs Totta said: “It was a big surprise to get the award. We are still in a state of shock.

“We asked the judge why we had won and she said she could see it was a labour of love.”

The couple won a Gold Five Star AA rating after the first AA review of the guest house in 2013.

The AA inspect and rate more than 2,300 B&Bs across the UK and the annual B&B Awards recognise the services provided by the UK’s best B&B establishments.

All the winners at the event are nominated by a team of expert AA Inspectors.