Dirty Dishes
A Restaurateur's Story of Passion, Pain, and Pasta
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Everyone has an opinion about Pino Luongo. To Tony Bourdain, he was the notorious Pino Noir, the shadowy kingpin of a restaurant empire. To Manhattanites, he was either the savior or the scourge of the city's dining scene. To the many fans of his cookbooks, he was the herald of Tuscan cuisine.
In Dirty Dishes, Luongo emerges to tell his side of the story. And it's quite a story: After an idyllic (and well-fed) childhood in Tuscany, Luongo came to New York as an actor, and, after quickly washing out, fell into the restaurant business. Within ten years, he had risen from a position as a dishwasher to build a string of the hottest restaurants in the city, including Le Madri, Coco Pazzo, Tuscan Square, and Centolire. For a decade, he was one of the undisputed kings of New York nightlife, building a reputation for brilliance, volatility, and charm - as well as a long list of hilarious and jaw-dropping "Pino stories." But after a flirtation with a corporate chain went sour, he cashiered his restaurants and returned to his first love, the kitchen.
Pino has had an incredible life, full of amazing twists and famous names- and he's a born storyteller. Along with his expert coauthor, Andrew Friedman (who helped craft Don't Try This at Home), he's created an immensely readable inside look at the New York restaurant world, in all its Byzantine glory.
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In his meandering memoir, New York restaurateur Luongo traces his "American success story" from a hasty, draft-dodging flight from Italy to his current position as a chef at the Upper East Side's Centolire. His rise from busboy to chef at Il Cantinori and the star-studded Sapore di Mare remains far more interesting than his descent and "death sentence" with a failed corporate Tuscan restaurant chain. Friedman (Breaking Back, and co-writer of several cookbooks) makes brief appearances as the writer assisting Luongo with his bad boy cooking memoir and Luongo is shaped into both an uncompromising, confrontational chef and a person with an affection for his mother and good food. If it weren't for his uncompromising love of Italian food throughout, Luongo's reminiscences might seem bitter. He has a tendency to drop too many names and fight other celebrities' sense of entitlement. The trendsetting chef helped popularize Tuscan cooking and tells an engaging story even when he orbits outside the intense clatter of the kitchen. The book might disappoint hardcore foodies if it were not for a few incisive remarks on restaurant design, pasta portioning, how to skewer a critic and recipes.
