John Catucci is eating his way across Canada and the States for another run of You Gotta Eat Here, but with the addition of a visit to Italy in the show’s fifth season, there’s a place at each table he wishes he could fill.
“I had a dream about him yesterday,” says Catucci, recalling his late father, who brought his wife from Puglia to Toronto to start a family. “It woke me up crying, almost. It’s still very raw at times. My dad never got to see the show. I never got to spoil him.”
Although he promises plenty of impromptu Catucci shenanigans at several new restaurants throughout North America, the popular host says he was more pensive this time around, wondering what his dad would have gotten up to during the show’s adventures in Florence and Rome.
“In another life, he would have been a chef. He was a tailor by trade, but he loved to cook. He was the kind of guy where if you came to his house and you weren’t hungry, he was offended. He was upset if he couldn’t feed you. I’d bring friends or girlfriends over and tell them, ‘Just eat. It’s a lot easier if you just eat.’ He could taste something [at a restaurant] and then make it for you.”
Before he became a mainstay on The Food Network Canada, Catucci was a prominent sketch comedy writer and performer, winning several awards as one of the politically incorrect Doo Wops with David Mesiano. He says he owes a lot of his success to his television addiction as a child.
“My parents came to Canada in the 60s. I grew up in a condo. I was a condo kid. I grew up watching a lot of TV. It’s funny when friends ask me about an Italian household – did we make our own wine, did we make our own pasta. I’m, like, ‘No. We didn’t have a cantina. It’s not like my dad was curing meats in my closet.’”
By the time The Doo Wops were making a name for themselves, producers at The Food Network Canada had big plans for “the Catooch.”
“I was writing and performing all that time, from over 16 years ago, and I knew the producers just from working in Toronto. They wanted someone for the show who wasn’t a chef but who could have fun, not take anything too seriously, and talk to people. Some of these chefs became chefs so they didn’t have to talk. They also like somebody who doesn’t have preconceived notions of what ingredient A and ingredient B would bring to a final dish. Just somebody who would go, ‘Oh I like this and these are the reasons why.’”
It’s a skill he learned early on in a family where he was spoiled by his parents and two sisters (“I thought my room just cleaned itself when I left for school”), and mealtime was an event.
“Eating, in my house, is a big deal, especially the Sunday meal. Growing up, everyone came over and my dad spent hours making a ragu. Those kinds of meals are very emotional. It’s not just filling your belly, it’s filling your soul. Those are the moments that really stand out when I’m shooting the show – when you go to a place and it feels like family. It’s never just about the food; it’s about the feeling. Our show is basically covering comfort food, in whatever style and form that is. You’re eating your feelings, and sometimes that’s a large burger, sometimes that’s a plate of pasta, sometimes it’s a bowl of ramen, sometimes it’s fish ‘n’ chips. Hey, sometimes your feelings are just a grilled cheese.”
While the episodes in Italy air April 8 here in Canada, Catucci will already be visiting restaurants in London and Dublin for new shows. He says he loves a European experience because it’s more laid back. Although, in Italy, he spiked the chill vibe with too much caffeine.
“It was such an amazing experience – growing up on Italian food, so already loving it, but also trying stuff that’s just so fresh because it’s all seasonal. It’s totally different. I had been off of coffee for two and a half years, because I had been drinking too much and it was making me edgy. But when I went to Italy, I was, like, ‘I have to have an espresso.’ So the first day I and one espresso. I was okay; I was good. The second day, two espressos… I’m okay. I’m good. Third day? Six espressos. I was lying on my bed, ‘Why? Why? Why can’t I sleep? My heart is palpitating!’ But it was so delicious. Every moment of that trip was just breathtaking.”
On days when the crew wanted to live by a production schedule, Italy told them who was boss.
“In Canada you’re used to sitting down in a restaurant, and within 30 seconds of sitting down somebody’s coming over to say hello to you. And then there’s the water, this and that – it’s a quick in and out. Over there you sit down and you’re lucky if someone comes to your table within 10 minutes. It’s a way of saying, ‘Yeah. I know you’re there. Chill out. Relax.’ Our lunch breaks, when we’re shooting, are only an hour long. They were looking at us, like, ‘What the fuck is an hour? Not going to happen. It’ll be two hours. Maybe.’”
And will a return to the writer’s room produce any new, irreverent songs from our beloved Doo Wops?
“David and I just got together for the first time in about three and a half years. We did the Toronto Sketch Fest. That was a great experience. I miss it so much. It was nice to get back on stage. We both had a good time. We’ll see what happens.”
