THEY say any publicity is good publicity.

That certainly proved to be the case for Johnny Di Francesco, who reflected in Mildura this week on the turning point for his now-thriving 400 Gradi restaurants.

The first 18 months of his Neapolitan-inspired pizza business in suburban Melbourne was a “hard slog”, he said.

But a scathing newspaper review in 2009 turned out to be a blessing in disgui...