MIC2 0:09

[Mic bleed] restaurants in New Brunswick, New Jersey. We're here to bring you the inside food, wine, and the

Speaker 10 0:24

finer things in life.

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today. our guest is Vincenzo Prosperi. He is, the proprietor of Vincenzo's Plate. It's a YouTube channel. Through his different media, through his platforms, last year he had 574

Speaker 8 0:40

million views. He is the most listened to podcast in the English-speaking world on Italian

MIC2 0:47

cuisine and we had to have him on the show 'cause Francis wouldn't shut up love this guy's podcast

Speaker 8 0:53

I found him. There were a are great. He started with reaction videos. a real professional. He's in the food business.

MIC1-1 1:02

He's not a chef in a restaurant.

Speaker 8 1:03

He lives in Australia, which is why we may not have heard of him. A lot of our majority of our States, but we do have Australian we encourage all of you to write in. If you like Vincenzo's Plate, the, the

MIC1-1 1:15

at RestaurantGuysPodcast.com. And

Speaker 10 1:17

are also number three in

MIC1-1 1:19

We- I thought everybody should know that. That is not the English-speaking world, though everyone in Poland does speak English. Uh, so super happy to have him on later. But I would like to talk today about events and how important they have always been to us, and I think how important they are to restaurants overall.

Speaker 10 1:38

Well, I, I'll tell you, Francis and I have been doing events 10, 12, 15, year, over the years, but the idea

MIC2 1:49

they have been... is to generate excitement for the restaurant. But I think the we never

Speaker 10 1:55

really talk about, also to generate excitement for us.

MIC1-1 1:59

Oh, and the staff, yeah. And the

Speaker 10 2:02

doing these events insert and a kind of energy and a kind of fun-ness that- I don't think we'd be there without the

MIC1-1 2:12

I also think the way that we do events is different than a lot of folks. It's not about marketing. Mm-hmm. And you may wonder why we're talking about this, 'cause obviously we have a lot of people in the restaurant business who listen to us, and I think o- o- one of the things that's just interesting is you always see a calendar

Speaker 8 2:27

where there's a wine dinner or, or some- New Year's Eve party is coming

MIC2 2:33

And we have a calendar like that

Speaker 8 2:34

We do. And I think the, those things are great, corporate restaurants driven by the

MIC2 2:40

department. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 8 2:41

And we have never driven by the marketing department. a department.

MIC2 2:47

We don't have a- It's just the two of us,

MIC1-1 2:49

but what we're

MIC2 2:50

we're doing- You are listening to the marketing department. Yeah. Hello, and human resources department all in one.

Speaker 8 2:52

and

MIC1-1 2:55

But what we try to

Speaker 8 2:56

do with our restaurant overall our marketing is do interesting things that we wanna you all with us. Mm-hmm. Like go visit places where stuff and bring it back to New Brunswick, New along. And

MIC1-1 3:11

those sorts of things are really organic. And every time I read what people are doing for marketing now, it's people now want authenticity and they want, an in-person experience. I'm like, "Yeah, that's, that's what we do."

Speaker 9 3:23

to

Speaker 10 3:23

our- I talk about this to our waiters all the

MIC2 3:25

time.

Speaker 10 3:27

talking to a table about the Talk about something you love. Talk about something that extraordinary here. Talk about something that you're really passionate

MIC1-1 3:40

about Yeah.

Speaker 10 3:41

And you don't have to

MIC2 3:43

sell the halibut special of the

Speaker 10 3:45

'cause the halibut's gonna go bad.

MIC1-1 3:47

Right, right, right. And waiters who worked in other restaurants look at me like, "Really? It's not just about pushing whatever product of the day you No, it's about getting the people who come here excited. It's about you Yes. It's

Speaker 10 4:02

the joy of what we're doing.

MIC1-1 4:04

And the so for instance, we have an event coming up, it's on August 28th. This is a bit of a plug, it's a bit of an advertisement, but not really. I really wanna talk about this in general, but on August 28th, we have, uh, our annual- Mm-hmm Big Night dinner. Something we've been doing

Speaker 10 4:19

for

MIC1-1 4:19

time. It's been about 20 years, Mark. The movie came out

MIC2 4:21

came

MIC1-1 4:21

So here's the thing about Big Night. Why do we do a Big Night dinner? And why were we one of the

Speaker 8 4:25

first? Uh, there are a number of people who do it now,

MIC1-1 4:28

Big Night is Mark and my

Speaker 8 4:29

favorite

MIC2 4:31

Period period. Period.

Speaker 8 4:33

it's centered around a big feast, do a private screening in the, right- Mm-hmm in their screening room

MIC1-1 4:40

the, street, wine, then we come back to the restaurant. And Big Night, if you haven't seen it, you have to see it. It's a, it's, it's Isabella Rossellini, and Minnie Driver, and Stanley Tucci, and who else? Tony Shalhoub. And just a g- a great cast of characters, a great, film, but it's centered around a big feast with a very special timpano in the center of it. We then cook that big feast and sit at communal tables and kinda live that movie. That's become an annual thing. That didn't come out of the marketing department. They came out Mark and I wanted to do it. This is And I own a restaurant, so I things. Yeah, and friends. And we, and charge them money, you know? pay for it. It's, uh, it's awesome. Um, so Big Night is coming up on August 28th. But the- And the

Speaker 10 5:23

a, there's this really big feast. It's the center of

MIC1-1 5:26

the movie- Yeah

MIC2 5:27

to the giant feast. And to share that giant feast with everybody

Speaker 10 5:31

the movie,

MIC2 5:32

it just... You, you can feel it. There's a vibe in the room when you

Speaker 10 5:36

the whole pig

MIC1-1 5:37

out, right? And there's e- and- There's, there's just it. And there's 80 or 100 people, most of whom have come in years prior. Mm. But some of them who never saw the movie before, and they're so excited about it. It's great. So the other event that we have coming up that brings me to reminisce about the first few times we've done it. This is a big operation. We don't do it every year. But, so in the '90s, farm to table was the way that we talked

Speaker 8 5:59

about- Mm-hmm it was a new concept,

MIC1-1 6:00

right? Like, that you would deal with local farms, and that's gone through a bunch of iterations over the years. But in the late '90s We came up with the idea, and I, and we were to do this Absolutely We did a table to farm dinner, and there were other restaurants that did this, where we brought the restaurant's tables to the farm, to our local farm, Baker Farms in East Brunswick, and we planned this whole thing. The first one was an unmitigated

MIC2 6:26

Oh

Speaker 10 6:26

it

MIC1-1 6:26

Oh, it was the worst of the worst Unmitigated disaster. So we didn't know what the hell we were doing. Well, and rain. So w- And rain. Let's not leave out the rain So we go out to the farm, and we didn't have any money, right? So we're a young restaurant. We actually brought the tables from the restaurant to the farm. Mm-hmm. We brought the grill from the kitchen to the farm. We di- 'cause it's a wood-burning grill. We disassembled

Speaker 8 6:46

things and brought them to then

MIC1-1 6:49

we made it weather-dependent, but the night before they said it was gonna be no rain. Mm. Everything was gonna be great. We had the whole staff at this farm setting up until, what time in the morning? 1:00, 2:00 in the morning? The wee hours of the morning. We'll, we'll go with the wee hours. Everything looks great. Weather report looks great. I go home, like I'm gonna grab

Speaker 8 7:05

four hours sleep. I'll get up."

MIC1-1 7:07

and I open

Speaker 8 7:07

my eyes,

MIC2 7:10

out. Oh, terrible

Speaker 8 7:11

I call Mark. I'm like, we've taken all the equipment out of the restaurant.

MIC1-1 7:16

we, can't

MIC2 7:18

Brutal. But

Speaker 8 7:19

had the bright idea, hired a

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publicist- Oh we

Speaker 8 7:22

people

MIC1-1 7:22

from People Magazine, which was just start- Time Magazine Time Magazine- and so on People Magazine, The New York Times. We, and we had all these reporters that we had sent a car to Manhattan to bring, to Manhattan. And worse than if it were just gonna be a downpour, they're like- Mm "Ah, maybe it'll rain.

Speaker 8 7:39

Maybe it won't. Maybe a light rain. Maybe now, maybe later." And we

MIC1-1 7:42

were d- we didn't know what to do, and then at the last minute we decided leave the Bloody

Speaker 8 7:48

bar and the in the restaurant. We would then use all of our employees to move all the back into the restaurant, back into the restaurant, set up the dining. It was not

MIC1-1 8:00

awesome. It w- I would-

MIC2 8:01

I, I- We had a great time I will t- it was a lot of fun, and that was the idea of it, right? uh, while we're having the cocktail hour, there's just a little misting. You know that kind of rain where you're not really getting wet, but it's sticking to your face a little bit and it's making everything soggy. So sport, except for the members of the press who didn't

Speaker 8 8:21

about us at all. But

MIC1-1 8:22

Th- they didn't But then we did it again, and we did it at Dreier Farms, and we had the insight to make sure that we had a place with a roof over our heads. I don't

Speaker 10 8:31

if you remember. torrential downpours

MIC1-1 8:34

that day. Yeah. And we thought, "Ha ha ha. We're okay." We were ready. "We're ready for you." So Dreier's one- Dreier's Farm

Speaker 10 8:40

Dryer Farms in Cranford, cleared out one of their hooped areas and things normally, and they moved them all out for us,

MIC2 8:49

up a

Speaker 10 8:50

long 80 of us.

MIC2 8:53

That was great. And it was absolutely wonderful. Now, the plan o- of course, had been to be out in the farm, which we couldn't do, and hopefully we'll be able to do this year. But we have a backup plan. We're ready. So we'll be under the hoop if we need to be under the hoop, and we'll be at Dryer Farms, and we're gonna feature all kinds of New Jersey, produce and We're gonna do some lamb from a local New Jersey farm. Uh, I'm super excited to,

MIC1-1 9:15

be a great time. That is September the 13th. Uh, so if you'd like

MIC2 9:19

a Sunday afternoon

MIC1-1 9:20

a Sunday afternoon if you'd like to come to the Table of Farm Dinner at Stage Left and Cafe Lombardi,

MIC2 9:24

gonna be wonderful

MIC1-1 9:25

go to stagelift.com/events to find out about our stuff. That's the cool things that we're doing. We'll be back in just a moment with, Vincenzo from Vincenzo's Plate, the most popular Italian cooking channel in the English-speaking world. Stick with us.

Speaker 11 9:39

Hey there, everybody. Welcome back. Our guest today is Vincenzo Prosperi. He has made it his mission to teach the world authentic Italian cooking and to call out crimes against carbonara wherever they occur. Born in Pescara in Abruzzo and now based in Australia, he's created one of the world's largest English language channels devoted to authentic Italian food. Last year alone, Vincenzo garnered more than 574 million views across platforms. Along the way, he's become a teacher, an entertainer, a passionate defender of authenticity. Vincenzo's plate on YouTube is informative, authentic, and addicting. I'm a total fanboy, and I've spent more hours watching his videos than I care to admit.

Speaker 12 10:19

Vincenzo, welcome to the show. I am so grateful to have you on the show right now, but not for the normal reasons I'm grateful because Francis will finally shut up about getting you on the show. So it's, it's actually happening. He can, he'll leave me alone. You're here now. We're doing a show. Welcome.

Speaker 13 10:39

Thank you for having me. Thank you so much. So- Thank you so much,

Speaker 11 10:41

guys so if you don't know Vincenzo's channel on YouTube, I, I recommend it highly. I Make Dishes, that you talk about on, and you visit chefs, and you started out reacting to famous chefs talking about things. Let people know what Vincenzo's Plate is. You're in Australia. You're an Italian immigrant to Australia. You know, we're used to Italian immigrants to America. Talk to us a little bit about- Yeah,

Speaker 12 11:02

we didn't know they went to Australia yeah.

Speaker 11 11:04

Tell us a little

Speaker 13 11:05

Yes, not many, but there are. Not as many as America.

Speaker 11 11:08

Mo- most of the Irish that are in Australia got sent there as criminals. The Italian went as free people to, to Australia. So, so tell us about your journey and how we, how we wind up with one of the largest Italian cooking shows in the English-speaking world coming out of Australia.

Speaker 13 11:22

It's interesting, right? I mean, how far do you want me, how far back do you want me to go?

Speaker 11 11:26

Well-

Speaker 13 11:27

From-

Speaker 12 11:27

You, you go as far as you want- Yeah and then we'll just edit out the crap. Yeah.

Speaker 13 11:31

The thing is, again, we talk about reactions and we talk about, you know, trying to keep traditions alive. I grew up, so my parents, when I was born, they had a little grocery store, like a little delicatessen. Mm-hmm. You know? Those ones you still have also in, uh, Italian neighborhoods in, uh, USA. And so I spent lots of time with my grandparents. I was raised by my grandmother, and at the time, her parents lived with her. That's what they do in Italy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know? Older people, they don't go to nursing homes, UK. So I was lucky to grow up with my great-grandparents and grandparents. Wow. So listening to the story, you know, from the early 1900, you know, World War, World War II, and every day there was a new story. And food was the most important thing for these people, you know? That's what made me. So for me, the heritage, uh, the food... Now, when I say the heritage, I'm a citizen of the world, but when we talk about Italian food, for me, Italian food has to be traditional. Reason why is because we have so many regions, and every region has a story to tell. Every re- every region is different to the other. Sicilians are Sicilians. Uh, Neapolitans are Neapolitans. People from Milan are f- people from Milan. Their food is completely different. It's like going to a different country. Yeah. So-

Speaker 12 12:49

You know, here, here in the US, we try and ex- Francis and I try and explain that all the time. There are 23 distinct regions of Italy that all have different food, and then interregions of those regions. I- in the United States, so many people just think of Italian food as, you know, they see red sauce and they think, "Okay, this is Italian food." That's just one little piece of the culture

Speaker 13 13:11

That's right. I hear people saying, "Oh, yeah, garlic." We don't use garlic all the time. Or I hear people saying, "You guys, all you do is pasta and pizza." Well, that's not the, the, that's not.

Speaker 12 13:22

But we do do it very

Speaker 13 13:23

well-

Speaker 12 13:23

And so- to be fair.

Speaker 13 13:24

Yeah, but look, there is, there is bad restaurants and good restaurants everywhere. There is people that do bad things in Italy, too. There are restaurants today, touristy restaurants, they are awful. They're really bad. But there are some who needs to be respected and supported, uh, especially the little small businesses, you know, where you have chefs that they don't care about cameras, they don't wanna be seen. Mm-hmm, yeah. And they work so hard. You know, I've seen the chefs, they work so hard, and to try and promote local cuisines, you know? Anyway, that's a different story. But basically, uh, I traveled the world since I was, started traveling since I was 17, and I've seen this gap between authentic Italian cuisine and the cuisine, the Italian cuisine served around the world And so we started this channel. It was my wife idea. So I moved to Australia. I... Funny, because I was out of the f- food industry. I was into fashion. Um, because as you know, the restaurant industry is, it's hard.

Speaker 11 14:26

Yeah.

Speaker 13 14:26

It's not for everyone. You know, passion and experience is not enough. You need more than that.

Speaker 11 14:30

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 13 14:30

And my wife said to me, "You love food so much. You, you're good at what you do. Why don't you start a channel so you can share your passion and your story with the world?" And that's what we did. And, um, like you said, and yeah, and USA now is one of the biggest, um, followers I will say, you know, supporters. And, uh, you know, Americans are amazing because if you tell an American that this is wrong, they're willing to change.

Speaker 11 14:56

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 13 14:57

Some people, like for example Italians, they're hard to change, right? Yeah.

Speaker 11 15:01

Yeah. Yeah,

Speaker 13 15:01

yeah. Doesn't mean you have to change li- your life completely, but if you can try something new, why not?

Speaker 11 15:07

I think there are a few things that are interesting. In America, where the Italian immigration goes back, you know, 150 years and beyond, um, we call our restaurant an Italian-American restaurant. So we base it on Mark's grandmother's cuisine. Mark's grandmother was born in the United States and cooked in Brooklyn for 40 years.

Speaker 12 15:23

Yeah, my, my great-grandparents came over in the 1880s. I mean, that's a long time they've been here. Yeah, wow.

Speaker 11 15:27

So, so I think that what has developed in America is there's an I- kind of an Italian-American hybrid cuisine, but that also can be done well or done poorly. Um, but, but I think one of the reasons that I'm really drawn to you is, um, is th- always a quest for authenticity and honesty. And one of the things, and I'm gonna throw this back to you as a question, o- one of the reasons I think that Italian cuisine is so often done poorly in so many places, as opposed to French cuisine or German cuisine, is that even mediocre Italian cuisine is pretty fricking good, right? Tastes good. It tastes good, you know what I mean? Right. Whereas if you screw up French cuisine, that souffle is garbage thrown away. Right. Your sauce

Speaker 12 16:13

broke,

Speaker 11 16:13

you're a mess. Oh, yes. Yes. I think then people get complacent and have, like, rubbery pizza or, or, you know, over-garlicked stuff. Um, talk to us about coming into Australia and what you found as an immigrant in Australia, and what made you decide you wanted to defend the authenticity of, of cuisine?

Speaker 13 16:29

See, I came to Australia in 2007, and I remember carbonara with cream was on everywhere, on every menu. Uh, you know, there was, um, restaurants serving, um- I would, I w- I wanna, wanna say American food because, you know, America, basically whatever you start becomes popular around the world, you know? You have the power. And so when I would say they had the American influence Italian, it doesn't mean it was done like your grandmother did, Mark. Mm-hmm. You know what I mean?

Speaker 11 16:57

Yeah.

Speaker 13 16:58

And so I saw the change. We had... I- when I came in 2007, 20 years ago, there were lots of restaurants that were not doing authentic Italians. But as of today, if you go to Sydney, you can find incredible Italian restaurants, especially small ones, which is the one I like to support. Mm-hmm. You know, small family businesses. I don't like to support big franchises. Sure. Sorry, that's just me. That's not just you. Um, u- That's us,

Speaker 11 17:22

too.

Speaker 13 17:23

No, I, I prefer to support work- very hardworking families, you know, they try, you know, 'cause the restaurant industry, as we know, is very t- very difficult. Oh,

Speaker 11 17:30

we know.

Speaker 13 17:31

And so we have to support the right people. And basic- you know, you do it every day. And basically, I can tell you today that Sydney in Australia or Melbourne makes some of the best Italian food I've eaten around the world, you know?

Speaker 11 17:44

Well, I'm gonna say that I believe that your channel, and there's another channel that I really love, the guys from Pasta Grammar I think ma- make a huge difference. Amazing, yes. Amazing, amazing channel. Yes.

Speaker 13 17:52

Ah, Paolo and Eva, yes.

Speaker 11 17:53

But I think that With the advent of YouTube, people are more likely to, um, fix their own washing machine and dryer if it should break, because you can, you can watch and figure it out. Uh, but I also think that with YouTube as a, as a huge powerful way to disseminate the truth, and I think a l- it's due to channels like yours that people can see it. And what I like is you have the debate. L- let's, let's talk about how you started. I first started following you when I'm seeing this Italian guy on YouTube, and he's watching British chefs destroy Italian food, right? Like, so Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay. And, and it was, like, the same time as Uncle Roger came out watching the British chefs destroy Asian food. And, um, you know, to watch you, the cringe in your face as they put the cream in the carbonara.

Speaker 12 18:42

Oh, I watched you tear up Marco Pierre White- and his bolognese. It was- And I, and I thought- Oh and I thought, "Somebody should tear up Marco Pierre White. He deserves it."

Speaker 11 18:51

But it was funny. I mean,

Speaker 13 18:52

he used the Knorr, um, cube-

Speaker 11 18:54

Yeah stock ones to make- Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. The, the bouillon cube what did he make? Uh- The bouillon cube.

Speaker 13 18:57

Uh, yeah, y- he made, um, a bolognese, I think, where- Yeah, I think he was making the bolognese

Speaker 12 19:02

he,

Speaker 11 19:02

he. But to watch you say, "Oh, no." So it was funny. It was enga- y- and the thing about it is when you point out the things that they're doing wrong, you're not attacking them personally. You're, it- No generously looking at these guys who are trying and saying, "Don't do that," you know? But it also speaks to a lot of us, and to a lot of Americans who are like, "Oh, I shouldn't put cream in my, in my carbonara?"

Speaker 12 19:26

I, I, I actually very much enjoyed y- w- you were doing the Ina Garten, uh, car- Well, she,

Speaker 13 19:30

she's wonderful.

Speaker 12 19:31

Let's not say anything bad about her, please carbonara. She's doing the carbonara, and you're like, "And look at this wonderful, wonderful lady. She's ruining the carbonara." "That's such a nice lady." She is

Speaker 13 19:42

so beautiful. I lo- I, I wanna cook with her one day. Yeah. She's so beautiful. Yeah. She used 24 cloves of garlic- Yes to make arrabiata sauce.

Speaker 11 19:50

Well, there were vampires

Speaker 12 19:52

in the

Speaker 11 19:52

neighborhood,

Speaker 12 19:52

and they- Well, I, I was thinking maybe- Yes, yes maybe she was cooking for 200 people. Yeah, exactly. That's, you know.

Speaker 13 19:57

Maybe she was. Yeah. Uh, but it's a good topic where you just, y- you know. This is interesting what's happening worldwide. Allow me to say this, because I've been online since 24, 2013. Mm. Like you guys have been doing this for a long time, okay? So things have changed a lot online and content Talking about Uncle Roger, he's a wonderful man. He's a comedian. He's funny. He's more funny- Mm-hmm off camera than on camera. He's really a nice, genuine- I believe

Speaker 11 21:52

that

Speaker 13 21:53

g- fella. But his show, we started at the same time, pretty much the same week. I don't know how it started. Uh, we had the same idea with the reactions. He does more comedy in a way, like, he doesn't go into details- Mm because he doesn't have that food background. Right.

Speaker 11 22:09

Fuiyo.

Speaker 13 22:09

Um, w- the reason, the reason why I did... And, and it's amazing. I mean, I watch all his videos. It's incredible. What I try to do instead, like you said, I don't want to attack the chef. I don't know Marco Pierre White. Mm. I don't, I don't know. I don't know you guys personally, so if you put 24 cloves of garlic in a dish, I'm not talking about you personally, 'cause I don't know who you are.

Speaker 11 22:29

You hope for our salvation.

Speaker 13 22:30

You know? Like, we're not friends. I'm talking about the recipe, the dish. And if you are a big person like Marco Pierre White, who I'm following- I'm a big person.

Speaker 12 22:38

What are you trying to say?

Speaker 13 22:39

You know? Me too, I'm big. But if you're a big personality and you have all these followers, try to share the right information. What's happening today, unfortunately, is that everybody wants to be seen. Everybody wants to be famous, and we're trying to do things that make us go viral.

Speaker 11 22:58

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 13 22:58

Viral, getting the views is the priority for people. I remember doing an event with lots of creators, and I asked those young creators, well, young, younger than me, and I said, "What you, w- why are you doing this?" You know? "Oh, to become famous." Mm. Or to be seen. Yeah. And I say, "Okay. Well, what's the, what's your purpose? What is your purpose?" You need to have a purpose in life. My purpose is to protect Italian cuisine.

Speaker 11 23:26

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 13 23:26

In a... When I say protect, my wife sounds like big, but you know, like, this is what my purpose is You guys have your pur- if you don't have your purpose, why are you doing videos?

Speaker 11 23:37

Yeah. Well, do, I- You know?

Speaker 13 23:38

I think that's the first thing you need

Speaker 11 23:40

to remember yeah, it's more hollow if you're just doing videos for the sake of doing videos. But when you say you're protecting Italian cuisine, there's a danger of those things getting lost, and when they get lost and go away, and w- people don't know the difference anymore between where things came from and whatever schlock is being put out-

Speaker 12 23:58

I, I, I think the biggest danger is putting peas in the carbonara. That's, I, I, that's, I think that's the biggest danger that, that, that we all face- That's right as, as mankind faces.

Speaker 11 24:08

That's, that's, that's a t- uniquely Italian perspective. And cream fresh.

Speaker 13 24:10

Yeah. And cream fresh.

Speaker 11 24:11

And cream fresh. Oh, yeah, yeah. Cream fresh.

Speaker 13 24:13

My

Speaker 11 24:13

God. Well, so, all right. So we go from an early stage where you're doing mostly reaction videos. That's not a big part of what you do anymore. Um, but what I then began to see, and 'cause I'm, and can tell I followed your career for a while, is the guys who you, some of the guys who you kind of were like, "Oh, no, don't do that," then they c- collaborated with you. And so, you know, you've had chef, chefs that you've produced videos together with who- It- who challenge you, and it's a good-natured ribbing and, and some good stuff comes out of it.

Speaker 13 24:42

It is. It i- the food, food should bring people together, not separate. Mm.

Speaker 11 24:46

Who's your favorite- Food

Speaker 13 24:46

has to bring us together

Speaker 11 24:47

who's your favorite guy that you started out mocking who you, you wound up then collaborating with or endorsing?

Speaker 13 24:53

Well, my favorite guy, I wanna say, I know it sounds weird, but for me, Jamie Oliver was always an inspiration. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 11 24:58

Yep.

Speaker 13 24:58

I wish I can collaborate with him. Jamie Oliver, his career is incredible, what he did, how he started. I was working in a restaurant in, um, Putney Bridge, not far from Kensington, where he was in London.

Speaker 11 25:10

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 13 25:11

Um, and so I remember him starting. For me, he's always been an inspiration. It would be a dream for me to, to meet him in person because he, he, you know, he's a great guy.

Speaker 11 25:20

Yeah.

Speaker 13 25:22

But, um, I did a collaboration with James, a fellow American, uh, chef who now lives in Barcelona. He does reaction videos. He's, he's, he's trained in French cuisines. And for me, working with him and collaborating with him is fun. Pasta Grandma, we share the same passion with Pasta Grandma. You know Eva and Harper. Yes. And for me, they are wonderful guys. Wonderful. Um, forget about what they do for a living. As people, they are beautiful. And for me, being connected with humble, honest people is the most important thing, you know? He,

Speaker 12 25:55

he said humble. We're out.

Speaker 11 25:57

I was gonna say, I guess- Sorry. I guess we, I guess we didn't make

Speaker 12 26:00

the- We're honest. I'll give you honest. We didn't make the list. I don't know. Humble's not gonna- We didn't make the list there humble's not gonna fly around here.

Speaker 13 26:05

Be proud of what you do. But at the same time, you know, eh, people feet on the ground, you know? It's important. Yeah.

Speaker 12 26:10

Absolutely.

Speaker 11 26:10

So, so what you're doing now, though, is I've, I've seen your videos where you're going to chefs and, and talking about how chefs do things right, and bringing an authentic way of cooking Italian food to people. What, what's the purpose of your channel and your message now? Because I think it's, it's moved away from correcting the- It's a- obviously wrong, almost laughable mistakes that people were making, to it's a more subtle thing now.

Speaker 13 26:36

Thank you, you know, for noticing that. Basically, the reaction videos were getting too much hate.

Speaker 11 26:40

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 13 26:41

Hmm. People that didn't get the message of what I was doing. Right. And, you know, I, I am a father. I have a family, and I don't wanna spread negativity. Mm-hmm. I want people to say, "Okay, I'm learning from you." And, and so, plus everybody's doing reaction now. It's becoming saturated. And I said, you know, I need to do something different. So I did the ranking, starting to do now ranking videos to help people how to buy Italian products. I

Speaker 12 27:03

have to tell you, I, I'm just, sorry to interrupt you, but I love them. And I love them from the... Now, we can't get all those products. Some of the products are not available in the United States. But what a wonderful thing to say, "Hey, I've tried all these products. I've tried all these products in, in different ways, and this is what I find to be the best. And p- and this is what I find to be good, and this is what I find to be acceptable, and this is what I find to be not acceptable i- in any way." And I think those little ranking videos are wonderful. I think people really appreciate them. Thank

Speaker 13 27:33

you. Thank you. And to be honest, it's be- the, the feedback has been incredible. Mm-hmm. No more negative comments. People appreciate. We get hundreds if not thousands of comments and private messages and emails a day, people asking about the products. And to me, it's ama- I don't get paid by any brands.

Speaker 12 27:49

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 13 27:50

And I don't want to be paid because this is different. Comes from me.

Speaker 12 27:53

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 13 27:54

That's what, that's what I can do, you know?

Speaker 12 27:56

You really can't be on our show if you don't wanna be

Speaker 13 27:59

paid. That's- If, if they pay, of course I don't say no, but you know what I mean? Like- Right.

Speaker 12 28:02

But it's not, you're not looking for the sponsorship.

Speaker 13 28:04

By the way, the restaurant guys are not paying me. No, you know, it's, I come from my, I come from my heart, and at the moment I'm collaborating with different chefs in Italy. Um, chefs who work very hard, chefs who are not seen. You know, chefs, they are doing, promoting, uh, local cuisines. Mm-hmm. From Tuscany, from, um, from Bologna, from Abruzzo where I'm from, from Rome. And so I gave these chefs the opportunity to be seen. I wanna give my audience to them so they can talk about their, the food, the dish that they grew up eating, the dish from their family and their restaurant. And I'm, I'm not, not asking for them to pay me. I'm actually paying for the production and to go there because I want to give the audience to them.

Speaker 11 28:51

Yeah.

Speaker 13 28:51

So that's the switch we're doing at the moment. And, uh, and for me is, uh, some of the best thing I've done with the channel because- Yes, I've got me, I've got my family, I have guests, and now we have the chefs in Italy doing these videos.

Speaker 11 29:06

So do you bring folks to Italy? You bringing people on a tour?

Speaker 13 29:10

We do tours in Abruzzo, and we, again, we have lots of Americans coming, and, um, Canadians, Australians, people from all over the world, a majority Americans. Can I- And it's the best thing I do. I love it.

Speaker 11 29:20

Can I tell you one of the things that, that I know that we have in common after doing this for 20 years and after running our restaurants for 34 and 20 years in the same spot, my past is still with me. You know? Anybody that I threw out of here 20 years ago, if they're still alive, you know, they, they know that I threw them out of here. And anybody who I, I did, we did something good for, you know, they're still coming as well. And I think what we've gained, and what I'm hoping that we do in the digital world, is people trust us, you know? And like you said, I don't get paid and then rate the product that is my sponsor. Mm-hmm. Right? 'Cause we would... I, I will take money, by the way. Everyone w- needs to know that, that you can sponsor me, but I'm not gonna have that affect how I respond to your product. And, and I think that's one of the greatest assets that we have, is that people trust us. And I think a lot of people here who tried to make their living as influencers, they started out having influence because they were often young people who had pretty good taste or were out there trying to discover new things, and then as the material ran dry, you know, you see the influencer at the supermarket opening around the corner talking about-

Speaker 12 30:27

Well, sooner or later you need a job. Yeah. Okay? Sooner or later everybody needs a job, and if-

Speaker 11 30:32

Well, well, what I, what I think happened though was the money dried up- Yeah ...for I'm gonna tell you about the things that I like. Okay, now I've told you about all the things that I like. Now I've gotta do things that will pay me, and we never wanna get there. We ne- well, we'll stop the podcast before that.

Speaker 12 30:44

Well, again, we don't need to get there. The restaurants are, are how we make our living, right? Yes. The podcast is the, is the ancillary thing that, that we do because we, we enjoy it. We enjoy interacting with the audience. We like doing the shows. We enjoyed learning from the people we're interviewing. One of the great gifts that we get from doing this show is every single show I learn something from somebody who I'm talking to. Every single show makes my restaurants better. Every single show gives me something as well as the audience something, and that's, and I love that. That's, it's the best part of it. You

Speaker 13 31:19

work in an industry where motivation is important. Yeah. Be, stay passionate. Stay focused. Mm-hmm. Uh, you know, every day you wake up and, you know, you got people coming to you, and you are the first one who needs to have fun doing what you do. Mm. And so what you guys are doing is best, because you keep ex- you stay excited. Like you say, you meet new people. And it's not about the numbers of people that watch the show. It's the people that you touch. Yeah. Mm-hmm. It could be 10, 100, 100,000, one million. It's the people that you touch. You know, you mentioned about the tour before. When I have client guests coming to the tour and I speak to them face to face and they tell me what I've done for them- That's the most rewarding thing you can have in life. So if a client come to your restaurant and you change their lives-

Speaker 11 32:02

Yeah

Speaker 13 32:03

could be from food or whatever they learn from you, it's the best reward.

Speaker 11 32:07

It is. It real- it re- it really is. So let me, let me ask you, though, and I th- because I think it is fascinating that what you have built with your show, um, 'cause you're the new media. You know? You, you are on a YouTube channel and on, on some other platforms. How does the b- how did you build the business? How does the business work, if you don't mind my asking?

Speaker 13 32:27

We learned over the years. At the beginning, um, we couldn't rely on the income from YouTube, so we had, uh, market stalls. We did catering, uh, chef at home, you know- Mm-hmm for wealthy people. Um, we did cannoli at weddings, um, which is now is trendy. We started- So trendy back in 2016. So trendy, but- In 2016, my wife idea. That was my wife idea again.

Speaker 12 32:51

Caviar's taken over for cannoli, by the way. The, the caviar person going around, that's taken over. Well,

Speaker 13 32:56

now they do cannoli with salmon, so they fill up sal- cannoli with salmon- Oh,

Speaker 12 33:00

yeah

Speaker 13 33:00

cream, and they put probably caviar on the outside. So we were doing that to be able to support the creativity. Uh, but now I have to say YouTube is a lot more generous. Uh, YouTube and Facebook, you know, they're more generous. They, so the more views you get, the more money you get. While Instagram and TikTok, they don't pay. Uh, what creators do is they use the, the audience-

Speaker 12 33:25

Mm-hmm

Speaker 13 33:25

to work with brands.

Speaker 12 33:27

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 13 33:27

So the brands pay them, and some people can charge a lot of money. Uh, but we don't work with too many brands, unless it's a brand that we like-

Speaker 12 33:35

Right

Speaker 13 33:36

and willing to pay.

Speaker 12 33:37

It's funny, so one of our advertisers is Magyar Bank. Well, Magyar Bank's been my bank for 25 years.

Speaker 13 33:42

Yeah, see?

Speaker 12 33:42

They're, they are advertisers because we believe in them. We don't believe in them because they're advertisers.

Speaker 13 33:49

And it's the best- Mm because you work with people that support what you do.

Speaker 12 33:52

Yeah.

Speaker 13 33:53

And it's, it's wonderful when you find these people that, you know, that they have the same vision of yours. But yeah, mainly YouTube. YouTube, I have to say, you know, the American, uh, audience, which is the biggest in the world, it's, uh, allow me to do... I, I'm talking about worldwide, globally. I have to thank everyone globally, but the American audience has been, uh, our biggest one for a long time, and YouTube is big in USA. It's big worldwide, and YouTube is generous, I would say. So that's how we can pay for everything. Do

Speaker 11 34:23

you have a, do you have a big audience in Australia as well?

Speaker 13 34:25

Yes, we do. We do, but Australia's 27 million people. Right. USA is what? 350? That we know of, yes.

Speaker 11 34:34

I wanna ask, is there one video that you've done that you think really stands out as either where you learned something or it, you, you found it particularly funny or fun to do? Is there a, is there a pinnacle video for you?

Speaker 13 34:46

No, well, more when I filmed videos with my grandmother.

Speaker 11 34:50

Uh-huh.

Speaker 13 34:50

That was beautiful because growing up I was never allowed to cook. Mm-hmm. I was never allowed in the kitchen, uh, from my parents or my grandmother. So being on set with my grandmother and You know, she teaching me how to cook, uh, dishes. Now for me, that was been wonderful because it doesn't happen behind the scene. Grandma, Italian grandmothers don't spend time teaching you.

Speaker 11 35:11

Right, right.

Speaker 13 35:12

They just say, "Bit of this, this bit of that." Yeah. So for me, that was been wonderful. But also working with, um, some beautiful chefs, like pizza chefs. The pizza is a game that I didn't know, and learning about the pizza game from pizza chefs, that was cha- life-changing for me, 'cause it gave me a new purpose.

Speaker 12 35:31

A new canvas.

Speaker 13 35:33

Yes.

Speaker 11 35:33

Have you been to the States?

Speaker 13 35:34

Not yet.

Speaker 11 35:35

Yeah. I, I'm gonna ask you about portions in Australia versus portions in Italy, because in a lot of American restaurants, the portions are much larger than they are-

Speaker 12 35:46

Especially Italian-American. That is the cuisine where people expect that you're gonna-

Speaker 13 35:50

That

Speaker 11 35:50

sounds

Speaker 12 35:50

good. Is

Speaker 11 35:51

it? I don't know. I don't know. It's a lot, a lot of pasta.

Speaker 12 35:54

I, I don't know. I like it. Is that- But we're different, you and me.

Speaker 13 35:57

Is that the,

Speaker 12 35:57

is that the- You're a skinny little Irish guy. Yeah. I'm a fat Italian-American, so.

Speaker 13 36:01

Is that the, is that the same in, uh, Australia? The world is changing fast at the moment, okay? Um, if you allow me two minutes to talk about this. This is an interesting topic. Uh, yes, the dishes are getting smaller. The dishes are getting more refined, more fine dining. People use the word fine dining now every day. In Italy as well, the dishes are getting smaller, but this is what's happening in Italy, which I don't actually personally like. All those fine din- so France was very smart. Was that in the '80s? Mm-hmm. The, the nouvelle cuisine- Nouvelle cuisine, '80s between '70s or the '80s. '80s. And they changed, and they brought France food, French food back to where, where it is now. You know, one of the top cuisines, Michelin star restaurants. But Italy is not that. Italy has, uh, 20, 21 regions. I can't remember now. They are different. But what the chefs are doing now, they're all going to chef school. In b- in my old days, I work with very, very good chefs when I was young. I was not allowed to touch the dishes. But those chefs, you know, born in 1930, those chefs, they were chefs.

Speaker 12 37:08

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 13 37:08

They were people who respected the job. They didn't scream in the kitchen. They were clean. They were providing amazing dishes. Today, didn't go to school once. Now they all go to school. They all want to become fine dining, Michelin star restaurants. But they're forgetting traditions of every region. So Italian cuisine is following the French methods of going that way- Mm-hmm with fine dining instead of chef from different regions focusing on promoting their culture, their food. I'll give you an example. We have a region called Piemonte. We know where the, uh, where the Barolo is from. Just above the Piemonte region, there is a region called Valle d'Aosta. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 11 37:53

Oh,

Speaker 13 37:54

wonderful. Tiny region. Do you know the food about the region? I don't know. I've never been there. That's pro- the only region I've ever been. I don't know nothing about that region. They have lots of cheeses. They have amazing dishes. I don't know nothing about, but I know about the reinvented carbonara. I know about the, uh, modern Bolognese. And w- we're, we're doing all these takes on old school instead of promoting what we already have To a larger audience. Same thing is happening with the movies in America. Look what's happening with Hollywood. Instead of creating new movies that can become legendary, they're just recreating what's already been done-

Speaker 11 38:34

Yeah, uh, in committee you

Speaker 13 38:35

know, to make more money.

Speaker 11 38:36

It's like food by committee, and it's like movies by committee. Yeah. Yeah. It's wild.

Speaker 13 38:40

Yes, you know? And they all follow the same formula. Like, when are we gonna see a new... Why can't we just make a new great, a new, new Braveheart-

Speaker 11 38:45

Mm

Speaker 13 38:46

done a new way? It doesn't have to be Braveheart 2. It doesn't have to be Gladiator 2. It doesn't have to be The Godfather 4. Just do something that new, you know? Like, the, in the food industry is the same. So now the dishes are getting smaller in Italy, too. You know, and what's happening as well, which I don't personally like, is the influencers have to go and promote the restaurants. So the restaurant now, I don't know if you have to do it, too, uh, in, in USA, but the restaurants now have to charge you for the marketing. So on the pasta dish they serve, they have to charge, uh, three influencers. They got this three, this month, three influencers go and promote the restaurant. It 10 grand to, to pay these people to promote the restaurant. Who's gonna pay for that? Us consumers. Yep. So the price go up.

Speaker 12 39:33

People here do it. We see people do it all the time. I don't understand it, but I, you know, w- we're fortunate, right? We've been here 34 years. Uh, we have a very old-fashioned way of doing business. It's just not a- an area we need to get into, but I can't imagine opening a restaurant right now

Speaker 13 39:50

and paying- And it's beautiful what you're saying, and it's beautiful you're saying, but I was getting to this point. So if you're a new restaurant, you have to do it.

Speaker 12 39:56

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 13 39:57

But at the same time, you're a new restaurant. Why do you have to spend $5,000 for someone to come and promote you? I wanna promote you for free- Right. Yeah if I adore you. Right. Because you're a small business. I wanna promote you for free. Promote you do it. But what's happening at the same time because of this, the older school restaurants, you're doing very well and very happy, but there are lots of old school restaurants in Italy owned by families, and they are in the middle of nowhere. Restaurants I used to go to when I lived in Italy, you drive one hour just because I know the food is amazing there. Absolutely. Those restaurants now are suffering- Yeah because those family restaurants are not paying to be promoted. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 11 40:35

Yeah.

Speaker 13 40:36

They're not doing videos, and the younger generations don't drive to go there and eat there because they are not trendy. So this is what's happening right now, and I'm worried about it, to be honest.

Speaker 11 40:48

Well, I wanna say two things. One is I think another issue that I, we find with contemporary restaurants, um, is every new restaurant we go to, there is a lot of thought as to where you're going to take the picture of you And a lot of thought for what the food looks like. And I find that, and especially in American cuisine, high-end restaurants, a lot of food that's coming out now in very expensive restaurants looks amazing. And it's okay, you know?

Speaker 12 41:18

I, I have to say, you know, there are a couple restaurants that I won't name, but I've been to a few restaurants lately where it's the, literally the most beautiful food I've ever seen, but tastes like nothing. Might as... I, I'll, I might as well eat this piece of paper. But it's spectacular. Soul,

Speaker 13 41:36

no soul.

Speaker 12 41:37

Yeah.

Speaker 11 41:37

But it looks good on Instagram, so they get people to come there for a while. Mm-hmm. But that doesn't, that doesn't last. I wanna, I wanna s- throw this back to you. Um, you were a major instigator in the great carbonara wars of the 2020s, um, in the cream, no cream debates. A friend of ours, Jack McGarry, who owns-

Speaker 12 41:55

Guanciale, no bacon

Speaker 11 41:56

Right. Right. No, pancetta in a pinch. But, uh, but our friend Jack McGarry is an Irish guy who owns The Dead Rabbit and some Irish bars here in New York, and they make pretty good food. And he's like, "I don't understand why they won't let me put cream in my carbonara." You know, there was a real debate, and people were pointing fingers at each other, and not arguing about politics, but arguing about cream in carbonara. I think that- Yes was a great thing. And that did populate in the Instagram world, and it resonated, and it called attention to that dish. And that's the kinda thing that I think is really healthy about what you're doing, um, is keeping those traditional ideas current and alive. And,

Speaker 12 42:35

and if you have those two dishes, the carbonara with the cream, which I had m- about a year ago at a restaurant not that far from here, versus a traditionally made, delicious, perfect carbonara, they're worlds apart. They're worlds apart, and we shouldn't lose- They're different

Speaker 13 42:53

dishes

Speaker 12 42:53

we shouldn't lose that.

Speaker 13 42:54

They're just different dishes.

Speaker 12 42:56

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Speaker 13 42:56

They're different.

Speaker 12 42:57

Well, one's better. We can say

Speaker 13 42:59

it. They're completely different.

Speaker 12 42:59

We're grown men. We can

Speaker 13 43:00

say one's better. But why does one need to use... Yeah. But that's why we need to use the social media the right way. We have to use, we have to, we have sh- we have the power to use Facebook or any social media, YouTube, and it's powerful. You share a message that doesn't matter what you do for a living, you can share the right information, and it's very powerful.

Speaker 12 43:20

Or the wrong information. It's also very powerful sometimes. Yes,

Speaker 11 43:23

unfortunately,

Speaker 12 43:23

yes.

Speaker 13 43:24

It's very powerful, and that's what's happening here. Mm-hmm. That's right. The dishes can really tell so much. I'd always say one dish can, can make you travel. If I have a good ramen, and I eat a good ramen right now, it takes me straight away to Tokyo without going to Tokyo.

Speaker 11 43:39

Yeah.

Speaker 13 43:40

You know? That's the power of food, okay? But at the same time, you know, like if you have, uh, you know, talking about Italian Americans, spaghetti and meatballs is a proud Italian American dish, right? If it's done well. Would you choose that or would you choose a new modern cuisine that looks amazing but might not taste comfort, you know? Mm-hmm. What would you choose? A $35, uh, fine dining beautiful, or would you choose- a $20 AV grandma style Italian meal?

Speaker 12 44:13

Well, our restaurant's pretty expensive, so I choose the $30 spaghetti and meatballs. The spaghetti and meatball

Speaker 13 44:19

done well, okay. Okay.

Speaker 11 44:21

Well, you know, here- here's an interesting thing that you just brought up. I mean, there i- there is a lot to be said for chefs, and especially in America, we're always innovating. I mean, we, we have a bunch of different regional cultures, but our, our food culture doesn't go back as far as European countries. Um, and we're always adapting an immigrant cuisine and blending different immigrant cuisines. But when you talk about Mark's grandmother's cuisine or your grandmother's cuisine or the cuisine from Umbria, Abruzzo, Calabria, you're talking about a tradition and like with the best wines, a wine is from a specific vineyard, it has a specific story and a context. And so I think when you're talking about these classic dishes, we're not saying that you shouldn't innovate and make something up entirely new and have fun with something entirely new. Yeah, but

Speaker 12 45:05

don't put peas in it.

Speaker 11 45:06

But well- you can put peas in the new thing. But, but don't... If you're gonna call it carbonara, it's got to be carbonara, and carbonara has a story, right? And that's kind of the basic, and you can go and be creative aside from those things, but we need to have the basis in the classics, I think.

Speaker 12 45:23

One of the things I, I love about your show, people need to know what the origin is. Before you go riffing, and you were talking about this earlier about the, the culinary students. Before you go riffing on a cuisine, you have to understand the cuisine.

Speaker 13 45:37

100%. Now, when you, you have, you have your restaurant, so you know what you need to do to keep the restaurant going, okay? There are things you have to do to keep the restaurant going, and you have to meet the client halfway. If the client wants this type of food, you have to do what they want. If they don't want, you know, like y- y- y- you have, you have a restaurant for a long time, so you know how to run the business and you know what you're doing. But like you said, innovation cannot be stopped. Innovation is so important. Yeah. We need to be innovating. We need to be cr- food deserved creativity, otherwise it's boring. We need to create. We need new dishes. We need new movies. We need new cars. We need new, everything new. Everything, everything becomes modern. But do not touch something that is so perfectly done, something that is so good. Leave it alone.

Speaker 11 46:26

I think one of the int- one of the interesting things about our restaurant is having been in the same place for a long time and doing what we do, w- I will do whatever it takes that I can do to make you happy in that chair tonight, but if the new trend is to do something and Mark and I don't believe in it-

Speaker 12 46:41

Jell-O shots

Speaker 11 46:41

you can't stay, you can't constantly be chasing trends if you wanna be around for 20 or 30 years. And after you've been around a long enough time, if you're still busy and still doing that well enough, you have the luxury to say, "You know, I think that's great, and another restaurant could do that well, but that's not what we're gonna do. And so maybe this isn't the right restaurant for either you or you on the nights when you want that." And, uh, uh, we realize that's a great luxury, 'cause we get to stand by our standards as well, which is pretty cool.

Speaker 13 47:12

It is pretty cool.

Speaker 11 47:13

Yeah.

Speaker 13 47:14

I wanna tell you this, there are a few restaurants in Melbourne now that basically they are recreating the Italian grandparents' house look.

Speaker 11 47:22

Mm-hmm. Uh-huh.

Speaker 13 47:23

And basically they give you that s- experience, you know, going back to your, you know, grandparents' house, like back in, you know, 1950 or '60s. And the food served is the traditional way. You know, it's not, the presentation is not amazing. Mm-hmm. They charge you, they charge you enough because of the experience, and there's a line outside. So it's telling you that this restaurant is doing so well because it's comfort food. It pleases everyone.

Speaker 11 47:49

Well, you don't wanna wait in line for my grandmother's food. That would never- That wouldn't be happening.

Speaker 13 47:53

I'm sure she had some recipes. Uh,

Speaker 11 47:55

she was a good baker, but we... A lot of well-done stuff and boiled stuff. I'm gonna

Speaker 12 47:59

tell you that Frances never invited me over for dinner. No, not, never.

Speaker 11 48:03

Unless I was cooking. You

Speaker 13 48:04

know, every culture, e- every culture has good and bad

Speaker 11 48:07

things,

Speaker 13 48:07

right?

Speaker 11 48:08

Yeah. Vincenzo, uh, we- What a

Speaker 12 48:09

pleasure

Speaker 11 48:10

we love what you do, uh, we respect what you do, and I watch you all the time.

Speaker 12 48:13

He really does watch you all the time, and comes into work and says, "Vincenzo said this today."

Speaker 11 48:20

Sometimes I'll, I'll, yeah, Vincenzo, I gotta be honest with you, sometimes I'll walk into the kitchen, the chef is like, "Don't tell me what Vincenzo said. I don't want- don't say the word Vincenzo." Thank you for joining us on the show. We're gonna put all of the information about Vincenzo's Plate and Vincenzo's book and everything else, uh, in the show notes at restaurantguyspodcast.com. We'll be back in just a minute. Don't go away.

Speaker 14 48:41

Hey there, everybody. Welcome back. I- I'm really glad I got to finally meet Vincenzo. I, I'm a, I'm a fan boy. Yeah,

Speaker 15 48:47

yeah.

Speaker 14 48:48

You should all watch this. So Pasta Grammars the other YouTube channel I watch, and Vincenzo's Plate, highly recommend it.

Speaker 15 48:54

Constantly.

Speaker 14 48:55

Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 15 48:56

Constantly. So one of the things Vincenzo talked about that he's really afraid of, right? Yeah. He's afraid of all these, these smaller mom and pop restaurants closing.

Speaker 14 49:04

Yeah.

Speaker 15 49:05

Easily my favorite restaurant stories in Italy happen every time we would go to Verona, to Vinitaly. Oh,

Speaker 14 49:12

yeah.

Speaker 15 49:12

We would go to a little restaurant in Sommacampagna.

Speaker 14 49:15

Sommacampagna, yeah.

Speaker 15 49:16

I know it. Sommacampagna, called Al Ponte.

Speaker 14 49:18

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 15 49:19

And it, just this wonderful little house, right? It was just, it was just somebody's house, and you walked in. You'd walk past the kitchen to the back of the house and have dinner.

Speaker 14 49:28

So I remember, it was a funny story, right? So the, we went, and one of our distributors- Mm-hmm and importers said, "Hey, I'm gonna, I'm gonna take everybody out. We're gonna go to Trattoria Al Ponte," right? It was, "Oh, we'll go to," and we'll take a little bus out. We'll go there. We went, and he bought everybody dinner, and this is before the euro. Mm-hmm. That's how long ago this was. So we g- go ourselves. We go the next night, and, and someone's like, "I'll pick up the check. It's a party of 10." And you're like, "No, no, no. I'm gonna grab the check." And Mark grabbed the check, and he's like, "The check's like $9." Now I'm not so grateful to you. Translate this lira. Oh, wait a second. It was,

Speaker 15 50:01

it, it- Yeah we had a six or seven course menu, and they just brought you food and brought you food and brought you food. And I, I- And wine seriously, seriously I think it... And wine. I think it was $18 a person.

Speaker 14 50:12

Yeah, it was crazy.

Speaker 15 50:13

And it, it just, yeah, you know, hope, I hope, hope, hope that the next time we go to Vinitaly that that restaurant still exists, 'cause we are definitely going. So

Speaker 14 50:20

we learned something at that restaurant. I don't know if you remember, but so we, we would go on a t- week that we were there three or four times, and then again the next year- Mm and then two years later. And so I think it was our third year going back there that they kinda knew us. Mm-hmm. And then the son who was waiting took us into the kitchen, where we learned how they... I mean, they made their pasta, and it was a filled pasta. Oh,

Speaker 15 50:40

I know. I remember what we learned.

Speaker 14 50:42

And we learned that the... We were like, "Why is this pasta so great?" Is the mother was cooking the pasta in chicken stock.

Speaker 15 50:49

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 14 50:50

And I was like, "Of course." You know?

Speaker 15 50:52

So good.

Speaker 14 50:53

Yeah, it was pretty amazing.

Speaker 15 50:53

Those dumplings were amazing- Yeah, yeah because they were cooked in chicken stock.

Speaker 14 50:57

And I, we do that once in a while- Yeah here as well. Really terrific. It was a great time. Well, that was a great little walk down memory lane with you, Mark. I loved meeting Vincenzo. I've loved this whole show, and I'm just, as an Irish guy looking into the Italian world, I'm, I'm very jealous. Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed everything. I'm Francis Schaeff. And

Speaker 15 51:13

I'm Mark Pasqua.

Speaker 14 51:14

We are the Restaurant Guys. You can always find out more at restaurantguyspodcast.com.