The Wise Guy Cookbook: My Favorite Recipes From My Life as a Goodfella to Cooking on the Run

Goodfellas is my favorite movie of all time, so when I heard that Henry Hill had written a cookbook, I knew I had to have it. I just received it a couple of days ago and I can already tell it's going to be good, because in his basic tomato sauce recipe, he doesn't use sugar. YES! I love this guy. My dad is half Sicilian and so I had a lot of good Italian food growing up, and my dad NEVER put sugar in his tomato sauce. I've seen probably trillions of tomato sauce recipes around the web and they all have sugar in them. Yuck. So, this is how I know this book is legit, because he cooks like my dad. And there are some recipes in there of stuff my dad makes that I never learned how to cook, so I'm super excited that I will finally be able to do so. Update: I've cooked several things from this book for my boyfriend and I. The standard tomato sauce: very good and our apartment smelled like garlic for a couple of days, which I personally really like. Meatballs: SO good, by far the best meatball I've ever cooked. And finally I made a whole chicken with garlic and herbs stuffed under the skin. I forget which recipe that was, but the flavor was delicious. This book is definitely worth buying, and these recipes are legit amazing.

Although a fan of 'Good Fellas' (both book and film), I have to admit to being initially quite skeptical as to the authenticity and quality of the recipes. However, after cooking several of them and reading all of them, there are a great deal of similarities between Henry's recipes and many that were passed down to me from my Calabrian grandmother. I attribute that to the initial source and genesis of and for most of Henry's recipes being from his Sicilian mother. This is a VERY GOOD cookbook to have as the recipes are uncomplicated and adaptable to one's own particular tastes, without compromising the intent of the dish (which is consistent with authentic Italian cooking). Definitely recommend.

Up until Henry Hill, Giada DeLaurentis wrote my favorite recipes. While my favorite North Italian recipes come from Giada, my favorite Sicilian Italian recipes definitely come from Henry Hill. Awesome cookbook; I especially loved the cooking hints he interspersed throughout the book. Even the non-cooking stories were enjoyable. Most of all, I could tell this man loved to cook and knew what he was talking about. This cookbook contained simple recipes that didn't require a lot of specialized shopping. I bought this for my son as a birthday gift and was so impressed, I bought one for myself. You will not be disappointed if you purchased "The Wiseguy Cookbook". It's a great investment.

I was lured by the name and looking for authentic recipes...what I found was a treasure chest of stories, advice, techniques...from a guy who had access to the best ingredients...and then was in the middle of nowhere....loved the Goodfellas story so this was like part two....it's a collection of vintage food and folklore that I'm thrilled to have found.

This is a very interesting read. It has some good Italian recipies in it and some cooking tips but honestly, the best part of the book was reading the little snippets of writing which relate to both cooking and Hill's life in/out of the mob. These are unfortunately too brief but if you skip over the recipies and just read the little anecdotes, it pretty much reads like an update post-Goodfellas. There is information about what Hill's life was like after ratting and going into the witness protection program. You learn about the places he lived such as Kentucky where he had access to lots of fresh vegetables and got himself into a bit of trouble at the racetrack. Iowa where Hill went crazy because he couldn't find any good Italian groceries and hated the US Marshall assigned to him. He lived in Seatle where he came to appreciate fresh fish and seafood with his friends who thought he was in the CIA because of his witness protection lifestyle. He also tells a few anedctodes about cooking in prison with his friends ... and running the pizza shop near the cab stand while growing up. Interestingly, Hill owned several restaurants including one across the street from the Lufthansa cargo dock at the airport, which is how he learned about the Lufthansa heist, which became one of the highest grossing crimes in the United States. The book is an easy read because the anecdotes are such fun to read. It is clear that Henry Hill knows a thing or two about cooking ... he talks a lot about which authentic ingredients to buy. But a cool part of the book is he writes it about someone who lived his life 'on the run' so he had to substitute ingredients for the ones he knew such as Italian herbs he couldn't find ... or how to substitute cheaper cuts of meat for the good stuff. (which he used in his restaurants in order to skim money.) While you may take a thing or two away in terms of recipies or tips about cooking Italian food ... you probably would be better off to buy this book for the little stories in between which talk of Henry's life as it relates to cooking.

I absolutely love Goodfellas and now I can cook like the wise guys that I loved in the movie. I bought a copy for my brother for his birthday and I know that he is going to love it too.

Im not a gourmet, and im about as far from Italian as you can get. I am however a huge fan of Italian cuisine and have sampled it coast to coast in many parts of the country (no im not talking about Olive Garden..im talking about Italian food..:)) Maybe its the satisfaction of creating ones own meal, or imagining what it would have been like to grow up in Brooklyn while the smell of mom's "sunday gravy" on the stove (Henry is a good storyteller). Who knows, but I can honestly say I have yet to have an italian meal...and ive had many...that surpass the recipes in this book. Equal with once or twice...but never better. One's delicious is another's un-appealing, but for me, these recipes are my reference for great italian. Highly recommended whether you know (or care) who Henry Hill is or not.

Fue un regalo para mi esposo y ya hizo su primer receta.

If you love Goodfellas, then you'll love this book. And even if you don't love Goodfellas, you'll probably still love this book. I admit that I haven't made any of the recipes yet, but I am too busy at the moment enjoying the story of Henry's love of food, right from how he used to help his mother in the kitchen, to slicing garlic with a razor blade in prison (the way his mother used to do it), to cooking on the run. Henry Hill's passion for food just oozes off the page and it's great to have a recipe book that combines a good culinary story with some really great sounding recipes. I was going to knock off a star for not having pictures, but now Im not going to because it is a really great book. Overall a really good Authentic Italian American cookbook. Think I'll make myself some Sunday Gravy and put on the film.

I see some reviews state that the recipes in the book are not authentic, but everyone's grandmother had a variation. Henry gives an acceptable range of "American Italian" dishes interspersed with humerous anecdotes. As far as the recipes go, I made the Oven Baked Polenta first and it was heaps easier than the stovetop method, (less likely to get burnt while stirring too.) last night I made the Baked Sausage in Tomato Sauce that is in the Prison Section and it is 5 Star cuisine... Supurb. Worth the price of the book. I've been making tomato sauce for decades, but I will only use this method in the future. I don't know if I just got lucky with the sausages, but I'm an experienced, certified, classically commercial cook with over 40 years of experience. The sauce was stunning... Looking forward to making EVERY dish in the book.

When I picked up this cookbook it was for the novelty value. I thought it would make a good prize on my website, but I wanted to test it out first and I am glad I did. Every recipe from the book turned out spectacularly well. Plenty of recipe books will give you recipes that taste good or even great, but fall down, especially with those of us residing in Japan, with ingredients that are too hard to get. There are a few recipes in here that were not really practical for Japan, but a good 90% of them were and the others could be managed for special occasions. I don't give 5-star ratings or write reviews, but I am happy to do both for The Wiseguy Cookbook.

It took some time for this book to be shipped but I'll tell you something, it was worth the wait. The premise of this book is fantastic. Henry Hill (RIP) was a gangster, he loved the life but he also had a love for great old fashioned Italian cooking. This book combines the two together in perfect harmony with Henry explaining his upbringing in the mob and how food played an immense part in that as well as later on when he entered the WPP, didn't have access to lavish ingredients he previously had access to and how he accommodated for that by still making great dishes with what he could get his hands on. Anyone who has had the pleasure of watching Goodfellas, a film depicting Henry's life in the mob, would see that even in the film they make a point to show how important food was in Henry's life and in the mob as a whole. It's a ritual. This book contains a wealth of great recipes ranging from classics brought forth by his Grandmother and Mother as well as Henry's own recipes from later on in his life. The recipes are intermingled with stories from Henry about his upbringing, life in the mob, his eventual downfall, where they all originated from as well as Henry's own tips about timing and ingredients. I've been wanting to pick this title up for quite some time and I'm glad I finally did. Thanks to Amazon Canada for making this available and at a great price. My recommendation is that anyone who loves to cook as well as anyone looking for a compelling story should have this book in their collection as it delivers on both fronts.