Way back in the early 1980s, I was a waiter at a hot spot on Manhattan's Upper East Side,

an upscale Italian eatery called DeMarcos, which was, for a time at least, the place to be.

We were serving a new culinary trend, northern Italian cuisine. For so many years in this country, Italian food meant heavy red sauces, meatballs, chicken parmesan. You know, godfather food. Northern Italian, though, was different. Fresher, lighter, creamier. Pasta's handmade, olive oil first pressed, cheeses, you'd never

heard of. I spent a lot of time on that job explaining the food, and of course how it all paired

perfectly with our more expensive wines. This shift, and me, a non-Italian kid, shamelessly explaining

it all to my fellow New Yorkers, marked yet another

moment in the endless progression of Italians coming to America. In this case, one artisanal

ravioli at a time.

Music When the moon hits your eye, like a big a pizza pie, that's Amore.

Yes, that's the classic American crooner,

Dino Paul Crotchetti,

singing his famous

1953 hit,

That's Amore.

And who, you might ask,

was Dino Paul Crocketti?

Why, the one and only

Dean Martin, of course,

Crochetti being his

original family name,

before he changed it for Hollywood.

And it all worked out for Dino, almost as if he was never Italian at all.

...