About Pino Luongo and Mark Strausman
Pino Luongo came to America from Italy in 1980 with three passions: the Italian zest for life, his love of acting, and a passion for cooking. He is an acclaimed New York chef and restaurateur, whose restaurants includ Centolire, Coco Pazzo, and Tuscan Square. Two Meatballs is Luongo’s fifth cookbook, preceded by A Tuscan in the Kitchen, Simply Tuscan, Fish Talking, and La Mia Cucina Toscana. Luongo lives with his wife and children in Westchester, where he coaches his son’s soccer team, listens to Italian pop songs and opera, and cooks.
Mark Strausman, a Queens native, began his career in food service selling peanuts at Shea Stadium. He is the co-owner, with Pino Luongo, of Coco Pazzo in Manhattan, where he is chef. He is also the executive chef/managing director of Fred’s at Barney’s in Manhattan. and the author of author of The Campagna Table. Mark and his two sons live in New York City.
Margaret Giovanniello said
I tried the recipe for Chicken Martini as seen on the Martha Stewart show. Although the chicken was very very good, I found that the gratedcheese did not fully adhere to the chicken breasts when frying . (after I dipped in flour & egg) The breasts stuck to the pan and I had to scrape the “fried cheese” from the pan before I could cook the next batch. Can you tell me why this happened? Otherwise we loved the recipe and I want to make it again but would like to keep the cheese on !!
Pino said
Dear Margaret,
Thank you for your inquiry. Sorry you had trouble
with the cheese in the Breast of Chicken,
Martini-Style recipe. Here are a few tips that may
help the next time you make the recipe:
–Use a non-stick oven proof pan.
–You want lots of cheese – so coat the chicken with grated
cheese. Just lightly dredge the pieces with cheese
letting what falls off fall off. Some will fall off.
–Don’t overcrowd the pan.
–Scraping up any “fried cheese” from the pan between
batches is just what you should do so your subsequent
batches of chicken don’t have bitter black bits
clinging to them.
Buono appetito.
PL