Piscitello leans on lifetime of learning with his Chef in Da House business
When Joe Piscitello makes a bowl of soup, he is telling you his story. It’s about ingredients, flavor, comfort and a lifetime in the kitchen.
Piscitello’s entire career has been centered in restaurants, going back to his childhood watching his Sicilian parents work. From them learned the art of making fresh pasta, and to this day he’s never without fresh sauce. He’s worked in kitchens from Milwaukee to Madison, and during a stint working in the South he learned to appreciate Carolina Gold Rice and hush puppies.
Yet soup is comfort, and his gauge for a good meal. When he needed something to move forward after losing his job during the pandemic, he started there.
Piscitello opened Chef in Da House, becoming a personal chef doing parties and events, while also making soups and selling them. His soups vary daily, though he intends to do fish or vegetarian options each Friday, with a new menu posted every Sunday. To order, go to chefjoepiscitello.com.
Menus are also posted on Facebook. Pickups are in Waukesha, with times coordinated when you order.
Getting started
I grew up in Waukesha, went to St. Joe’s and Catholic Memorial, then Milwaukee Area Technical College for culinary school, worked my way up.
My dad is an immigrant from Sicily. He’s a Carini, those are most of my relatives in Milwaukee. My mom is Sicilian American. We grew up in the restaurant business. I always had a knack for food. I started out delivering pizzas for my family’s restaurant in Mukwonago and I fell in love with it. I had no clue about college, but I knew how to cook.
I went to culinary school. Chef Mary Dess is still at MATC, she was one of my favorite chefs there. I still use her as a reference. Cooking is all I know. In my 20s and 30s I applied for cooking shows, but never went on TV. Now it is all about comfort and more laid back. … I learned about the private chef thing when I was in South Carolina. There was an ad for a private chef for prep work. … We started doing parties for all these famous athletes and people. I took that concept but brought it here, not as expensive.
Current situation
I’m doing about 30 gallons of soup a week, pickup only. I post my menu on Sunday. Every day I have a different soup option, and I have a frozen soup list. People buy five, get one free.
There are gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan, there are some ham and turkey. I like a mixture of everything. I did Mexican street corn with cotija cheese, and I turned it into a soup. Then a shrimp and andouille gumbo. Fridays usually I do something meat-free.
Doing events at people’s houses, that’s fun. People try my soup, they book me for events.
Cooking for others
When I’d go out to eat, I’d always order soup. In culinary school, if you can’t make a soup you can’t crack an egg. I always judged a restaurant by the soup, whether cream soup or broth, I would order it and try it.
If the soup was good, the food had to be good. That’s my philosophy.
First thing he learned
I learned how to make pasta when I was about 10. We grew up in the restaurant. It was making Italian sausage and pizza dough, everything from scratch. Sicilian food is not all tomato based. We use a lot of olive oils and fish. People don’t know what Sicilian food is, really.
Years ago, as a graduation present, in 2000 after culinary school, I went to Porticello (in Sicily). That’s where my dad, Carmelo Carini, is from. I haven’t been there since, but that was a memorable trip. We had some really good street food.
Business background
I opened my own restaurant in Brookfield, Piscitello’s Bistro in Stonewood Village, in 2009. I got crushed because of the recession. That hurt, it was my first restaurant I tried to open. I said no, I don’t want to do this again.
Soups and sauce
My mom always had soup or pasta sauce going on the stove. She’d make a beef soup with neck bones, the small pasta in it. That on top of the stove all day brings back memories. Even today, when I make spaghetti sauce on Sundays, that brings back memories of her.
One recipe he wants to be known for
Arancini. That’s a fun one because not many people can use leftover risotto or even make the risotto. That’s killing two birds with one stone. I make arancini a lot, and I’m going to start selling them.
Hard lesson
A lot of chefs die young, including my friend chef Tom White of Mia Famiglia (and 225 South and Mama’s Distribution and Vinaigrettes). I worked with him, and he died last year, too young. He had the best garden, he was such a good chef. This job is not all glitz and glamour. It is
hard on your body.
Creativity and cooking
A lot of people want to know my favorite dish to cook. I love anything seasonal and anything that gives me a challenge. I do love making pasta. It is also the creativity of working with new fun stuff. When I was working down South, that was fun because I got to learn about things like boiled peanuts and how to fabricate fish. I learned so much. You learn every day in the kitchen.
His comfort food craving
I make all these soups, but I’m really a sandwich guy. My comfort food is turkey, some good brown mustard, good cheese, that’s it, with some chips.
Looking ahead
I don’t want to take on more than I can handle. Chefs will never go hungry. I’ll never be rich, but we’ll always eat.
Fork. Spoon. Life. explores the everyday relationship that local notables (within the food community and without) have with food. To suggest future personalities to profile, email psullivan @gannett.com.