- April 26, 2024
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"If you come to an Italian house, you have to have something to eat," Frank Renda said. Photo by Jacque Estes
Frank Renda serves up Pasta and Lemon Sauce Shrimp, a new recipe not in his first book. Photo by Jacque Estes
Grillo the pup was named for an Italian/Sicilian white wine. Photo by Jacque Estes
“The secret to cooking is you’ve got to love to cook,” Frank Renda said as he tested the pasta boiling on his stove. “If you don’t love to cook, put everything down and move out of the kitchen.”
This is an interesting recommendation for a chef and author trying to sell his first Italian cookbook.
As Renda removes the shrimp, for the Pasta with Lemon Sauce and Shrimp he’s created, from the oven, under the watchful eye of his new mini Pomeranian, Grillo, he explained what makes his cookbook different.
“It’s different because of the way I present it, and the steps I give you are very easy,” Renda said. “It’s a self-guide book. It’s so easy to follow and the ingredients aren’t crazy.”
His second big secret for success in the kitchen involves using fresh ingredients. He grinds his own black pepper, grows some herbs in his back yard, and the shrimp came from Hull’s Seafood Market and Restaurant in Ormond Beach.
“If you use fresh ingredients, you’ll never have a bad meal,” he said.
A Sicilian-born transplant from New York, he moved to the U.S. when he was 2 years old, and started cooking when he and his wife had medical issues at the same time. His wife Lucinda, who he describes as having been “an exceptional great cook,” and his grandmother, mother and aunts, did all the cooking.
“I never cooked in my life. I didn’t have to, I was the man,” he laughed.
He did pay attention to the activity in the kitchen when the women in his life were cooking.
“I have a photographic memory and I used to watch,” he said. “I remembered all these recipes, and then, when we both got sick I asked, ‘what are we going to have, sandwiches?’”
The hardback book’s table of contents makes you want to be a cook. From Aragosta Fra Davalia (his aunt’s recipe for ‘lobster cooked by the devil) to Zuppe di Pasta E Fagioli (pasta and bean soup), there is an Italian delight for every palate.
The 74 recipes in the book are only a fraction of the recipes he has to share. He is working on a second book. Renda said many of his ideas for new creations come to him during his daily walk, which varies from six to 10 miles.
Renda has made each recipe himself, and tried them out on his friends. Friends have suggested he open a restaurant, but the cookbook satisfies his desire to share his creations.
“This is my forte and I want to share it with everybody,” Renda said.
Frank’s book, “Old World Secrets of Good Italian Cooking” is available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Dorrancepublishing.com/bookstore - $40
Five cooking tips from Frank
