Here's to the local restaurants, to the chef's, owner, operators, the staff, the ones who love being in the weeds night after night.

When we go to work each morning, that's who we have in mind.

From where we source our food to how we deliver it.

Here's to them, the ones who are out there cooking for us every day.

Restaurants are the heart of everything we do.

We are Performance Food Service.

Proudly supporting Food Is Love.

Much like the argument for chivalry, I'm of the belief that hospitality is not dead.

Admittedly, there's nothing like worldwide restaurant closures and restrictive measures.

That altar hospitality as we know it..

But still, hospitality leaks through in the details.

Hello, Lasse Sorensen, Miss you bro!

I miss you too.

What's up?

Are you leaving tomorrow?

I want you to be over here, with these people over here at my house.

I'm not quite sure I'm following.

Probably!?

No, I'm not picking up what you're putting down.

Okay, Okay, what?

We go there, we have dinner We jump back home.

I'm flattered Tony really, What do you think about that?

I love it.

I'll be there in about 45 minutes.

What did he say?

I've mentioned it before.

In the hospitality business, there's an unspoken bond an understanding as old as time itself.

When someone in the industry calls, we drop everything to help one another out.

Who else could you expect to walk into a kitchen they've never cooked in and feel right at home?

Only another chef.

Maybe,that should be a part of the definition of hospitality.

(radio) "Food is Love cleared for Arch landing".

Even so, when Tony Piatoso personally invites you to dinner, you get there by any means necessary and as quickly as possible.

Because the chance of holding court with the King of Clayton.

now that's an offer I can't refuse.

Let me tell you something Lasse, It's got to look like a show.

Yeah Where everybody feel is important.

As a chef, I need to stay curious in order to evolve.

For me, that means looking beyond a good meal to learn more about who made it and what inspires them to Cook La comida es amor (Food is Love) Every great city has great food.

I'm going on a journey around the world right here in St Louis.

I'm on a quest to find passionate chefs who cook from the heart.

"And I think it's the best" to prove that Food is Love It's going to be delicious.

Food is love.

Love your food.

There is a reoccurring theme in movie plots that defines the lead as an underdog, an unlikely hero facing and overcoming almost impossible odds.

The truth can be more amazing than fiction.

I've seen it so many times myself.

Right here in St Louis.

I'm on my way to one of my favorite restaurants in the city and one that has a history here in Clayton, a place where I have celebrated many anniversaries and countless meals over the years.

But today I'm stopping in to spend time with the owner of Cafe Napoli, an immigrant that came to St Louis as a teen with no family connection and nothing to his name.

Italian restaurateur Tony Piatoso has been serving food in Clayton for more than 30 years now.

St. Louis has a long history of Italian American families in neighborhoods like the Hill.

Italian influence makes up a large part of the city's food and restaurant identity.

But Tony's story is not one of those.

So exactly how does one go from an orphan immigrant to the King of Clayton?

That's exactly what I hope to find out myself.

Lasse!

Tony, how are you?

Hi, buddy.

Good seeing you.

So good to see you.

How 've you been?

alright?

Good.

I have a nice table for us.

Table 18.

Yes.

That my favorite table.

How did you know its mine too, you know.

It is?

Yes.

Sit down please.

I love this table.

So do I You know, why wouldn't you?

Well, we are restauranteurs, right?

Yeah.

And we like to see what's going on in the restaurant all the time.

I could see everything.

This is the perfect table.

Absolutely.

I can see People go in the kitchen, coming out of the kitchen, I see what kind of service and my staff is doing.

Yeah.

You catch everything.

I love to teach people service and food.

Sometimes, Maybe I'm a little harsh.

But you know what?

As you know, in this business, you have to sometimes.

Yeah, Absolutely.

So it's your responsibility to make sure that they have a great experience.

You know, everybody that sits yr table, treat them like It's your mom and dad.

And not only that, how you want to be treated!

His broken English and warming laughter is a big part of the dining experience here.

An experience that's been shared by people like Tony Bennett, Sammy Hagar and countless professional sports figures.

You know, we have a lot in common.

We do?

Yes.

You're an immigrant.

I'm an immigrant.

Yes, I am.

When did you come here?

In 1988.

I came in 1970.

So I'm on my 51 year in America, this wonderful country.

I was born in Naples.

Okay.

That's why it's called Cafe Napoli.

And my mother and my father had four kids.

Of course, I'm the number one son.

My father was not very well.

He was a sick man.

So my mother was by herself with four kids.

So she asked the government to help her to take care of us.

So what they did was it put me and my brother for Fornado in the orphanage in Naples.

And then my brother Nick and my sister Maria.

Okay.

They were put in the orphanage in Florence.

So you were separated.

We were separated.

Yes.

Because there was too many, too many brothers and, Yeah, for one orphanage to handle.

So they split us up.

And I didn't see my brother and my sister for many years.

One time it was the summer time I never forget.

I was home for the first time in many years And one of the directors of the orphanage in Florence happened to bring my brother for fornado to my hometown, which is a Versa for vacation.

So that was a first time I met the guy and all his name is Al landis, wonderful, wonderful guy.

This is our Corpach.

As you can see, it's very well done By our Chef John Burger.

He's been with me for many, many, many, many years.

So I'm there now at the orphanage and Al Landis a comes back to the States.

But before he came, he says, you know, he says you should come and visit the states sometimes, He says, "You're such a good soccer player, you can make a lot of money."

I'm 16 years old.

I'm not thinking about you know, I think he's just saying that to make me feel good.

Whatever I said, okay.

You know, so for a year later he actually made this happen.

They got my passport done.

He send me the money for the trip.

For the airline ticket, I go to the airport.

I don't know what the heck I'm doing.

I missed my plane.

How could that happen?

I can't speak English!

(laughing) So I said, I find somebody who spoke Italian.

I said, so what am I supposed to do?

He says, "Well, you gotta wait three days before you can catch your next plane."

So I wait three days.

Guess what, I missed the plane again.

I mean, you were in the airport?

For six days!

Oh, Jeez!

For six days!

And I said, Okay, I'm going to sleep right there by the gate.

I'm going to miss my next flight.

They must have been waiting for you over here.

Yeah, but they didn't know.

There were no phones.

They didn't know what had happened to me.

They called the orphanage they say, oh, he's gone about a week ago.

They had no idea where I was.

They reunite me with Al Landis.

Okay.

And at the same time, he gets a phone call from Lutheran High School North in St Louis.

And they want him to be the new teacher of religion and music.

So I came with him and we got an apartment across Street from Lutheran North.

And I'll never forget this.

One afternoon, they're playing soccer.

I come out and I start playing soccer.

And I got the ball on my arm, doing the ball on my head and my shoulder, everyone starts to look at me.

And they said the coach wanted to know who I was.

and so the coach talked to Al Landis, he said, "What can we do to keep Tony here to play soccer?"

And so when he talked to me the night, he said, "They want you to play soccer."

I said, Yes.

I said but what's in it for me?

He said, "what do you want?"

I want to learn how to speak English.

They had one teacher every afternoon to tudor me one on one.

And I played soccer.

It's interesting.

Another immigrant story with soccer as a driving force.

The fact that he made it work here in St. Louis based solely off of his soccer skills, is even more impressive And it was a great experience.

And I wanted to do a little more with soccer.

But unfortunately, my knees they went out and I could not play soccer anymore.

At the time I had a lot of my friends everybody was a hair stylist.

So I said, well, maybe I become a hair stylist.

So I investigate.

And I said, What the heck?

Why not?

So I become a hair stylist.

And I did a hair for five years.

Okay.

But I needed cash.

So I'll become a waiter.

I became a waiter to a John Mineo's Restaurant.

Amazingly Clayton.

So how long did you work in that restaurant?

I worked there for About nine to 10 years.

Okay.

And I left and I went to a French restaurant, and I learned a lot from the French Jean Claude.

La Bergerie, the restaurant was called La Chateau.

But like I said, I enjoy people.

There is nothing better than when somebody walks out of here And I said, how was your dinner.

Oh, my God.

Tony.

It was the best thing.

That was the best pasta.

That was the best thing, whatever it is.

And that makes my day because it's not about money.

It's about please, the people.

And that's what I do.

That's what my kids do.

This is not the original location.

No.

Copenhagen.

I mean, what's the chances that I'm sitting here with you today And you just told me that, and I didn't know that.

And that's where I'm from.

I know.

I mean, it's crazy.

It's an omen.

It's crazy.

I'm telling you, it's crazy.

Copenhagen.

So it was a Danish restaurant?

It was a Danish restaurant.

In Clayton?

In Clayton.

What kind of food did they have?

I think that herrings.

Ahh, I would have loved it.

Right.

You know, I really never really I never took time to go (laughing) It's been a great ride.

And my kids are doing And John, my chef, they're doing a fantastic job.

I cannot.

But, you know, America is a great country I think.

No doubt about it.

And there's so much opportunity here.

If you want it, you just got to go get it.

Thank you.

You know, a lot of people, you know, a lot people think this They think The work is gonna come and find you.

I don't understand.

You have to go look for work!

Yeah, absolutely.

And that's why when I came from Italy, that's what I say, I'm going to do something for myself.

I'm not just going to be over here, be a waiter I'm going to do something.

I'm going to be somebody.

And I was determined to be somebody.

Oh, boy.

Oh, boy.

Oh, beautiful.

John, that's all we need right there.

Perfect.

Did you know that this is my favorite pasta?

Yeah.

You told me.

I love this.

Linguini Alle vongole.

Linguini!

Thank you yes, bravo.

The pasta has to be aldente or else I can't eat it.

Well, you can't ask for any more good glass of wine, aldente pasta.

Good company.

Food is love.

How do you say that?

In Italian?

il cibo è amore.

Cibo amore.

The meal barely over.

Tony is excited to show me around the place.

This is where all the magic happens.

Got 24, actually now its about 30 burners.

So you can do a lot.

Here we pour the cheese and the sauce.

and it goes out!

Okay, Let's go this way.

Okay.

Here we go.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

This is we call this the Napoli Reserve.

This is where all my good wines are plus downstairs, Oh you should go downstairs.

I would love to do that.

Absolutely.

Well, every good restaurant always has a basement or a cellar right?

Right.

As strange as it sounds, wandering around in the underbelly of a restaurant is something I always look forward to.

I've been going to restaurants all my life and it always has a basement where you're going to have chance encounters with whoever.

This is part of the romance of having a restaurant.

When you find the tomatoes treated as well as the wine, it's usually a sign the meal is going to be a good one So for an Italian, tomatoes are just as valuable as the wine so it has to be treated like the wine.

Absolutely!

So we're going to go to Napoli 2?

We ready to go.

Yes!

Cafe Napoli isn't a lonesome Dove.

In fact, there are three Cafe Napolis' A quick trip in the car gets us to Napoli 2.

Here we go.

Napoli number two.

You didn't do too bad for an orphan.

I know, not bad right?

No!

Only in America!

Only in America.

That's right.

Espresso, there you go!

So if you and I would have been in Naples right now, that's what we would be doing.

We'd be sitting outside and having an espresso.

With a little spritz of water it'd be perfect, looking at all the beautiful Italian women.

So in Italy, that's what we do.

Every 15, 20 minutes, they stop at a bar and get an espresso.

Now you wonder why Italian people are so nervous?

Talk with their hands!

Yeah.

Espresso helps you out!

Yeah.

I want to be an Italian.

You are Italian I love pasta.

I know you do.

And I mean, I would fit right in.

When I grew up in the orphanage, that's all we could eat was pasta.

And I was always hungry I had to eat fast because if I did not eat fast.

There was big boys.

They'd come and it take your plate.

So I had to eat fast Up to this day, I eat fast.

Italian food to me is the best food in the world.

There's no substitution.

Thank you, John.

It's incredible.

He knows.

He knows what I like.

Look at that.

Make sure it's four clock.

So you serve it four o'clock.

Remember, always at four o'clock.

Four o'clock, four o'clock.

Because you go like this, then you got to go like this and then it spills right?

Yeah.

So I teach my people, always serve the customers at four o'clock.

Think about it.

Yeah.

See those little things?

The little things.

That's what makes the difference.

Saluda cin dan What does that mean?

Salude to a hundred years.

Italian espresso with an American accent.

Makes sense?

And that's Napoli III right there.

This is totally different.

It's totally different.

Yeah.

Beautiful space, and people love it.

Pulling off different menus can be very tough, but hand made pasta is hard to argue with.

Every region makes the pasta the food different.

In Italy as you know Naples that's different than Florence.

Florence does different than Milano.

It's different.

Everybody does their own thing.I love pasta.

me too.

Oh look at that!

Oh, that's delicious.

You gotta have a bite?

Because, you know, We're gonna have to.

You have to have a bite.

Otherwise, you know, what's the point?

This is kind of lightly breaded.

It's topped with prosciutto.

A little fontanella, with saltimbocca wine sauce We're gonna need some vino bello!

I can't eat without wine.

Red wine?

That's great.

Its very seldom that I met the guy like you, and we have everything in common.

I'm acutely aware of how busy things is going to get around here so I'm about to make my exit but before I can get out the door.

Plot Twist, Tony has insisted to take me to dinner at his house now.

Nestled in a nice, comfortable neighborhood.

Tony's house feels like it's designed for entertaining, but what else would you expect?

For sure he's got a sub zero in the living room.

Who walks in and you're like, Oh, my God There's a bar in the living room!

Tony has invited his family to join us for the evening, including his sons Andy and Kai, who runs the other locations.

I pretty much let them to do, what they want to do, because I think they earned my respect, and they're good with employees, so that makes me feel good about it.

Im really proud of them, I really am.

It was hard growing up sometimes because the baseball games he couldn't come to, he wouldn't be at any of the events.

The holidays.

The family would be over, the eves of the holidays.

Christmas and ya know I get it now.

But he kind of did that sacrifice, so we don't have to be as much.

So I can kind of watch my kids grow up a little bit more now.

But he made that sacrifice for us, which was really cool.

In the midst of laughter and conversation, I almost feel like a part of the family.

In my experience, Italian families tend to have that effect on guests.

This is the wall of fame.

Well, professional athletes, actors coaches Don King WOW John Madden, Danica Patrick, Tony Bennett Barry Manalow,Yeah.

Bob Gibson my boy.

Pujoles right there.

Mcguire Okay, come on, Let's go.

Let's just some fun now Something that I should already have known seems obvious to me now.

It's not Caffe Nopolis' landmark location.

It's not the handmade pasta.

The magic feeling that I've always gotten when I eat a Napoli doesn't come from a place.

I realize now it's the hospitality that Tony has cultivated.

We've been at it all day and I just had such a great time.

What is it you say in Italian?

Il cibo è amore.

Il cibo è amore!

Thank you very much.

I've always had an immense amount of respect for Tony's food, but his candidness and good nature with me today and hearing his backstory first hand, has given me more respect for what he's done here.

It's really like something from a movie script The final Act of any good movie should tie up loose ends, sum up the whole story, and leave the viewer with something to reflect on later.

For me, the table side zabaione at Cafe Napoli has always been a high note to my visit.

It's one part culinary exhibition mixed with the skills and performance of a circus act.

A lot of people don't know what zabaione is.

Its like an Italian custard and it's made by egg yolk Okay, marsala.

And bristol cream it's a consistent beating.

It comes nice and fluffy and it goes on top of the ice cream.

Yeah.

As I'm gonna show to you right now.

What I'm gonna do?

I'm gonna.

Egg yolk Okay.

take all the fat out, you see?

Yeah, you get it?

Yeah, I get it.

Alright.

Put'em in there.

There you go.

Okay, there you go.

I love this.

This is such a great dessert.

There you go.

Bingo!

Okay, now I'm done with that.

Okay, now I'm going to turn on the fire.

Now remember, it got to turn ity low because I don't want to serve you scrambled eggs Okay, so I'm going to put a little bit of Marsala.

Tony has done this thousands of times.

How many times do you think you do this in the night?

A lot.

Well, let me tell you something.

When I first opened Napoli in an 89, I used to do this in the dining room.

Okay, nobody order, nobody order.

But I knew.

And should I start making everybody's gonna ask what the heck is Tony doing that.

And if I did that how everybody wanted to know.

And they wanted to taste it.

It's probably hot wired into his motor skills, but the energy he still brings to the performance is what brings it to life.

They wanted to know what I was making.

Yeah They'd say zabanione!

zabanione!

I want some!

And pretty soon I was working all night long.

Yeah, it's consistent see You have your spoon?

You do!

There you go.

See the color is changing.

Yeah.

Look how beautiful.

Look at that.

It's like hollandaise, but dessert.

Exactly!

You got it.

All right.

take just a little taste.

The zabaione isn't vital to the meal.

And Tony, he has reached a level of success that doesn't require him to do anything extra at all.

But still, here he is.

Now we have people that come in for their anniversary or birthday and they ask me to do this.

What do you think I'm going to say?

Yes.

Done.

When I'm making it I want everybody around because it's got to look like a show where everybody feel is important.

Think about it.

Okay, so when I'm making zabaione I got most of the staff all the way around me.

And the people sit over there, they look everybody looking at them.

It's beautiful.

See?

And then I do this.

Now that's hospitality.

Oh, Wow.

When you take time to boil it down to its essence, Come on.

Isn't hospitality really just love?

Bada bing!

There you go.

Now We can enjoy it.

Yeah, I love it.

One more saltud, Salud!

Salud!

So this is an ode to my friend Tony .

As we learned from Tony, linguini One linguini.

This is lingine tutto mare really means whatever you have in the house of seafood.

Tutto mare times four, please.

Cibo è amore!

My sister, she text me back.

Hey, foodies want to try all the great food and restaurants you've seen on Food Is Love.

Head on over to FoodIsLove.TV To map the locations of restaurants from your favorite episode, check out what's coming up.

Leave Chef Lasse a message or start your own culinary journey around the Lou.

Find it all now at FoodIsLove.TV.

Here's to the local restaurants.

To the chef's, owner operators, the staff, the ones who love being in the weeds night after night.

When we go to work each morning, that's who we have in mind.

From where we source our food to how we deliver it.

Here's to them, the ones who are out there cooking for us every day.

Restaurants are the heart of everything we do.

We are Performance Food Service.

Proudly supporting Food Is love.