Rao's Cookbook: Over 100 Years of Italian Home Cooking [Hardcover]

Rao's is an old, 10-table restaurant in an old, New York-Italian neighborhood in which old Italians still may or may not live (this was never made quite clear in Nicholas Pileggi's complete-history-of-Italian-immigrants-in-America introduction to the cookbook), but you can't go there to eat. Not unless you know someone who has a lock on one of the tables. These are shared occupancy tables, condominium tables. Every night (Monday through Friday) is already spoken for--has been spoken for, in fact, for quite some time. Mixed in with the names of the obvious rich and famous and powerful who get to eat at Rao's (and who have enthusiastic things to say about Rao's throughout the cookbook) are names of the not-so-obvious to anyone who hails from outside the Italian neighborhood that spawned them. Rao's sounds like a dream of what New York once may have been like--joints on every corner full of character and soul--or what everyone would like to think New York may have been like. It sounds a little like a Disneyland nostalgia experience that just about everyone will never have.

So bless Frank Pellegrino for putting Rao's kitchen between the covers of this book. If you want the excitement and charm and comfort food of Rao's, you can now cook it yourself and pretend that's Dick Schaap sitting over there, and Rob Reiner coming though the door with Woody Allen, Brenda Vaccaro, and John-John. Plan on eating lots of tomato sauce, for Rao's springs from the same roots that gave America Italian red sauce restaurants of the checkered tablecloth and Chianti bottle candle holder stripe. Rao's does it far, far better, and with soul. The late Vincent Pellegrino, who made Rao's what it seemingly continues to be, was particularly fond of grilled meats, and those sections of the book are exemplary: simple, straightforward, to the point. Even the tripe sounds like it might be worth trying.

If you want to cook Italian and not sweat the regional details, this book is the one to pull off the shelf. --Schuyler Ingle

Rao's is a New York City institution, a tiny, family-owned Italian restaurant in East Harlem that has attracted national attention and a celebrity clientele. But most of its ten tables (they added two tables to the original eight after the restaurant had been in business for 99 years) are reserved, in perpetuity, for regulars, many of whom have been eating there once a week for decades-so a jar of Rao's Homemade Tomato Sauce is the closest most people will ever come to the restaurant's fare. But here are the simple, classic recipes that 80-year-old "Auntie" Annie and the other cooks make every weekday: Seafood Salad, Baked Clams Oreganate, Pappardelle with Hot Sausage Sauce. Scattered throughout are quotes from devoted fansAsome famous, some "from the neighborhood"Aand lots of photographs. For area libraries and other larger collections.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Rao's, the hundred-year-old restaurant with a mere ten tables tucked in a corner of East Harlem in what was once a  legendary Italian
neighborhood, is one of the most sought-after restaurants in all of Manhattan. Its tables are booked months
in advance by regulars who go to enjoy what The New York Times calls its "exquisitely simple Italian cooking" from traditional recipes,
many as old as Rao's itself. You may not get a table at Rao's, but now with this book you can prepare the best Italian home-style food in the
world in your own kitchen. Here for the first time are recipes for all of Rao's fabulous classics--its famous marinara sauce, seafood salad,
roasted peppers with pine nuts and raisins, baked clams, lemon chicken, chicken scarpariello, and on and on.
The recipes are accompanied by photographs that re-create Rao's magic and testimonials from loyal Rao's fans--
from Woody Allen to Beverly Sills. Here too is a brief history of the restaurant by Nicholas Pileggi and a Preface by Dick Schaap.
Both will convince you that what you have in your hands is a national treasure, a piece of history, and a collection of the best Italian
American recipes you will ever find.

"When you mention Rao's to someone, you can see their eyes light up. Probably they've never been there--you can't get in the place--
but they've heard about it: the location, the ambience, the mystique, all those stories. You can only imagine what it is like. And then one night,
you get lucky. You get in and find out it's all true."
        --Regis Philbin

"What restaurateur wouldn't want to bottle the magic of Rao's? No other place I know of fills me with such mouth-watering anticipation
upon securing a reservation. And then there's Frankie. You'll never feel more at home."
        --Danny Meyer, co-owner, Union Square Cafe and Gramercy Tavern

"Rao's, quite simply, serves the best Italian food, in the most fun atmosphere, on the planet. Bar none."
        --Rob Reiner

"When they ask me what do I think about Venice and New York, I always answer that they are not towns, but sensations.
I could say the same thing about Rao's. It gives me emotions."
        --Giuseppe Cipriani, Harry's Bar, Harry Cipriani

"Rao's is truly one of the greatest Italian restaurants. There's nothing fancy about it, just great food and great service."
        --Vic Damone

"Many restaurants are built as a faade, but Rao's is an original, truly authentic. The warmth and down-to-earth ambience
are created by the great food and colorful staff. Frank and son are genuine hosts, and this is the place to relax with a big cigar,
while sitting back to listen to classic tunes. Rao's is my kind of place!"
--Drew Nieporent, president of Myriad Restaurant Group, owner of Nobu and Tribeca Grill

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