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Welcome to Attenzione!
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 Observations, Opinions, and Recollections
of a Full-Time Restaurateur and Part-Time Writer
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by Francesco Pasqualino
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As a full-time restaurateur, I am proud to say we are having our busiest year in our forty plus years. As a part-time writer, I am also proud that a few of the many poems and short stories I have written have been published in literary journals and newspapers. With this backdrop, Attenzione! will share my insights into the restaurant business.
Attenzione! is just a small part of a much larger creative process. The phrase "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" is widely credited to T. Bert Lance, the Director of Budget and Management in the Carter Administration. I believe with all my heart that "If you don't keep fixing it, it's going to get broke." And this is the reason for Attenzione!
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Blame It on the Canoli
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Most guests to Pasqualino's Italian Restaurant are not familiar with our history. This story, "Blame It on the Canolli", provides a glimpse into my family's opening of our restaurant in 1971, and also details our family's philosophy towards food and how that philosophy has shaped our menu. After this brief introduction of our restaurant's opening, Blame It on the Canolli", focuses on mobsters in the years immediately following the 1972 movie release of Mario Puzo's The Godfather. Back then, if you were Italian and lived or worked in a predominately Italian neighborhood, you knew or did business with someone somehow connected to organized crime."Blame It on the Canolli" details my ringside seat observations of mobsters trying to live up to the Hollywood image they were cast in after organized crime was romanticized and exploded into the mainstream of American pop culture. I also provide a contrast to the stereotypical mobster image enamored by the American public by introducing gentlemanly mobsters like Leo, who was the most likable killer you would ever meet, and intellectual mobsters like Nini who could quote Shakespeare and play the piano with virtuosity. Though much of the story focuses on the criminal side of Italians, "Blame It on the Canolli" also honors the millions of honest, hardworking Italian immigrants who came to this country in search of a better life. Although some of you may have been around at that time and may also share many of the experiences I describe, I want to point out to readers that I purposely left out names, changed some of the names, and used full names only when historical facts could identify the characters. Click the following "Read more" link to open "Blame It on the Canolli".
>>read more>>
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Men Who Cook
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| “The shoemaker has the worst shoes in town.” I’m certain most people heard this old adage about professionals who don’t have time or energy to apply their trades to their own lives. In my line of work, an owner of a busy Italian restaurant, nothing can be further from the truth. I actually enjoy cooking at home. Knowing my way around a kitchen is certainly an advantage, so preparing a home-cooked meal is definitely much easier for me than most. I also have the benefit of a ready supply of ingredients from which to pick and choose. Along with baking our own breads and preparing our own sauces; our meats and produce are delivered fresh daily. For me, after working a dinner rush at my restaurant, cooking at home helps me catch my breath. In my kitchen at home, I can transition from the beastly pace of a frantic kitchen, to being a somewhat tolerable human being. Working in a busy, well-organized restaurant demands a tremendous amount of attention to detail. Cooks work in a culinary automaticity to present identical meals that no matter how creative the dish is, the entire meal from prep to service must be defined and controlled. But at home, I am free to improvise, to create something different in whatever time frame the meal requires. Luckily I inherited a taste for the simple recipes of my mother’s southern Italian ways of cooking, which significantly cuts down preparation time. I look for simple recipes with few ingredients, adding spices and herbs as to not mask the flavor, but to gently coax any hidden flavors out of the main ingredient. I often combine two or three different recipes of a dish, taking what I like from each. Many of the dishes I serve in the restaurant have come about because of this experimenting with multiple recipes.
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But why are so many other men taking up spatulas and grill pans and starting to talk recipes with each other, especially since most men I talk to have no culinary background other than perhaps washing dishes in a restaurant or delivering pizzas while in high school. Everyday I talk to more and more men, who are taking an active, if not lead role, in the preparation of their family’s meal. And they seem to be enjoying it. The types of men joining this culinary revolution, along with their reasons why are as varied as there are different shapes of pastas. Perhaps the simplest of reasons is the change in the family structure over the last few decades that brought on a significant realignment in traditional roles. The kitchen at home had been the domain almost entirely reserved for women, but in this fast-paced new century, families are free to develop whatever plan makes the flow of their lives easier. As far as I see, I have heard no complaints from men or women on the subject. A man cooking in the kitchen is now seen as sexy, dominant and confident. Though the trend will certainly not replace the occasional diamond bangle bracelet as a gift, women certainly see men cooking as a positive part of their lives.
Another reason is the sharp rise in dominant male television celebrity chefs. With the introduction of reality television shows such as Hell’s Kitchen with Gordon Ramsay, and cooking networks such as the Food Network with chefs like Bobby Flay and Mario Batali, cooking is easily accessible. These chefs are not cooking up complicated Julia Child recipes with never-heard-of-ingredients. They are real men, who swear and argue.
Whatever the reasons, a man cooking in the home kitchen adds depth and flair to the dinner table. Every cook has a different repertoire of recipes and a different approach to cooking. With husband and wife sharing the cooking of meals, each night’s dinner is a culinary adventure.
A great dish for men to prepare is risotto. Veneto is famous for its rice dishes. While pasta is very popular, many Italians prefer rice. I have an easy recipe for risotto with a slightly different perspective than most risotto recipes. Although the recipe is easy, risotto requires constant stirring, and upwards of forty-five minutes to cook. But risotto's smooth, creamy flavor makes the time well spent. This is a good recipe for a husband to cook for his wife when the kids are away, or for a man to cook for someone he has just started dating. Along with sharing a bottle of wine, the combination of the risotto's aroma and gentle stirring is calming, sort of hypnotic, or meditative, pulling you in, and inspiring conversation. The risotto's gentle stirring and easy pace hints at a man's confidence, and at least for a short while, the total control of his life.
I'll be posting the recipe shortly.
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"Hello Goodbye"
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All those quick nodding years of hello goodbye,
just another customer in a hurry to a busy old man
working alone behind the espresso counter.
Unusually warm for an end of December night
I wandered in late.
By then the walls were already stained
with the musty amber of coffee grinds
left too long in the basket.
Though no other customers to attend,
he brewed us a fresh pot, and I stayed to help clean up.
All the while his eyes fixed
beyond the clear plate glass windows
to a white taxi idling beneath a tall streetlamp.
Born a half century apart, but both of us childless,
the grains of our barren wood matched,
formed a nearly perfect picture frame of family.
He wished me as son, his only worth,
then turned the sign in the window
over to CLOSED.
In memory of Leone and Lucille Cavazza. Leone passed away in 2007 at the age of ninety-nine, Lucille a year later at age one hundred. Leone was the owner of Sausage Manufacturing Company in Pittsburgh's Strip District, a company his father
started before the turn of the century. Leone's company was our first Italian foods supplier and remained our only supplier of imported foods until he sold the business at the age of eighty-nine. A frequent traveler to Italy, dining with the founders of what today are the largest international exporters of Italian foods, his guidance, support, and advice was instrumental in the success we enjoy today. After his retirement, we became the closest of friends.
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WQED
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| I was recently introduced to Chris Fennimore, Director of Programming and resident Head Chef at WQED. Chris was kind enough to invite me into the WQED studios for a tour of the kitchens where the station's local cooking shows are produced. More than a dozen of these local shows have been turned into national cooking specials which air on other public television stations. Talking recipes with Chris, an iconic chef celebrity who helped pave the way for the television chefs of today, has been inspiring.
Our discussions of cooking eventually expanded to other subjects. Most particular, Masterpiece, one of the few television shows I can truly say I look forward to watching. If you are not familiar with Masterpiece, you are missing the best television has to offer. Masterpiece Classic offers series such as Downton Abbey which utilizes elaborate set designs for quickly moving and evolving personal dramas set against historical events that make for compelling and intelligent television. Masterpiece Mystery serves up murder and intrigue with true to life characters in plot lines that keep you guessing up to the very ending. Sherlock is edge-of-your-seat, up to date, hi tech excitement from beginning to end. Since I can't always tune into WQED to watch these shows when they air, I often watch online on the Masterpiece website. Many of these shows are available instantly on Netflix.
But I strayed a little from the subject of food. So, when I found out Chris was looking for potato recipes for a new cookbook and show, One Potato,Two Potato, I offered Chris a recipe my mother made with her mother as a little girl growing up in Italy. The recipe is easily seventy-five years old, and quite possibly over one hundred year old. This is one of a very few old recipes we make at home, and more than likely will never be introduced in our restaurant. Up until now the recipe has never been committed to paper, so its possible spelling is Zippili (zeep-p-lee). Chris kindly accepted the recipe and invited my mother and I to appear on the show.
At first my mother was reluctant to appear. Chris and I agreed that without her the recipe would lose something in its translation. After a day, she reluctantly agreed, but her nervousness about being in front of a camera never fully convinced her that she made the right choice.
I didn't find out until the morning of the taping, the show was to be broadcast live. So as not to further exacerbate her frazzled nerves, I never told my mother. After meeting with Chris and his staff to create different stages of the recipe, we settled in, waiting for our turn to appear. Between staff, volunteers, and other cooks waiting to present their recipes, there were at least one hundred people in the studio. Because of the heat from cameras and lights, the studio is kept purposely cool. One staff member offered to get my mother's coat for her, another offered her a chair. Watching the first two presentations made her even more nervous. She mumbled about the waste of time, asked a couple of times why we were doing this. I tried to relax her as best I could, hoping we would be on soon.
When her turn came, all her anxiousness evaporated. My mother quickly and naturally took control of the show. Chris, being the gentleman that he is, along with doing enough of these shows to realize the different dynamics of each guest, was quickly relegated to my mother's assistant. I guess something rubbed off on her from watching every episode of Cakeboss, her favorite program. My part was little, offering anecdotes about the recipe. While my mother and Chris did all the work, I told the audience how Zippili, in Southern Italy, is always served on November 11, the traditional day for the touching (first taste) of the wine. Zippili is also served on December 13, the feast day of Santa Lucia. On that day, all Catholics are prohibited from eating bread. But for reasons no one has been able to explain to me, fried bread mixed with potatoes is OK to eat, but not baked bread. If anyone can answer this question, please let me know.
After my mother finished her segment, she was greeted with a rush of congratulatory hugs and kisses from many of the staff at WQED. The next day she asked when we could go on again.
My thanks to WQED for the respect and kindness they showed my mother.
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