ABOUT US
As I young child I spent many days in the homes of my grandparents, Italian and American. Most of the time my grandmothers were in the kitchen preparing meals. Food played a major part of family life and I was surrounded by great cooks. My Italian grandmother, Nana Gallizzi was from Calabria and the cooking, all from scratch, was a mix of Calabrian and Neapolitan food recipes. On the American side, my grandmother Nonnie Daugherty cooked hearty fare from the mid-west and popular American recipes that trended during the 50’s, 60s, and 70s. Her brother-in-law, my Uncle Jake, was a superb baker who had worked for Dolly Madison and Langendorf breads. He was an excellent cook as well.
My first real job was working in the kitchen of a catering company, Antoine’s, in Altadena, California. I would watch the cooks make elegant dishes and a variety of sauces and foods from scratch. I also learned cake decorating while there and made my brother’s wedding cake. Later I worked the night shift at a local donut shop. The night shift, of course, is when the donuts are made and soon I was working the shift by myself having learned to make cake and raised donuts, crullers, bars, fritters and cinnamon rolls.
After graduating from Pasadena High School, I entered the management training program for Collins Foods International. At that time Collins Foods was the largest operator of Kentucky Fried Chicken and Sizzler Family Steakhouses. It operates a variety of fast food brands around the world. I was trained up through the Kentucky Fried Chicken system but often standing in for the management of the local Sizzler when needed. Later in life, I cooked and entertained on a large scale — often 100 guests at a time in our home. In retirement, as my family started to age, my cousins would often ask for a recipe that our grandmother Nana made. This resulted in a series of cookbooks. Volume I, Italian Wanderings, which contains the foods my Italian side of the family ate plus a recreation of dishes I have eaten through my many travels in Italy.
Volume II, Wednesday Night at Roger and Jim’s, is more Italian food that I discovered researching volume I.
Volume III, An American Journey, has all the recipes from my mom’s American side of the family; recipes that span four generations of cooking, including some very precious ones passed down from our grandmother and one from my great grandmother. My brother Thaddeus spurred me to write this one and many of the recipes have been recreated based on his memories. In talking with him I also remembered some things I haven’t thought of for forty years.
I have included some of those recipes in my current book project, so that book, Cooking Every Day and Gourmet, is somewhat comprehensive. Also included in this project are the recipes I have used when creating charity dinners (that’s the “Gourmet” part). This is something I have been doing now for over twenty years. Starting with Kiwanis Club of Palmdale West and now Opera Las Vegas, it is a great way to raise money for good causes and “upped” my techniques in attempting some pretty high-end things. These are “gourmet” recipes and I have tried to re-create them based on the menus I kept.
Whacked! Is a tongue-in cheek title for the most popular recipes of Volume I and II. It also contains an exhaustive chapter on the history of Italian wine and wine-making written by Bob Rodrigo.
I hope you enjoy this website and find the recipes and techniques helpful.