Pino Luongo

Giuseppe "Pino" Luongo[1] is an American-based Italian restaurateur, businessman, and memoirist. He owned such Manhattan restaurants as Il Cantinori, Le Madri, Centolire, Coco Pazzo (NY and Chicago), Coco Pazzo Cafe (Chicago), Coco Pazzo Teatro, and Tuscan Square. All of his New York City restaurants have closed. Morso, a restaurant he helped create but does not own, remains open as of June 2012.

Born in Florence, Italy, the eldest of six children of Antonio and Mafalda Luongo, he was raised in Tuscany's Porto Santo Stefano region, where he learned to cook from his mother. At age 19, he registered for the Italian military as a “conscientious objector”. Around nine years later he was called up, for which he blamed his father, a military veteran, and from whom he would remain estranged until the latter's death. He fled conscription to New York in 1981, and began his career as a busboy at a famed Italian eatery, Da Silvano, of which he would later become manager. On October 23, 1983, he opened his first establishment, Il Cantinori, with two partners. His next restaurant, which opened in 1988, was Sapore di Mare in Wainscott, Long Island. Infamous for his temperament, Luongo later earned the nickname "Pino Noir".[2]

Luongo has written or co-written five cookbooks: A Tuscan in the Kitchen, Simply Tuscan, Fish Talking, La Mia Cucina Toscana and Two Meatballs (along with Mark Strausman), as well as a memoir, Dirty Dishes — A Restaurateur's Story of Passion, Pain and Pasta.[2]

Personal life

Luongo has three children by his second wife.

References

  1. ↑ Fabricant, Florence (August 14, 1996). "Portfolios and Menus: Wall Street Invests in Fine Dining". The New York Times. Mr. Luongo, 43
  2. 1 2 Pino Luongo official website; accessed December 9, 2014.
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