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Feb 21, 2019
Stories of Italian Heritage and the Food that Shaped that Culture.
After seeing the hit movie "Green Book" I was researching the true story about the people in the movie and came up on this book which was written/compiled by the Main "Green Book" character played by Viggo Mortensen, Tony Lip (Vallelonga). After the "Green Book" story timeline, he came back to New York, and ultimately got a job at the Copa, working his way up to be Maitre D'. In that position he begins to meet a ton of stars and became friends with most of them. This eventually led to him being asked to play small parts in movies and TV shows, ultimately working his way up to being a big Mob Boss on the HBO Show "The Soprano's."
Being a New York raised Italian, and having all that exposure to Italian Americans in his Acting career and Copa career, he decided the one thing he really knows about is EATING, especially Italian Food. So he asked a lot of his buddies to submit a favorite recipe or two, along with a page or two of what their Italian heritage means to them, and how food affected their lives.
It's really, really great. I'm reading this cookbook, for the first time in my life, as a book! Meaning, I started at the beginning, and I'm going from page to page to read the stories along with the recipes. And I'm loving every page. It's written in a very conversational tone, with regular people (even though they're celebrities) making quality Italian Food, and sharing a memory of two of how they came to love that recipe. And he says in the book you don't have to be a chef to make these recipes. If you know the basics of being in a kitchen, you can cook quality Italian!
I'm so glad I purchased this, and I'm thinking of finding more copies to gift to my Italian-American friends!!
J. Brian Mitchell