Red Sauce Redemption: Chef overcomes opiate addiction to live a dream
It’s a Saturday morning at a crowded Carnegie diner, and over the clanging din of plates and silverware, harried servers yakking with customers and short-order cooks tending to the hissing bacon and eggs frying on the griddle, Frank Vitale sits in a booth and lays out his recipe for life.
“It’s eight ingredients: olive oil, crushed plum tomato, dry basil, garlic, onion, carrots, salt and pepper,” he says in a voice that’s equally raspy and nasally, like Ray Liotta with a Pittsburgh accent.