Calling all parents with youngsters who enjoy Italian food and are curious and excited about cooking. Please consider this for a birthday present or simply a nice surprise. Our suggestion? The Frankie Avalon Family Cookbook – From Mom’s Kitchen To Mine And Yours, just published by St. Martin’s Press. Written with easy, no-nonsense language by Frankie Avalon with Rick Rodgers, a publishing consultant for Williams-Sonoma and Tommy Bahama.
Frankie describes 80 meals he grew up with that were prepared by mom Mary, whose recipes remain contained in a gravy-stained composition book guarded by his sister Theresa. Dad was a butcher.
A teen idol during the ’60s, along with South Philadelphia talents such as Bobby Rydell, Frankie launched a musical career at age 13 playing the trumpet on the Perry Como and Jackie Gleason television shows. Destiny led him to singing teen ballads and racking up Billboard chart toppers — Venus and Why and Don’t Throw Away All those Teardrops.
Movies beckoned, with Frankie and Annette Funicello (Fooney, if you will) co-starring in the romantically innocent Beach Blanket party comedies that became summer sensations. Seven, all told, plus a sequel! Here, on our West Coast, they inspired Bay Area theatrical genius, Steve Silver, a former street performer, to create his Beach Blanket Babylon musical revue in 1974 in San Francisco’s North Beach. Year in and year out, it sells out and most likely it will continue beyond eternity.
After losing Steve ten years ago, his wife Jo Schuman took over. Jo’s a great dame who we tagged as Dynamo Jo in our Great Life columns for the Hollywood Reporter.
Beach Blanket Babylon was established long ago as the longest running musical in showbusiness history, featuring, as the San Francisco Chronicle claimed, “a cascade of showstoppers.” Yes, it belongs to the ages, and remains the best fun, a pleasure to view time and again since the cast is ever-changing (we’ll explain later). Bay Area retailing titan Cyril Magnin saw the show 350 times.
Now, about Frankie’s Italian dishes that his eight children and ten grandchildren dote on, prepared by Frankie and Kay, his wife of 50 years, through their “four generations of Avalons.”
The recipes are comfortable. Even subteens, if they can boil pasta, may want to “play,” with some of Frankie’s favorites. Grilled tomato caprese with pesto. Italian tuna salad with arugula. Stuffed eggs with mascarpone, basil and pancetta. Clams oreganata. Bruschetta. Pasta with ceci (chickpeas). Classic fettucine Alfredo. Fettucine with classic lemon sauce. Gnocchi with pesto. Crab marinara. Along with fish and chicken and meat dishes that may be somewhat complex and need more skilled hands down the line. Yes, Frankie includes delicious cookie recipes.
Tradition is the key every Sunday, he says, when he’s not on the road. “Sunday dinner is part of most Italian Americans’ DNA, set aside for families and friends to gather, relax and create memories.”
In truth, a book is not easy to do, and we bravo Frankie for taking the time and effort to share his happy cooking moments. We have a fond history, which he may or may not remember when, during the ’60s, we hosted ABC radio network’s George Christy’s Teen Town, our being the mayor of Teen Town, inviting Frankie and Elvis and Ella Fitzgerald, et alia, for 15-minutes of music and talk. Frankie was delightful. As he is with his culinary life and these drool-worthy menus.
As we noted in an earlier paragraph about Steve Silver’s Beach Blanket Babylon, the cast and costumes (ah, those infamous chapeaux!) keep changing hippety-click. Snow White wanders the world pursuing her Prince Charming, while running into Mr. Peanut, Louis XIV, Carmen Miranda Tina Turner, and dozens more colorful characters, thanks to Steve Silver’s soaring imagination. Also lately updated with “Snow” meeting up with spoofs of Donald Trump and Oprah Winfrey. And it had to happen with Caitlyn Jenner parodying Peggy Lee’s I’m a Woman – W-O-M-A-N! sung by a man in drag (Stephen Brennan).
Not to be missed. Adults may imbibe throughout the show. At 678 Beach Blanket Blvd in North Beach, San Francisco. Telephone: 415-421-4222.