My Restaurant Pots
Back in the 1940s, when I was a kid
growing up in Bristol, Connecticut, my father, Alfonso Sr., worked the night
shift at a local factory. Despite my mother’s efforts to prepare healthy meals
for him, certain foods just didn’t sit well with him—no matter how carefully
she cooked. Hoping to help, she purchased new aluminum pans, thinking that
might solve the problem. But it didn’t.
Around that time, my grandmother
hosted a home demonstration by a salesman from Lifetime Stainless Steel
cookware. My mother attended and brought home a plate of food prepared during
the demo for my dad to try. Lo and behold—it agreed with him! That was the
turning point. My parents promptly tossed the aluminum pots and pans, bought a
set of Lifetime Stainless Steel cookware, and my dad even took on a side job
selling those very pots and pans!
From that moment on, stainless steel
became a fixture in our family’s kitchen—and it still is. To this day, we have some Lifetime Stainless Steel pots in our home along with other stainless steel ones. By the way, the Lifetime company is still in business
more than 70 years later.
When I entered the restaurant
business, I carried that tradition with me. Everything in our kitchen was
cooked using stainless steel. Our tomato sauce—made by the gallons—was simmered
in a massive, standalone stainless steel cooker. Even our sauté pans were
stainless. I took great pride in giving customers kitchen tours, showing off
our gleaming sauce cauldron.
I’ve always believed that tomato
sauce should never be cooked in aluminum, as is still common in many
restaurants (just take a peek behind that kitchen door). Aluminum can react
with the citric acid in tomatoes, leaching metal into the food—something I was
not willing to serve. I didn’t want to put aluminum in our food.
I encourage my readers to do their homework about cookware. There are many options out there—but ask yourself: what do you want your family eating out of?
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