Thou Shalt Not Steal Stromboli Pizza Sauce NYC

From the Food and Travel Nation Archives
Original Airdate:  6/16/2012

Thou Shalt Not Steal Stromboli Pizza Sauce NYC

It’s Sunday which means we make sauce in our house. You can find my mother’s meatball recipe here and my sauce recipes and basic pasta here. This week on Food Nation Radio Network we came across a story. Italians can be protective of their sauce recipes.

Two families in New York went to blows over sauce and pizza recipes used at L&B Spumoni Gardens in Brooklyn. Frank Russo, a former Columbo mafia mob boss, accused an associate of the Bonanno family. Eugene Lombardo was accused of stealing the pizza sauce recipe from the popular L&B restaurant. Lombardo’s sons were employees of L&B. They gave Lombardo access to the food storage area in the restaurant. Then, he was caught looking at the flour they use to make pizza.

Russo along with associates, Francis Guerra and Frank Iannaci went to the rival restaurant, The Square in Staten Island, to confront Lombardo. At the restaurant was a sign that read, “L&B-Style Pizza”. Thereafter, a confrontation ensued, culminating in Iannaci slapping Lombardo because Thou Shalt Not Steal Stromboli Pizza Sauce NYC!

After that, money was exchanged for use of the recipes. As a result, Guerra is now on trial for extortion. Source: Daily Mail.

About elizabethd

Elizabeth Dougherty has been cooking and writing about food intensively for more than ten years. She is the fourth generation of chefs and gourmet grocers in her family with her mother, Francesca Esposito and grandmother, Carmella being major influences in her early cooking years. As a teenager, her family sent her to Europe where she became focused on French and Italian cuisine. She survived a year and half of culinary tutelage under a maniacal Swiss-German chef and is a graduate of NYIT, Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor’s degree in Hospitality, Business and Labor Relations. Food Nation Radio has won two news awards for content. Broadcasting LIVE each week, nationwide, on FoodNationRadio.com and stations around the country.

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