I go with Lidia from Lidia's Italy on PBS

I also read she treats the help like a gangster

Mario Batali

I used to like Rocco DeSpirito, but I don't even think he's around any more. I would have to say Lidia, I guess.

Personally, I like Papa John. His quick delivery and emphasis on fresh ingredients is refreshing.

We have a guy here in the UK called Gino D Acampo who is very good and also popular. Check him out.

I like both Lidia and Nick Stellino. They cook the simpler, classic Italian food that most of us would normally prepare at home.

I loathe Mario Batali, his genius notwithstanding. I'd really like to pee on him with the girls from The Chew looking on in horror.

I like Lidia and Nick Stellino. I also like a young Canadian-Italian named David Rocco. I'm not even sure if he's on American television, but my wife got a cookbook of his as a gift a couple of years ago and I ended up looking him up online. He's down to earth, has a simple style, and he's very likeable.

David Rocco is a good, simple chef, but I just want to punch him in the face...he's so fucking annoying with his background music and the opening song to his show drives me insane. He is as metro-sexual as one could get. His recipes are great, as I've cooked with "many" of them. My favorite is Chris Cosentino. Sorry PB, didn't mean to shit all over Rocco, but he's annoying.

No problem, JCB. It's like I said in my initial post: I've never even seen him on actual television. Just online videos. So you may very well be right.

"didn't mean to shit all over Rocco, but he's annoying."

From the way you described Rocco, that seems like something he'd like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LhZ36KEPpw

ANNOYING!

Strange - my post yesterday mentioning that I liked Nick Stellino has mysteriously vanished.


Signor V.

pizzaboy, can i borrow your stepladder?

How old is she now? I think she got those puppies lifted boi !

I also like Lidia. She makes it easy to follow the recipes and I've actually had success in making a few when time allows.

I may have posted this story before, but in case I didn’t ……. My wife is a big fan of Lidia Bastianich. She has her cookbooks and watches her cooking show. I enjoy both…the cooking and the show. About eight or nine years ago, we were spending a weekend in Manhattan with my daughter and husband. We were going to see a Broadway matinee and have dinner afterwards. I had made reservations at Lidia’s restaurant called Felidia. You had to make reservations one month in advance, which I did. I had read that occasionally Lidia can be seen mingling with the patrons at Felidia. We had a wonderful dinner. My wife and I had something we would never get – Duck for two. Delicious. After the dinner, my wife and daughter tell us that they are making a stop at the ladies room. SIL and I will get the coats and wait by the door. We’re waiting and waiting. We figure it’s a one stall bathroom and there was a wait. My daughter shows up and says, “Dad, you’re going to have help Mom, she’s hyper-ventilating. For a second I was worried and then she’s says, “she’s in the kitchen with Lidia.” It turns out that near the bathroom was the entrance to the kitchen. My wife spots Lidia in the kitchen and cries out, “LIDIA!” Being the gracious hostess Lidia comes over to greet her. My wife, never at a loss for words, tells her how wonderful the dinner was. Lidia brings her into the kitchen to tell the chef how we enjoyed the duck. My daughter takes a picture, but unfortunately the flash wasn’t charged. So this is the best I could do with Lidia and the real MaryCas in the kitchen doorway at Felidia’s. PS. Two years later we went back to Felidia, just MC and me and don’t you know Lidia is there again. This time MC was more composed, but Lidia came around to every table and said hello.


Link to her restaurants.

Lidia's Italy

Mario B & R. Ray

Lidia runs her own family from the kitchen in Felidia

My wife's business is about a half mile from our home, so she often comes home for lunch and watches The Chew, on which Mario Batali appears. I wasn't too familiar with him, but I admire him after learning how charitable he is. The bald guy on the show seems to be more bubbly and vivacious.

Anyone remember the recent class action lawsuit against Mario Batali- he allegedly was taking a portion of tips to help pay for salaries and to offset the costs of broken glasses.

Mario's restaurants must be crushing it as he settled for over $5 million... settled!? That's a fortune in the restaurant world.

He sells Coke

Her recipe for lightly seared octopus didn't turn out so great the one time I tried it.


Signor V.

Signor. That is about the size of the octopus tentacle I had in Amalfi, Italy.

The ristorante was under those white umbrellas on the right. The stairs to left led up to St. Andrew's Church. There had to be 50 steps. It was a hot summer day and we watched two brides walk up those steps.

Ahhh.... what an image! Did you take the photo?

An aside: for most of my life, I couldn't stand calamari, or anything like it. Of course, it turned out that the few times I had tried it, it was prepared terribly. My conversion came around five or so years ago, when a good friend (who was also Maid of Honor at my wedding, as well as being my first date in high school!) suggested we try an Italian restaurant in her neighborhood in Queens, New York. Well, I certainly changed my opinion that day! I also remember that they had a linguine made with squid ink; a deep purplish-black in color. Besides being absolutely delicious, it was perfectly cooked - a rarity in restaurants, I'm sorry to say. The owner was a very gregarious gentleman who would go from table to table, making sure every customer was satisfied with their meal. Well, I was definitely satisfied - and I insisted he tell whoever prepared our dinner how pleased we were. It was one of the best restaurant meals I've ever had.

Now, if I could only remember the name of the restaurant!


Signor V.

SV, just wondering, did your teeth and lips turn black when you ate the pasta? I made it once, and that's what happened. The kids thought it was the coolest thing ever.

Y'know, I honestly can't remember exactly. I don't think my lips did, because my friend would have pointed it out. My teeth and gums might have, but mostly what I remember is how good that meal was!

I'll have to see if I can unearth the name of that restaurant...


Signor V.

Yes SV, that beautifully composed picture was taken by me in July, 2002 with my first digital camera, an Olympus with a whopping 2.1 megapixels. I do have an eye for photography {humble, humble}, being an art major may have helped.
Italy lends itself to beautiful pictures and its hard to take a bad picture on the Amalfi Coast. I have another 300 .

I really enjoyed David Rocco's show. He isn't a chef. I think he was/is an accountant. He travels the whole country of Italy and then cooks/eats with the locals. You really get a feel for that region from his show.

Did you remove the ink? I can see how if you ate octopus how if the ink was not removed it would do this.

An interesting follow-up:

The good news: The restaurant is called Donato's and is still located in Woodside, Queens. By sheer coincidence I've been living on the same block as the restaurant for the last several years. Quite an extensive menu. Great pizza, too.

The bad news: The pasta with squid ink is not on the menu anymore.


Signor V.