Pino Luongo

Giuseppe "Pino" Luongo^[1] (born 1953) is an American-based Italian chef, restauranteur, businessman, author and memoirist.

Pino Luongo
Born	Tuscany
Culinary career
Cooking style	Northern Italian
Previous restaurant(s) Il Cantinore (1983), Sapore di Mare (1988), Le Madri (1989), Sapore di Mare St. Barths (1991), Coco Pazzo (1990), Mad. 61 (1993), Coco Pazzo Chicago (1992), Coco Pazzo Los Angeles (1994) Tuscan Square (1997), Coco Marina (1998), Centolire (2001), Morso (2011), Coco Pazzo Trattoria (2017), Coco Pazzeria (2021)

Early life

One of six children, Luongo was born in Florence, Italy and raised in Tuscany's Porto Santo Stefano region, where he learned to cook from his mother. He moved to New York City in 1981 and began his career as a busboy at a famed Italian eatery, Da Silvano, of which he would later become manager.

Career

On October 23, 1983, Luongo opened his first establishment, Il Cantinori, with two partners. Before its sale in 1989, Il Cantinori gained popularity & is credited with popularizing regional Italian cuisine in New York City.^[2] (Il Cantinori, "the restaurant that introduced many New Yorkers to the idea that Italian food could be more than marinara sauce," still operates in its original location at 32 east 10th street under different ownership.)^[3] His next two restaurants would open shortly after the sale of Il Cantinori in 1988, with Sapore di Mare in 1988 in Wainscott, Long Island, and Le Madri in Chelsea in 1989. ^{[4] [5]} Luongo would also open a second Sapore di Mare in 1991 in the Castelets Hotel on St. Barthelemy.^[6] As Luongo's restaurants gained popularity in the late-1980s, Pino would open Coco Pazzo on the Upper East Side in 1990, Mad. 61 in the basement of Barney's in 1993, and Tuscan Square in Rockefeller Center in 1997.^[7] Coco Pazzo was franchised in the 1990s and opened multiple locations around the US, including in Chicago in 1992 (which still operates today under the same name), in Mondrian Hotel in Los Angeles in 1994. Coco Pazzo would also open a location in the World Financial Center (now Brookfield Place) in 1998, which was subsequently damaged in & closed after the September 11th, 2001 attacks. Later, Luongo would open Morso in Sutton Place in 2011, and more recently re-open Coco Pazzo Trattoria in Soho in 2017, and Coco Pazzeria in Sutton Place in 2021.^[8]

Luongo has been described as colorful throughout his career and was described by Anthony Bourdain in his book Kitchen Confidential as being, "...a man envied, feared, despised, emulated and admired by many who have worked for and with him."^[9]

Publications

Luongo has written or co-written five cookbooks: A Tuscan in the Kitchen in 1988,^[10] Fish Talking in 1994,^[11] Simply Tuscan in 2000,^[12] La Mia Cucina Toscana in 2003,^[13] and Two Meatballs in the Italian Kitchen (with Mark Strausman in 2007).^[14] He wrote a memoir, Dirty Dishes — A Restaurateur's Story of Passion, Pain and Pasta (in 2009, foreword by Anthony Bourdain).^[15]

Personal life

Luongo and his wife have three children, and reside in Westchester County, New York.