Born of Sicilian parents, Chef Joe “Peppino” Castronovo learned his craft from “Mama Castronovo” while growing up, and has been cooking ever since. His family recipes have served him well over the years as he owned and operated delicatessens, bakeries and Italian restaurants in New York City, the Washington, DC area, and in Greenville, SC. His deli in the Washington, DC area had the distinction of being featured in the February 1978 issue of the Washingtonian Magazine for having the best Italian Deli in the DC area. Peppino was honored by food editor, Robert Shoffner, for his cuisine. Many Italian dishes that were prepared from scratch in the Deli were also sold in local gourmet supermarkets. For the last 22 years, Chef Joe “Peppino” Castronovo created the ambiance of old-world Italy and provided delicious Italian cuisine to the Greenville, South Carolina area at his award-wining restaurant, Peppino’s Italia Restorante. Numerous newspaper articles have been written about Chef Peppino and his restaurant. For the past year, Chef Peppino has been utilizing his culinary skills for his catering and personal chef business, and working on this cookbook to share his legendary cooking skills with the rest of the world.

Joe A. Castronovo has over twenty years of management experience in the food industry. Beginning in his high school years, Joe worked part time in his father’s (Chef Peppino) deli in the Washington DC area. Joe developed a “discriminating taste” for the best of foods. Upon graduating from Clemson University, Joe pursued a career in food management. After eight years of managing chain stores, in 1992 Joe decided to go back to his Italian roots. He first joined forces with his father in his restaurant (Peppino’s Italia Ristorante). Later, he worked in the catering/personal chef business. So the partnership between Chef Peppino and the Maître D' sprang its roots. Maître D' managed the business/front end, while Chef Peppino did the cooking. The Maître D' is now utilizing his extensive experience in the food industry by documenting Chef Peppino’s recipes (which is not an easy task since most good chefs cook by “feel”), testing recipes, giving serving tips and hints, menu planning, and researching and writing articles about the food used in the Mediterranean diet and lifestyle.

Laureen has over 30 year’s administrative experience - as a legal secretary/paralegal, administrative supervisor, and senior administrative specialist. She thought she had retired until Peppino had one of his brainwaves... this website. Because of long-standing health issues (including 25+ years of Rheumatoid Arthritis) and multiple allergies to medications and foods, Laureen read many books about arthritis, subscribed to the Arthritis Foundation, researched the internet – Harvard University, The Lyon Diet Heart Study, Center for Disease Control, New England Journal of Medicine, among others - for answers, and has come full circle. Her research proved what she believed all along – that a poor diet, harried lifestyle and lack of exercise caused most of her health problems. Laureen’s contribution to this cookbook is to see that it includes all that you need to switch to the Mediterranean diet and lifestyle and maintain it for life.

I'm the Greek cousin of the family. I trained as a veterinarian, went into the military and ended up a two star General in the Greek army. People often don't realize just how much veterinary medicine comes into the work of the military. The link between human and animal health has become more and more apparent, and so I thought it quite natural to become chairman of NATO's committee on food safety. Napoleon taught us that an army marches on its stomach; so it's critically important to ensure that the food our troops eat is wholesome and safe. When I left the military, I extended further into the field of food safety and quality, and that's where my interests turned full circle, since the Mediterranean diet on which I was brought up, is now known to be one of the safest and healthiest you can follow. Now what my Italian cousins don't seem to understand is that all their best ideas really came from Greece in the first place...

Mike Castronovo

While doing lots of traveling in the UK, US, and Europe as President and CEO of AMC Infomediaries, I began to realize how difficult it is to get good food.

If only I could get other people to know what my family knows, then I could eat good food wherever I went.

So, I have asked the family to write down what they know, and give this to our tech savvy British cousins to build. Once they get that finished, the next project will be on speaking proper English.

Julian Hilton MA, DPhil

Julian Hilton is from mixed Irish and English stock, with a little distant French Huguenot. Not a promising combination when it comes to fine cooking, unless you count 137 ways to cook, eat and undermine potato... So he is delighted, and relieved, to be able to sample the dishes from Chef Peppino.  Julian is chairman of Aleff Group which means he spends too much time in the air over the Atlantic crossing between group projects and customers. He's hoping Peppino's will soon open its franchise in the sky.

Maugan Hague
I'm the designer and token vegetarian for this little endeavor. Drawing, Flash, CSS2 and cous cous with carrot & broccoli, are my specialties.

Matthias Heie
I'm a web developer and have a background in computer science and linguistics from universities in Norway, Netherlands and Japan. Upon graduation in 2004 from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, I decided to try my luck in London. Not yet accustomed to British cuisine, I was thrown head first into yet another lifestyle project: the Mediterranean kitchen. While first showing some healthy Scandinavian scepticism to the whole idea, my kitchen is now well stocked up on olive oil, sun-dried tomatoes and basil plants.