Name Pino Luongo | Role Restaurateur | |
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Parents Mafalda Luongo, Antonio Luongo Nominations James Beard Award for Photography, James Beard Award for International Cooking People also search for Mark Strausman, Andrew Friedman, Marta Pulini Books Two Meatballs in the Itali, A Tuscan in the Kitchen, La Mia Cucina Toscana, Simply Tuscan: Recipes f, Fish Talking: Recipes f |
Cooking with pino luongo
Giuseppe "Pino" Luongo (born 1952/1953) is an American-based Italian restaurateur, businessman, and memoirist. He owned or co-owned such former New York and Chicago restaurants as Il Cantinori, Le Madri, Centolire, Coco Pazzo (NY and Chicago), Coco Pazzo Cafe (Chicago), Coco Pazzo Teatro, Tuscan Square, and the Wainscott, New York-based Sapore di Mare. Morso, a New York restaurant he helped create and runs remains open.
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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".

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.

In 2017, The New York Post reported that Luongo, "a pioneer in popularizing Tuscan cuisine in America, is branching out to Soho. Luongo, who runs the successful Morso on East 59th Street, has signed a lease to launch an eatery ... at 160 Prince St[reet] ..."

Pino luongo reveals where he likes to dine out
Personal life
Luongo and his second wife have three children, and reside in Westchester County, New York.