From Naples, Italy, to Naples, Fla., by way of Brooklyn: Chef Rocca continues family tradition of Italian cooking

October 31, 2014 By Palmer Hasty Special to Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Photo courtesy of Peter and Maria Della Rocca.

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Brooklyn native Peter Della Rocca’s Italian cooking heritage goes way back to 1894, when his great grandparents Dominick and Ana Sorvino landed on Ellis Island from Naples, Italy.

The Sorvinos settled in Brooklyn, and within a year started what became a proud, long-standing family tradition of rustic Italian cooking served in their Brooklyn restaurants.

The family restaurant, Pete’s, was located for about 60 years on Myrtle Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn. Today, the Sorvino’s great grandson Peter Della Rocca continues that tradition in Naples, Florida, with his popular, family-style Italian restaurant Parmesan Pete’s. Della Rocca also operates a very successful, high-end private catering service called Peter’s Cuisine.

In a recent interview with the Brooklyn Eagle, Della Rocca discussed his Brooklyn childhood.

“I was born in 1960 on Coney Island Avenue and Church Avenue just south of Prospect Park. We played all the games that were common for Brooklyn kids to play, especially since there were so many Brownstones with stoops — stoop ball was probably the most common. Like other Brooklyn kids I played stick ball and a rough and tumble children’s game called Johnny-On-A-Pony-Buck-Buck. I remember we cut through Prospect Park and came out on the other side on our way to the restaurant on Myrtle Avenue. I was just a child running around the restaurant.”

Della Rocca paused for a second: “Just like my grandkids do now at my restaurant in Naples.”

Would you consider Pete’s a close-knit family business?

“When my grandparents were still alive, the restaurant was open 364 days a year. The only day we closed was Christmas, and the whole family would go back down to the restaurant to have our Christmas together. There would always be about 35 or 40 of us. My grandparents, Rachella and Pietro Della Rocca, had five siblings. So there were five of them with all their kids and their kid’s kids, so yea, we had a very large family.”

Through the years the family restaurant, using Ana Sorvino’s original recipes as the culinary inspiration, was taken over by each subsequent generation. Prior to the Myrtle Avenue location where the restaurant remained as Pete’s for so many years, it was located respectively in Coney Island and the Brooklyn Navy Yard district during the early decades of the 20th century. In the 1970s Della Rocca’s father Dominick and uncle Alphonse moved the restaurant to Bay Ridge and changed the name to Della Rocca’s, where it remained until it finally closed in 1986.

Where did you go to school?

“I went to grammar school at the Berkeley Institute near Grand Army Plaza, then attended the Eastern Military Academy in Huntington, Long Island, for two years.”

When did you start working in the family restaurant?

“When I was 14, I started working in the restaurant in Bay Ridge. Since I was so young, they made me a bus boy,” he said. “I graduated from Fort Hamilton High School when I was 17 and they promoted me to the kitchen. I learned how to cook from my uncle Alphonse. My father, Dominick, ran the front of the restaurant while Alphonse did the cooking.”

Della Rocca worked with Alphonse in the kitchen at Della Rocca’s for about 10 years. When he was 29, and by then married, he decided he wanted his own restaurant, so Della and his wife, Maria, moved to Cranford, New Jersey.

How was life in Jersey?

“I loved New Jersey. We were just starting to have children. We lived in Cranford for about 14 years, which is about as long as I’ve now been living in Naples. I had two Italian restaurants in Jersey — the first one in Somerville, and the second one in Edison. With the first one I was co-owner and executive chef. It was actually an upscale pasta house called Tufoli that we opened in 1993.”

When did you open your own restaurant in New Jersey?

“After a couple of years I wanted my own restaurant, so I left the partnership and opened my restaurant in Edison and called it Alegro. I did what I call contemporary Italian, as opposed to traditional Italian cuisine. All the ingredients were Italian, but from the culinary perspective, I just wanted to be more creative, out of the box so to speak.”

Both of Della Rocca’s restaurants in New Jersey received great reviews and high ratings from The New York Times and Zagat’s. In 1998, two years before Della Rocca moved to Naples, he opened Della Rocca’s Italian Deli and Catering in Westfield, New Jersey. He sold the Deli and Catering business in 2000.

What happened that caused you to move to Naples, Fla.?

“A close friend in New Jersey had bought a restaurant in Naples. He moved me and my family down here to operate the kitchen for him … I had just sold my restaurant and deli business and wanted to try something new. During my fist five years in Naples, I worked as executive chef at Tre Amici, a fine dining Italian restaurant in Naples. Yet owning another catering business, or my own restaurant again, was always in the back of my mind.”

In 2006, Della Rocca located a 1,400-square-foot space in Bonita Springs. He thought it would be perfect for the supplies and prep work needed for a catering business.

So then you started the catering business?

“Yes. I rented the building for two years and created Peter’s Cuisine. Things were real good then — that’s when the economy was thriving. Businesses were booming, it was just a great time to start your own business … and that’s why I jumped into catering,” he said.
“After I got into the 1,400-square-foot space doing Peter’s Cuisine, I also started doing the traditional Italian food, based on our family recipes, which I’m doing now at Parmesan Pete’s. But at that time, it was take out only …. until I found this space in Naples. So now I operate both Peter’s Cuisine and the traditional Parmesan Pete’s from the same location. We have a lot of regular customers, and we do pretty well on Trip Advisor and Yelp, but I’m always working on trying to reach zero complaints.”

Within two years of opening Parmesan Pete’s, he has already received an Award of Excellence from Trip Advisor.

Della Rocca’s father, Dominick, was also born in Brooklyn and raised in the Brooklyn Navy Yard District. Dominick ran the family restaurant when it was in Bay Ridge, and started another family tradition, that is, charity work for disadvantaged children through an organization called Community Mayors.

Do you want to continue your family’s tradition of working with disadvantaged children?

“Yes. I’ve been very successful here in Naples, and I have more time now. My sister Shelley is CEO of the Community Mayors in New York, and I’m thinking maybe I can talk her into moving down here and helping me build a Community Mayors chapter in Naples.”

Even the logo you use today is part of the family tradition isn’t it?

“That’s right. The registered logo I use for Parmesan Pete’s is 100 years old. Originally that was Pete’s logo. That particular logo has been in my family for a very long time — I just added the Parmesan.”