Customer Reviews

A Meal to Die For: A Culinary Novel of Crime

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was filled with such excitement and anticipation that I couldn't put it down. The setting is present day Brooklyn with flashbacks of Brooklyn in the "good old days". In fact, many of the places mentioned in his book brought back fond memories of my childhood. It's an adventure filled with dreams, reality and the will to overcome adversity. I can't vouch for the recipes at the beginning of every chapter though, but I will try some of them. Pretty good effort for a first-time writer and a Sopranos star. I look forward to reading a second book!

book flowed well, interesting recipes , funny story, very sopranoish in the diologue, loved it, highly recommend it, enjoy

I bought this for my husband because he is such a big Soprano fan, but I wound up reading it in two days, loved the food, and the story, I know he will too, as will other readers

I picked this book up quite by random and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It's a quick, yet delightful, read!

I picked up a copy of 'A Meal To Die For' the other day while in route from Los Angeles to New York, having placed some great expectations on Joseph Gannascoli since I have eaten Joe's delightful cooking, and knowing Joseph, have always been engaged by his giant, inviting charisma. Well, to my delight (and to my appetites dismay . . . as I had a six hour flight on my hands), 'A Meal To Die For' delivered a fun and engaging read unique in the craft of storytelling since there were wonderful culinary delights to draw from in book. The idea of the plot line brought me back to the cult classic film 'The Chef, The Wife, The Thief, and The Lover . . . except my own visuals of the character movement were easily identifiable with as a New Yorker. Overall, Joe Gannascoli offers a delightful novel that readers will truly savor every little morsal of. If you're like me, and you love to eat and read at the same time, then open this book, turn through the pages to a dish you fancy, run to the nearest grocery store and buy all the necessary ingredients, get back to your house, open a nice bottle of wine, and then start cooking and eating till your heart (and stomach) is content!!!

''l love you Johnny Cakes'' is what Joey G. is best known for. But after reading this book, you'll think you're on the 0rient Express chasing a killer than a bed & breakfast in New Hampshire chasing a hunky biker with a knack for making that special breakfast. Now that ''Fat Vito'' is dead, maybe Joey G. will become the next Mickey Spillane.

Not so good. I bought it for 3 reasons, my husband is an Italian-American, I love to cook and I love the Sopranos. Dissapointing.

I am not a mob fan; I don't really like the characters and the violence much, but I got this because I've been on a culinary mystery jag and it got good ratings. Well. I'm really glad I did. This was a great story -- well-written, interesting and fun to read. Ironically, the recipes were not that much of interest -- more gourmet and difficult to make than those I gravitate toward. But the story construction and storytelling were superb, and I enjoyed this book very much.

It's the story of Benny Lacoco, a natural chef who turns his talents to cooking, and fencing, for the mob. As the story unfolds we gradually learn about his career and his personal history, all leading up to this night, the night he must prepare and serve a remarkable meal for unknown guests -- guests who turn out to be criminal associates. Benny comes to believe that one of those present has been fingered as the rat who got their capo 10-20 years in jail, and that the meal will end badly for one of the attendees. It could even be him. When you live a life of crime, no one's hands are clean ....

This was skillfully written. I'd read another by this author.

"A Meal to Die For" is truly facsinating! This book is top notch. I had the honor of meeting Mr. Joseph Gannascoli in person at the Golden Age of Gangsters Convention in Chicago.

Mr. Gannascoli is a very nice gentleman and a huge star on the HBO television series, the Sapranos. One of my favorite shows. I highly recommend this book! Good Reading! Thank you.

Review from Tony Stewart, author of Dillinger, The Hidden Truth. Contact at email: JohnnieDillinger@aol.com

..the story drags..In a nutshell the story is as follows;Benny,theleading charecter is both a gourmet chef and a wiseguy..He has been instructed to single-handedly cater a dinner for a gathering of mobsters..One or more of them may be "rats" in a government sting operation that has resulted in the conviction of a top underboss..All of them may have secrets they would not want revealed which,if revealed may incur the wrath of the higher ups..
From this interesting premise we might expect a plotline in which,little by little,clues are given which would allow us to guess the identity of the rat(s) but this is not what happens...Instead we get a whole lot of aimless conversation over dinner,a lot of unrelated back-story about how Benny became both a chef and a wiseguy,and at the end of the tale a very unsatisfying conclusion ..The only,and I do mean only thing this book has going for it are the recepies for all of the various courses served by Benny to the assembled mobsters,but these take up about ten pages of the book,while the rest is devoted to spinning this aimless and often boring storyline.
The author played a hit man in the HBO show"The Sopranos",and all of his co-stars seem to have liked the book,in that quite a few of them wrote glowing reviews,which were quoted on the dust-jacket..No authentic critic wrote any such glowing praise for the book,so we may consider the reviews written by "Soprano" co-stars to be gifts rather than honest apprasials of the book's worth