Christopher Peterson Reviews “Rao’s Cookbook” by Frank Pellegrino

How are you supposed to get excited about reading a cookbook from a restaurant where you will probably never get into? Frank Pellegrino’s “Rao’s Cookbook” does just that---
he bottles up some incredible magic to make it one of the best cookbook reads I’ve ever had. When’s the last time you heard of a cookbook described as a “page turner?” Pellegrino uses a whole cast of true New York characters, most of them incredibly famous in their own right, to weave the story of this 100 year-old East Harlem eatery.

Charles Rao, an immigrant from Pollo, Italy, bought a tavern in 1896 at Pleasant Avenue and East 114th Street in upper Manhattan. They began serving good, simple Italian food, and the Rao family is still doing just that, over a century later. Some things have changed. The old neighborhood is no longer predominantly Italian, and it’s nearly impossible to get a reservation.

The place is small; there are only eight tables, and there is just one seating a night. The bar and the jukebox are legendary in New York, but the thing that makes this establishment so unique is the system of table “ownership.” Regular customers are expected to come to their table on given nights of the week. If they can’t make it, they can give it to friends or family for the night, or heaven forbid, turn it back to the restaurant. That is the only chance non-regulars might have to snatch a lucky reservation. Those occurrences are rare, because the regulars trade table nights like baseball cards. “I’ll give you my Monday if you give me your Thursday.” You get the picture.

Perhaps the most unusual aspect of the restaurant is the regular clientele. Most of the old-timers are neighborhood goombahs who have grown up with the Rao’s over the decades. They have names similar to “Johnny Roastbeef” and the like. Over on the other side of the spectrum, you have New York’s power elite: politicians, actors, publishers and athletes. It has not been uncommon to have the governor at one table and New York’s mob boss at the next.

The food in the book is just what you would expect to eat in your Italian grandmother’s kitchen. Simple, straight-forward, and utterly delicious. The real magic in the book are the scores of Rao’s stories from people like Regis Philbin to Dick Schaap. You’re going to eat them up!



Christopher Peterson lives in Incline Village, Nevada with his family. He dreams that one day someone might actually ask him to go to Rao’s.