Sing and Cook

Longtime friend Andy LoRusso just came out with a new book, Sing & Cook with Andy LoRusso The Singing Chef. It’s the 25^th anniversary of his career singing and cooking. Friends and fans met at Tecolote bookstore for his book signing. With the tome you not only cook, you can sing along at the same time.

Andy’s roots stem from Italy, where his grandfather left and came to the United States a hundred years ago, not speaking a word of English and the proverbial $1 in his pocket. I feel close to Italy, having lived in Naples (Napoli) for three years and having my son born there. I always said, “In Naples, everyone sings – the maid, the painter, the bus driver.”

Besides the book to look at, we had Andy’s biscotti to taste, as well as olive oil that is imported from Puglia by Le Lorelle luxury imports. Homer, the immortal Greek poet, called it “liquid gold.”

Andy’s cousin Michael Calabrese, professor of English at California State University in Los Angeles, wrote the foreword. He says, “To eat is to sustain existence; to cook is to sustain something less tangible but equally urgent – a way of preserving culture, nostalgia, relationships, traditions, the ways of the past that make us who we are and allow us to cherish a cultural identity that we can share with others.”

Andy has shared his talent with others literally around the world and is known as the Singing Chef. His first book, Sing & Cook Italian, led to a full-time career traveling around the country, and the world performing his interactive singing and cooking shows. He has appeared on TV, in major theaters, festivals, casinos, and at fundraisers.

My husband, Don, just wants me to make the meatballs. Andy says, “Great friends are like great meatballs. Tutte Amore!” I’ll drink to that – some wine and a little olive oil.

The book states you can go to the links and download the song you want to sing from his That’s Amore CD while drinking wine and cooking. You can listen to his hit single, “The Great Magic of Love” on his YouTube channel. The website is www.SingingChef.com.