Author: Chef Pepe

Joey Pants Growing up with Joey Pants was always interesting to say the least. Joey would play “hooky” from school so he could go into Manhattan to take acting classes. We called him Joe Hollywood in those days as he always said he was headed to the West Coast to be in the movies. From playing Guido the Killer Pimp in Risky Business, to Francis Fratelli in The Goonies, to Cypher in The Matrix, to his Emmy Award winning role of Ralphie in the SOPRANOS, Joey has made us all proud. To check out more about Joey, log onto: www.joeypants.com

Two guys from Jersey, The Story of Pèpe & Pants Back in their childhood days in the 50’s in Hoboken, Richie Pepe and Joey Pantoliano would sit around the kitchen table with their big Italian families. Over a bowl of macaroni, they’d always be trying to figure ways to get rich and “live the American dream” their immigrant grandparents sought when they came to America from Southern Italy.

The Martha Stewart Show Featuring Joey Pantoliano cooking with PÈPE & PANTS Pasta Sauce Cari Amici (Dear Friends), As you all may know, I am always working on a lot of new ideas in my laboratorio (kitchen laboratory). Of course, all of my “brainstorms” are food and wine related, so this newsletter may come as no surprise. Over the years at Little Napoli, my Italian Bistro in Carmel-by-the-Sea, many guests have asked if I could sell or ship our pasta sauces to them. Well, as I’ve always said “it is important to listen to your customers” and recently I am in the act

  Pèpe expands his 'cottage' industry Restaurateur/entrepreneur opens wine bar next to iconic Little Napoli in Carmel Growing up Italian in New Jersey, Rich Pèpe spent many Sundays sitting in church, followed by another family religion of sorts — sitting around a large dinner table passing bowls of bolognese and colorful stories of the day. Pèpe turned those carefree, convivial memories into a cottage industry in Carmel and beyond. He's a baker, a chef, a restaurateur, a winemaker, an entrepreneur and all-around culinary bon vivant. What Pèpe and his wife Sandra started in the late 1980s with ownership of Wishart's Bakery in Carmel is

Served with a sauté of fresh morel mushrooms, black cherries, spring fava beans and sun dried cherry merlot infusion Vineyard worker can result in the owner ship of a winery twenty years later. But unless our parents provide us with a very particular upbringing, we grow up thinking that wine isn't wine unless it has the name of the grape on the front of the label. America and its wine lovers have a varietal bias. There's nothing inherently wrong with an attraction to wines made from a single grape variety

If consumers say they want more healthful menu options but don’t often order those better-for-you foods, what’s a foodservice operator to do? No question is likely to be more pressing yet more difficult to easily answer this year, and will continue to be so until consumers’ expressed desires wine isn't wine unless it has the name of the grape on the front of the label. America and its wine lovers have a varietal bias. There's nothing inherently wrong with an attraction to wines made from a single grape variety

The Martha Stewart Show Featuring Joey Pantoliano cooking with PÈPE & PANTS Pasta Sauce Cari Amici (Dear Friends), As you all may know, I am always working on a lot of new ideas in my laboratorio (kitchen laboratory). Of course, all of my “brainstorms” are food and wine related, so this newsletter may come as no surprise.

Buying Gold on the Ponte Vecchio QUESTION: Growing up as an Italian-American in the 50’ & 60’s, it always seemed that everyone of my family and friends had some sort of gold chain with a cross or medal around their neck. Often the gold was given to you by your godparents or sponsor at your confirmation, and you were certainly obliged to wear it forever. I’d like to continue this tradition for the next generation in our family. My wife and I are traveling to Florence this year and I understand that the Ponte Vecchio is the