We're two Sicilian boys from Texas who love to cook and eat. We love the Sicilian food our parents and grandparents cooked. We love the Creole and Southern food our family members picked up passing through Louisiana and stepping off the boat right on the dock in Galveston. And we love the Western food that's just part of being in Texas.

Food, you see, isn't only about food. It's not some big secret. It's something that just happens when all of our interconnected families get together-the Carrabbas and the Mandolas, plus anybody with enough good sense to marry in. You may be poor, went the saying a mere generation ago, but you'll never be hungry.

Food is part of us because that's how we were raised; food was present at births, christenings, weddings, graduations and funerals. Food is what reminded us we were family. To this day, whenever one family member meets another and starts talking about something or someplace, the first question has to be, "Whadya eat?"

TO MY MAMMA, GRACE, THE GREATEST COOK I EVER KNEW, WHO NOT ONLY TAUGHT ME THE BASICS OF GOOD COOKING, BUT ALSO THE IMPORTANCE OF HAVING FAMILY GATHER AT THE TABLE, OFTEN.
DAMIEN MANDOLA
Our Gulf Coast experience is about the place where all of our ancestors came to build their lives. They called it America! And they didn't just mean Ellis Island, or Little Italy in New York, or the North End of Boston or South Philly. They meant the whole damn place, wherever it began