The Wise Guy Cookbook: My Favorite Recipes From My Life as a Goodfella to Cooking on the Run Paperback – October 1, 2002

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.

Actually, this is a gift but I couldn’t resist reading before I wrapped. The recipes sound delish but the stories/situations related are fun to read. The person I am giving it to has always been intrigued with the Mafia, plus he enjoys cooking. So hopefully this will be the perfect gift!

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.

If you remember the old school "back rooms" in 20th century Italian American Clubs,with the revered and respected cook, expected to make the clam sauce, tripe and otherdelicacies, (when the pot was gone it was gone) just know it's all in here. Sensational memories!

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.

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.

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.

Henry was quite the culinary genius. If you don't have an Italian cookbook it's probably because you were waiting to get this one.

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

Doing Milly’s Meatballs this weekend. Fuhgeddaboutit!(Using Henry’s mum’s sauce recipe too…)

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.

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.

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.