Frank Pellegrino - Raos classics: 150 Italian favorites from the legendary New York restaurant

Raos Cookbook: Over 100 Years of Italian Home Cooking

Raos Recipes from the Neighborhood: Frank Pellegrino Cooks Italian with Family and Friends

Raos on the Grill: Perfectly Simple Italian Recipes from My Family to Yours

RAOS

CLASSICS

More than 140 Italian Favorites from the Legendary New York Restaurant

FRANK PELLEGRINO
SENIOR and JUNIOR

with JOSEPH RICCOBENE

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One evening as I was about to leave my apartment and go to the restaurant I called out to my wife and said, Josephine, Im going to work and I will see you later. Josephine came out of the kitchen and, with a bemused expression on her face, said, You call that work? To which I replied, with a quizzical expression on my face, Of course I do. To which she replied, You mean singing and dancing with all the pretty women? Hugging all of your customers and friends? Telling jokes? Swapping funny stories? Having a scotch or two? And then sitting with some friends and customers to enjoy a late supper? Work? We both started laughing and I realized Josephines description of what I did at the restaurant would be hard to call work. None the less it is work. Making people happy, providing them with an experience, helping them to forget their troubles for a few hours, transporting them to another time and place just through their senses, thats the real work I do. Its what all the people in the restaurant and hospitality business do. Its a great business filled with great people. So I will continue to tell Josephine Im going to work and she will laugh and be waiting for me when I get home.

Frank Sr.
Southhampton New York
August 21, 2016

My culinary and management teams were critical to the preparation of this book and deserve special thanks. Their contributions to our restaurants and to this book are examples of the philosophy that has underpinned our familys hard work over the last century. Both teams consist of ambassadors of hospitality who work hard. They serve as our inspiration as we move toward the future and evolve and improve our business.

As Senior always points out, a restaurant is only as good as the people who support it. We express our appreciation and gratitude to our guests, all of whom have made Raos what it is today. The majority of our guests, in their own way, have championed our evolution.

Regardless of geography, our visits to New York City, Las Vegas, and Hollywood are filled with anticipation, knowing that when we hit the ground in any of these cities, we have a home and family waiting there. We salute our culinary and management teams in NYC, Las Vegas, and Hollywood: Executive Chefs Dino Gatto, Fatimah Madyun, James Palermo, Laura Augsberger, and Michael Lanza are all priceless. Special homage to our sous chefs, Lydia Vicens, Paulie, Dominick and Rosie, and their teams. Based in New York, Tommy Mara, Nicky the Vest Zaloumis, Joe Ciccone, Dee Mendoza, and Jessica Danowsky, and the indispensable Susan Paolercio have been superlative for decades. Special shout-outs to Hilton Pacheco, Marc Melvin, and Big Mike, all also up in Harlem. To our Las Vegas team go big kudos: Marie Joe Tabet, Andrea Cisneros, and our front-of-house servers, bartenders, busboys, and runners. And a special thanks to the executive team at Caesars Palace, who provide a peerless setting and unbeatable ambiance. A special hosanna goes up for our hostess and part-time house photographer, the irrepressible Marisa Posner. Big ups go out as well to the Hollywood team: Patrick Hickey, Big Lou, Johnny Roast Beef, Adrian, Kevin, Jason, Mark T, Lena, and Magic Marc C. And to all the waiters and bartenders out there in Movieland at the former Hollywood Canteen, with its unique karma.

Special thanks to our dear friend and house scribe, Joseph Riccobene, whose writing in this book captures the history and character that makes Raos magic. Thanks also to our literary agent and dear friend, Eddie Breslin, who has helped forge and guide each of our four books. A hearty thumbs-up also to recipe organizers Gracie and Raine Boscos, and to recipe editor Chris Peterson. To our dear friend and world-renowned photographer, Timothy White, we extend gratitude for capturing the very special photograph of a father and son that graces the back jacket of this book.

We cant possibly overpraise the team at St. Martins Press, who were marvelous: Publisher Sally Richardson, Executive Editor Elizabeth Beier, Editorial Assistant Nicole Williams, and Managing Editor Amelie Littel. Their direction, support, and dedication were unrelenting. We salute them for the opportunity they extended to us to further articulate the Raos story.

Raos is a celebration of people and the special moments of joyful simplicity total team efforts produce. Serving outstanding food enriches some of the most important elements in life: love, friendship, conviviality, and pleasure.

Like charity, love and support begin at home. Thats why we tip the brim of our caps to Josephine, Seniors wife and Juniors mother; Angela, Seniors daughter and Juniors sister; and Caroline, Juniors wife. All three of these graces are steadier and more stable than Rocks of Gibraltar, and our enduring and ever-growing love for them is so great it defies description.

Thanks, everyone,
The Franks, Senior and Junior

Raos Classics is a nostalgic, generational recipe book with a story to tell. Steeped in Italian culture dating back to the turn of the century, Raos on 114th Street and Pleasant Avenue in East Harlem is the focal point, setting, and backdrop of the narrative.

One of my earliest memories dates back to 1976, on a late autumn Sunday afternoon. I was seven years old and visiting my great-aunt and uncle, Annie and Vincent, for Sunday dinner with my parents. Their brownstone, and the birthplace of my great-uncle Vincent in 1903, was just fifty feet away from the ruby red doors of where Raos still stands today.

This book is a journey through eras of tranquility and turbulence, and of times of celebration followed by sudden downturns. In a city forever in flux, Raos is as close to constant as it gets.

The universality of this culinary experience spans the considerable chasms between the greatest generation, baby boomers, Generation X, and millennials. When we break bread at the restaurant the distinctions blur, these generations merge, and my father, Frank Pellegrino, Sr., and I stand together instead of years apart. Intergenerational appreciation has shaped our present-day hospitality, food culture, and social interaction at Raos New York, Raos Las Vegas, and Raos Hollywood.