Neal Fusco
Neal Fusco is a husband, father and a novice Italian chef who did not go to culinary school and not grow up knowing how to cook. He did, however, grow up with a love for Italian food.
Every Sunday when Neal was growing up, his entire family would get together and they would have a big Italian dinner. His aunts, uncles and cousins would all gather at his parents' house patiently waiting while his mother and grandmother prepared their dinner. Neal knew that whatever his mother and grandmother were making was going to be delicious. They made everything from homemade pastina and cappelletti soups to lasagna and chicken cacciatore, and they always ended each meal with a mouthwatering dessert. Neal's favorite desserts where cannolis and pizza freets. Neal looked forward to Sunday dinners almost as much as he did holidays. Neal's mother loved cooking with her mother-in-law because she knew she was learning from the best. She would carefully write down every ingredient Neal's grandmother used, how she prepared it and what it should look like when she was done.
Today, Neal Fusco is married and has a family of my own. Wanting to give his children the same experience he had growing up, Neal decided to keep the tradition going. Now unlike his mother, Neal did not already know how to cook, but he wasn't going to let a little thing like that stop him. So, he asked his mother for all her old recipes and got to work. He decided he would first practice on his wife and kids. His wife was more than happy to relinquish the cooking duties over to her ambitious husband. Neal admits that cooking was not as easy for him as it was for his mother and Grandmother. While Neal has had a few failures, he seemed to recover quickly and his wife says he is a natural. It has been about a year now, and Neal has begun inviting his extended family over each Sunday and cooks them a delicious Italian meal. Neal wasn't sure he would enjoy cooking the food as much as he did eating it, but he did. In fact, he says he gets so much satisfaction seeing his kids get excited for Sunday dinner just as much as he did.
Some of the home-cooked Italian food Neal Fusco has made for his family:
Antipasto
Pastina Soup
Chicken Parmesan
Bruschetta
Homemade Pasta and Meat Sauce
Polenta
Eggplant Parmesan
Lasagna
Biscotti
Neal says he is going to try many more recipes and will be posting about them on his blog called Sundays with Neal Fusco. In the meantime, Neal would like to share this video with you called The six golden rules of Italian cooking. It was taken of his favorite Italian Chef, Antonio Carluccio.