The Delmonico Way

Bring glamour and style into your home, featuring stories, ideas for entertaining, and seventy-five recipes from the Tuccis, the family that ran Delmonico’s in its golden era. Located in the heart of Wall Street, Delmonico’s shaped New York City’s restaurant scene for more than a century, weathering Prohibition, the stock market crash of 1929, and the whims and demands of a star-studded clientele that included Marilyn Monroe, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and Gypsy Rose Lee. Oscar Tucci, who purchased the restaurant in 1926, is an icon of dining, and his influence can still be seen in how we eat today. In the 1800s, Delmonico’s introduced à la carte dining and white tablecloths to the dining room and created the phenomenon called the “power lunch”; the Tucci family then developed a strict code of hospitality, etiquette, and operations known as the Delmonico Way. With this book, home cooks and fans of the restaurant can draw from this stylish template to create their own unforgettable evenings. Told through the eyes of Oscar’s grandson, Max, who grew up in the family business, The Delmonico Way describes the grand mix of business and pleasure that went on in the front of house and behind the scenes, providing entertaining tips and recipes so you can relive the Tucci’s epic Delmonico’s glamour at home. Each chapter is organized around a style of dining that Delmonico’s pioneered or perfected, so you can host an impressive power lunch (featuring the restaurant’s signature wedge salad); a glamorous cocktail soirée before a night on the town with oysters Rockefeller and shrimp cocktail; and the perfect romantic dinner with a showstopping seafood tower and ribeye Bordelaise for two.