Pasquale Carpino

Early life

Born in the southern Italian community of Cosenza, Calabria in 1936, Pasquale immigrated to Toronto in 1958 at the age of 22, arriving alone with only a few dollars in his pocket. He was intensely passionate about music, most specifically Opera. Pasquale met his wife Evelina, a Soprano Singer of Italian descent, in 1964. They had two daughters together, Beatrice and Lisa.

Cooking career

Pasquale began his career in cooking as a dishwasher and prep cook at several restaurants located around the city of Toronto. With his dedication and talent for food, Chef Pasquale eventually became a chef and later a restaurateur. While continuing to progress his cooking career Pasquale studied opera at the Royal Conservatory of Music.

Television

Pasquale's original cooking show was played on Toronto public access television in the late 1970s. Later Pasquale was the host of popular cooking shows in the 1980s and early 1990s by the names of Pasquale's Kitchen and Pasquale's Kitchen Express. His trademark outfit was a blue smock, a white necktie and a red chef's toque. The show was focused around the colourful Pasquale engaging the audience in his cooking while singing at the same time. The food prepared on the show was for the most part Italian, usually consisting of an appetizer, entree, and dessert. The episode would usually end with Pasquale being the gracious host pouring wine and serving his delicious dinner to a lucky audience member.

Technique

Pasquale's cooking technique in his television show focused on quick full multi course meals. In different episodes he quoted a different time allotted for his four course meal: 18.5 minutes to 22 minutes!

The meals were composed of several dishes, one for carbohydrate usually pasta or risotto), another for protein (chicken, meat, or fish), and two of each of an appetizer (e.g. frittata), a dessert, a soup, or salad.

The meat dish is usually made using a pan grilled method: grilling the meat on both sides in a little olive oil, then adding the sauce composed of chopped vegetables (mushrooms, potatoes, zucchini, onions, garlic, parsley, celery, ...et.c) which are steam sauteed in a separate pan, then a sauce made with that either with 35% cream, or tomato paste. The sauce was always added to the meat pan so in the process deglazing it.

The pasta/rice dish was made with a similar sauce, but the pasta/rice added to the sauce instead of the other way round.

In both sauces, he would add broth from a pan beside the stove top.

On rare occasions, Pasquale would use the oven, for example, roast veal, riggatone, or foccacia bread.

Quotations

Pasquale often repeats certain quotes while he cooks, such as:

Legacy

Pasquale's fame is due greatly to the fact that he was one of the first celebrity chefs in Canada. Known as the Singing Chef, Pasquale once said :

If I sing when I cook, the food is going to be happy.

Pasquale Carpino died December 30, 2005 of complications from surgery.

Pasquale's Kitchen Express continues on air as re-runs on OMNI.1 and Citytv in Toronto.