There's many pictures
of family and
sort of all the special
occasions that we've had.
So, it brings back a lot
of memories every time
I come back down here.
Do you remember any
stories from when me or
Francesco were kids?
When Frank was little,
his father lived
across the street.
After I went to work,
I would buy bread.
I brought the bread home.
When he saw me
in the street,
the bread was gone.
What's up guys?
My name is Frank Pinello.
I'm the owner of
Best Pizza in
Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
And I'm here today with
my lovely grandmother,
Nonna Pasqualina Pinello.
So, what are we
making today Nonna?
Today we're making
chicken cutlets.
I grew up eating these
chicken cutlets.
After that we're gonna
make a special
little lemon sauce.
This lemon dressing that
my grandmother has been
making for years, kinda
pops up all the time.
Sometimes it pops
up on chicken,
sometimes it'll
pop up on meat.
There's definitely
some special little
nuance to them.
And we're gonna walk
you through some
of those steps.
And today I have
two of my favorite
audience members with
me Isabella and Olivia.
So, the first thing is
we have our chicken and
the chicken is ready.
It's cut nice and
thin and
the chicken cutlet we
got from the butcher,
what she does is take the
chicken and she bathes
them in a little bit
of salt water and as,
as we all know as cooks,
that's basically a brine.
But for many years she's
been doing it just to
keep the chicken nice and
clean.
One hour in the salt
water, rinse it twice,
put it in fresh
salt water, and
rinse the chicken in
a pasta strainer.
We're gonna break our
eggs inside of a bowl and
beat them up
a little bit.
And what's
the secret Nonna?
I put in just the eggs
and a spoonful of cheese.
A lot of years and a lot
of tricks, you know.
From there we go over
to the bread crumb,
bread crumb from the
local bakery over here on
17th Avenue.
We spiced that up
a little bit as well.
With flour, a little
black pepper, and
a little cheese.
Formaggio I lo-
And parsley.
And a little
bit of parsley.
The flour makes
it very nice.
It makes
the cutlets soft.
It makes them juicier and
tender.
Nonna, chicken cutlet
do you have a recipe?
What?
A recipe,
do you have a recipe?
Everything is right here.
Right, Nonna?
No. No.
I have a mental recipe.
She turns 90
in two weeks.
We're having a big party
over here at El Cla,
El Classo, right on,
18th Avenue.
We're gonna go from
there to the casino,
because there's nothing
more that my Grandmother
loves to do than
play slots.
All of it, put all
of it in the bowl.
Okay, we're gonna put
everything inside.
My grandmother is a boss,
let me tell you
that straight off.
If something's not
going her way,
she will be sure
to correct.
We're gonna put all
of this chicken
right inside.
Okay.
Okay.
And give it a nice bath.
Okay, perfect.
So right now my
grandmother is putting
a little bit of olive oil
in the bottom of the pan.
And I'm getting the
chicken cutlets ready.
So, now from from the
bath that the chicken is
in, we're gonna move
the chicken from the bath
over to the.
Go ahead.
Put the chicken here,
little by little.
Put it down nice and
neat.
And as you can see we're
using just a flat plate,
that way we have a lot
of surface area,
as you can see she's
got the motion down,
you throw
the chicken on top.
Make sure that it's
bathed perfectly with
the breadcrumb.
We have a very
interesting
way communicating,
my grandmother and I.
I grew up in a,
in a Sicilian family, and
we spoke a lot of
Italian at home.
You know, my Italian
that I speak to
her is very much like
a homemade Italian, or
we get the point
across to each other.
She said she's been here
for fifty years and
she doesn't speak
one word of English.
At work,
there are Italian people.
At home,
there are Italian people.
At home there
are Italian people, and
at the store there
are Italian people.
That's it.
What can I do?
So yeah, typically you
would see this fried up
on the kitchen counter,
or fried up inside a,
a shallow set up, but
we do it in the oven.
Wait, wait.
Okay, okay.
We put a little olive
oil on the bottom,
now we're going to
put it on the top.
All right.
So first she puts
some oil on and
then she puts some oil
on afterwards as well.
So what I love about this
is right now she's using
a Aunt Jemima syrup
bottle with olive oil.
Here in Nonna's
kitchen everything is
very functional
as you can see.
Once the syrup is done
it gets filled up
with olive oil.
She presets it
at 350 degrees.
And then right before she
throws it in she cranks
it up another
100 degrees.
All right, so we got the
oven cranked up to 450,
and we're gonna put
it in the middle.
Okay.
Beautiful.
So this component to
the dish is basically
like a little lemon
dressing that we make.
One thing I love,
is that, she always has
this, kinda like, frozen
parsley at her dispense.
And it's just kinda like
a rough chop of parsley.
And she'll through it in
one of these little to-go
containers as she
cleans out, and
it's always around.
I don't know what it is
about it, but every time
it ends up on the food it
just tastes delicious.
So, basically what we do,
is we take some lemons,
we squeeze them out.
A little bit of
the parsley, some garlic.
Like all, all the all the
ingredients that you'll
find in a typical
Italian kitchen.
A lot of my family
members live in the sa,
on the same block.
And I grew up in a house
right across the street.
And then we moved
out to Long Island.
And we would often
kinda come back and
spend our weekends here
with my grandmother.
And the second that we
got here there was always
a huge feast
on the table.
And you know that
definitely kinda came
with me and kinda
turned me into a cook.
I know a lot of cooks
that were inspired by
their grandparents but
I mean, if it wasn't for
my grandmother I wouldn't
be cooking right now.
And that,
I can say that 100%.
Everything is because
of you, Nonna.
What?
I cook because of you.
Because I watched
you cook for
our whole family.
Oh, because his
nonna likes to cook.
My father liked to cook,
his great grandfather,
great-great grandfather,
they all cooked, and
now Francesco
likes to cook.
Tha, I thank you for
that.
Ok now we add
a little black
pepper, a little
bit of oregano.
This oregano is Italian,
from Italy.
So, so this is a,
is just a generic
bottle that she has.
So, very often
I'll come over and
my grandmother will have
all these amazing like
things here from Italy.
So, right now basically
what we have here,
the lemon juice
in one bowl and
the mixture in the other.
And I'm going to let
my grandmother mix
them all together.
She worked for Oscar De
La Renta sewing dresses.
When Francesco was a
little boy, about 5 years
old, he would pick up his
Nonna at the factory.
I vividly remember it,
walking in and
seeing my grandmother,
you know,
sitting in the line
of a sewing machines
kind of sewing dresses
and stuff like that.
She's gonna have me bring
out the chicken right now
just to kind of
check on it.
All right.
You can see them, you
can see them frying up.
They got that nice golden
brown edge around them.
We're gonna flip them,
throw them back in,
just to get them a little
bit more crispy.
A little bit of time.
A couple more minutes.
How do you know when
the chicken is done?
What?
I life one up and
look at the bottom,
when the bottom looks
okay, you take it out.
These need a little
more time.
That's ninety years
of experience ya'll.
We got merchandise for
the Pinello family here.
Yeah, who is that
on the apron?
Yeah.
Isabella.
This is Isabella.
Oliva wasn't here yet.
Olivia came after.
There's many pictures
of family and
sort of all the special
occasions we had.
So there's no shortage
of photographs.
It, it brings back
a lot of memories,
every time I come
back down here.
Okay, Francesco, set in.
You can smell the cheese,
you can smell
the parsley,
all that good stuff.
A lot of this stuff,
the best pizza,
is inspired by like,
the food that I
grew up eating.
The grandma pizza, which
has plum tomato sauce and
anchovies in it.
And the Sicilian oregano
is very much an ode to my
grandmother and to the
food that we ate here.
Straight from the hot
pan, bathe it in a little
bit of the lemon juice
oil, a dressing that we
made and
then right into the pan.
To me this is like
the step that makes these
chicken cutlets
like really good.
Just hits it with that
delicious lemon and
garlic sauce.
Here we are folks,
chicken cutlets done
pannello style.
Finished beautiful
cutlets.
And that's my
grandmother's send off
all the time,
is that's a,
that's a saying
from Italian.
Zoe, you wanted
to say hello?
Now can we eat?
Yeah, we can eat now.
You got it.
Well, usually it starts
with a bowl of pasta, and
then all the dishes
start rolling out.
And yeah, I mean we eat
like this all the time.
Thank you Olivia.
We made chicken cutlets,
pasta with marinara
sauce, artichokes,
and roasted zucchini.
Any time that it's
a family affair and
we're all here,
we're all eating.
My grandmother
loves to cook.
But one other thing that
you need to know about
Nonna is my grandmother
loves to gamble.
And she loves her
scratch off tickets.
So being the good
grandson that I am-.
And her slot machines.
I know how to, I know how
to make my grandmother
happy, I don't come and
I don't show up unless I
got some scratch
off tickets.
Thank you.
You know who loves you.
Thank you, thank you.
Oh you doing.
She understands
every game.
She knows the games
because that's.
This is Nonna
at her best.
I am going to do
the biggest one first.
$20.
Really?
$20.
Hey.
Hey.
$30.
$30.
That never happens.
Hey.
That never happens.
Your first one.
$40.
28 and 26.
26 is ten and nine.
Is $20, $40.
Ooh nice.
$45.
There it is.
Better make it rain
Nonna,, make it rain.
Yeah, Munchies
bring luck.
There we go with
the winning tickets.
My grandfather and
my grandmother really
have done a lot for, for
the family, and
we're very grateful, and
we appreciate everything
they've done for us.
We realize how hard they
worked to get us here.
And we feel like,
you know,
it's our job to take it
to the next level, so.
Ok, now please eat,
everything is
getting cold.
Shut up and eat.
Gotta eat,
you guys gotta eat.
You gotta eat.
We love you Nonna.
I love you, too.
Come on, folks.
This is, this is 80s
mullet at its best.
Before and after.
Welcome to Bensonhurst
right here.
She said when she was
young she was beautiful
and she's laughing.
Still beautiful.
Yeah, yeah.
