New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Couple whips up Wooster Street Facebook group
MADISON — Pete Leonetti is an unassuming lead custodian at Kathleen H. Ryerson Elementary School , but on Facebook he and his delectable daily dinners made by wife, Karen, are superstars viewed by hundreds or maybe even thousands of people each day.
It started on the popular “Wooster Square Cooks” Facebook group of nearly 30,000 members, but now the Leonettis have started their own Facebook group, “Karen and Pete’s Wooster Street Family.”
Their new group went up Sept. 5 and already they have more than 2.300 fans from all over the country and world. The Leonettis were such a force and presence that some left the “Wooster Square Cooks.” Others stayed members of both groups.
“It’s liberating. I should have done this all along.
But I’m 64 and not that tech savvy,” Karen Leonetti said of creating her own group. “For some reason, people like Karen and Pete. I want people to feel they can talk about whatever they want to talk about. People enjoy being in a happy place.”
Karen Leonetti contributed often to “Wooster
Square Cooks,” sharing recipes and other expertise, stories from hers and Pete’s rich Italian heritage and Wooster Street connections. But she really found a niche in her postings several days a week of a smiling Pete sitting at the table behind a beautifully presented feast with the words, “Tonight, my Pete,” gets “lobster, corn on the cob, fresh cucumber and tomato salad, cherries and cherry pie” — or stuffed salmon in puff pastry, broccoli rabe, Bolognese lasagna with homemade lasagna noodles and Bechamel sauce.
Or one of any number of mouth-watering main courses and side dishes.
Karen Leonetti since has changed the phrase “My Pete” to “Our Pete” at the suggestion of a fan, because after all, Pete in some way belongs to all of them now.
As basic as the Pete dinner posts are, they continue to engage the audience. Some ask ahead of time what Pete will be having for supper; wives tell Leonetti their husbands see Pete’s dinners and ask them to make the same; others write, “Pete’s a lucky guy,” and everyone wants to know how Pete stays trim. Moderation is the answer, she said.
Karen Leonetti feels there’s a strong connection between love and food.
“When you see someone enjoying food that someone else makes, I think that’s the epitome of love,” she said.
The couple was going strong in “Wooster Square Cooks” — a wildly popular group focused on cooking and food but a disagreement arose about posting items, Karen Leonetti said.
Personally, Sonny Martone, an administrator of “Wooster Square Cooks,” said, “I’m so happy Karen and Pete started their own group, that’s exactly what they needed to do. We wish them great success.”
He said “Wooster Square Cooks” gets about 150 new members each week since it was started two years ago.
Karen and Pete fans are a plenty after they started the new group.
MaryBeth Bernacchia of North Branford said she “loves” the new FB Facebook group – that it’s personal, full of stories of tradition.
“I loved reading about what she was making for ‘Her Pete’ for dinner every night and got a lot of great ideas for dinners for ‘my Dennis’ who can’t boil water,” Bernacchia said. “I love that they write about the old-time Italian foraging for mushrooms and dandelions just like my parents did. Their whole FB group brings me back to stuff my parents did like having a grape arbor in the yard, picking peaches and soaking them in wine. …
It’s very nostalgic for me.”
She said a sister who lives in Los Angeles is in the group, too, and sometimes they get “weepy” reminiscing based on Karen Leonetti’s posts.
She said it’s also nice that the group sends “good wishes and prayers up when a member is sick or has a tragedy in their family.”
Fan Sissy Izzo said she first encountered the Leonettis on “Wooster Square Cooks,” and that Karen has “inspired many newbie cooks.”
“When Karen started the new site, I jumped at the chance. It is so refreshing to share recipes, trade stories, it almost like visiting friends over coffee,” Izzo said. “Many friends I have for over 50 years also joined and it was so good to catchup. Karen is devoted to her Pete.”
Dorian Sette Bauknecht, a longtime follower of Karen and Pete, said Karen Leonetti is an amazing cook and it’s clear “her Pete” enjoys eating the food.
“Karen is quick to share her recipes with everyone. Karen and Pete are proud of their delicious recipes and traditions and enjoy sharing with others,” Bauknecht said. “She has posted pictures of them at the beach taking their Vespas for a spin or enjoying time with with their son, Pete Jr. Karen and her family truly enjoy life and enjoy sharing their adventures with us, her extended family on Facebook.”
Romance going strong
Both Karen, whose maiden name is Rapuano, and Pete are of Italian descent. He was born in Italy and came here with his parents at 8 months old, as they were told “the streets are paved with gold.”
He grew up in New Haven, she in North Haven.
They met in their early 20s while working at the old Whiskey River Saloon on Crown Street in New Haven where she was a bartender, he a bouncer.
There was instant chemistry and when he was injured after their first date she told her boss she had to go to the hospital because she was interested in Pete. At the same time, he had told a friend, “If she’s outside that door (at the hospital) then she’s the girl for me.”
He was just winding down a competitive bodybuilding period during which he earned the titles “Mr. Teen USA” (twice), “Mr. Connecticut,” “Mr. Northeastern America” and “Mr. East Coast.”
Karen Leonetti said Pete had the biggest legs in Connecticut and when he was visiting Gold’s Gym in California, Mr. Universe recognized him by his legs.
The couple now have two grown sons and she is a semi-retired X-ray technician, he is head custodian of at Ryerson.
She said Pete is such a nice guy that Ryerson dedicated the yearbook to him.
“Every day is a date for us,” she said. “I always dress nice, fix my hair and makeup, fix supper. To me, every night is date night.”
Cooking early
Karen Leonetti, one of five children and “always starving,” said she developed an interest in cooking as a child and vowed that she would always cook nice meals for her family.
Judging by Pete’s publicly posted meals some five days a week, she’s more than fulfilled that promise.
Karen said her grandmother was her “oasis” and taught her to cook, then later she “paid attention” to Pete’s mother in the kitchen.
She said the iconic Wooster Street is held dear in her life because her greatgrandmother had a farm of hundreds of acres in Branford and every day she drove the horse and wagon to Wooster Street to sell goods.
The Facebook group
While her new group is highly food-focused, it’s also a place for personal sharing and has a have a broader mission. “Mean” comments won’t be allowed and the goal is for members to be supportive of one another, she said.
“My main focus is cooking, family, kids, grandkids,” she said. “I want my page to feel like community, like family. I want people to feel included, important and appreciated for who they are.”
She also includes posts for good causes, including, so far, rescue dogs and mammograms.
“We’re forming a community of like minds that enjoy being together in our part of the world,” she said.
Karen Leonetti has always had an interest in people’s stories and that played out in her job as an X-ray technician.
“I always said, when I bring a patient into the room after five minutes, I knew everything about their life, they knew everything about mine,” she said. “People have always fascinated me.”
She’s so popular on Facebook that she gets a multitude of private messages from readers.
Some people confide about illness, financial problems — and one woman said she and her husband were filing for divorce, but decided to give the marriage another try because they were so inspired by the Karen and Pete love story they saw play out before their eyes.