Mark Rotella hosts "Red Sauce," A Television Documentary Streaming Series Highlighting Italian American Cuisine
Students at Montclair State University have been creating a documentary television series focused on Italian American cuisine, airing on the school's new streaming service, Hawk+. The first episode of "Red Sauce: An Italian American Culinary Journey," premiered in October last year with two more episodes set to be released this spring.
Mark Rotella, author of Stolen Figs: And Other Adventures in Calabria and director of the Coccia Institute, serves as host of the program. In the series, Rotella speaks to the history, cuisine and impact of Italian Americans in the locations across northern New Jersey.
(Photo Credit: Therese Sheridan)
The debut episode of the series took Rotella to Patsy's in Paterson, New Jersey where the same family has been serving pizza to the local Italian American community since 1931.
Paterson had long been home to textile mills powered by the great Paterson Great Falls. When Italian immigrants began arriving in northern New Jersey, they worked in textile mills as weavers and dye workers. In Paterson, the immigrants primarily arrived from Avellino, Naples, and Basilicata.
Restaurants like Patsy's became a gathering place for immigrant workers, Rotella explains in the episode. Rotella met up with Patsy's current owner, Stever Barbarulo, grandson of the restaurant's founder.
Pasquale "Patsy" Barbarulo, who was born in Italy, founded Patsy's as a private men's club - partially because Prohibition prevented bars from openly serving alcohol like beer and red wine. Back then, the tavern's menu was limited to pizza and mussels in red sauce, explains Barbarulo.
Patsy's menu hasn't changed very much since those early days. The tavern still serves calamari in red sauce, rather than fried mussels, and pizza. However, the current menu has adapted to the changing times like the addition of arancini. Of course, there’s a full selection of pasta, meatballs and veal parmigiana.
(Photo Credit: Gabriella Socio)
"We don't do pizza with pineapple," Barbarulo joked with Rotella in the episode.
In April of 2022, Montclair State University launched their digital streaming service, Hawk+. The platform aggregates content at the school through the School of Communication and Media. At that moment, Rotella saw an opportunity to highlight Italian American food history.
Rotella first pitched "Red Sauce '' as a longer form documentary film. With the launch of Hawk+, the concept for the show evolved into a shorter form. The show is filmed and produced entirely by students at the University. Their goal is to film one or two episodes per semester.
Another reason Rotella initially proposed the series was to document the region's food traditions, especially as many of the Italian restaurants in New Jersey closed as a result of global pandemic.
"For me it's all about the food. But also the history, the culture, what Italians gave -- how they assimilated through food, what food means to them, and how they transformed Italian food into its own thing," Rotella explained. He hopes to look beyond northern New Jersey as well to find food stories in Italian neighborhoods like Philadelphia or the Bronx and beyond.
The series aims to integrate history alongside the food to highlight Italian American accomplishments and contributions in the region.
"By bringing in the history, then you get a better, more in depth idea of what the food means."
Rotella has been director of Coccia Institute at Montclair State University since September of 2020. The institute advances Italian American culture through programming, education, and research. It was named in honor of Joseph Coccia, Jr. and his wife Elda.
Speaking with Rotella it is obvious he has a deep love for Italian American cuisine.
"I grew up in Florida. We didn't have a big Italian community," Rotella explained, "What we did have was Italian food."
The first episode of Red Sauce featuring Paty's is available to stream now for free on Hawk+. More episodes are set to launch this spring. Production is already wrapped up on the second episode where Rotella visits Laico's in Jersey City. The fifty-year-old, family-owned restaurant features fine dining, something of a contrast to the tavern from the first episode. The third episode is likely to feature a bakery. Stay tuned for more to come.
You can watch Episode 1 on YouTube now!