My latest food fanatic doc is about the sordid true story of Penne Alla Vodka. It has just won the inaugural Bob Saget Gold Medal Award for Best Comedy and Humor at this year’s Taste Awards (it’s the Academy Awards for Food and Travel … just saying).

It’s my fourth Taste Award (I won for my previous doc Italy In Bocca and my piece about the Oldest Restaurant in the World Sobrin de Botin) but this one was truly special. I met some of my absolute idols, including Lidia Bastianich who I obsess over.

You can read all about how “Lidia Bastianich, Al Roker and Roberto Serrini win big at the 2023 Taste Awards bringing new flavor to food programming” in this little press release;)

BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 13: (L-R) Paul Storck, Matt Goldman, Jackie Serrini and Roberto Serrini attend the 14th Annual Taste Awards at the Writers Guild Theater on March 13, 2023 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Amanda Edwards/Getty Images)

“It’s really wonderful to be honored for this film. Our goal was to make something fun that inspires people to go have their own food adventure, and prove you don’t need to be famous, or have celebrity, or even money to celebrate what food does great; bringing people together. “

It was such a rewarding project to dedicate passion to and I thank everyone that donated their time and passion along with me. Chef Gaetano Arnone who has always been a brother to me, Chef Pasquale Cozzolino who has always been a great friend and source of inspiration, Chef JJ who inspired me from the start, Chef Jae who absolutely made me think about flavor in a whole new way and of course Chef Jeremy Spector who’s been with me from the begining when we used to go around asking chefs to make us sandwiches.

There is of course my friend Atef the queen of spice and curator of SOS Chefs, the magic elixir makers of Kings County Distillery and my pasta peeps in Queens, Cassinelli’s. There’s my Picture Farm Production Family and Paul Stork from UTA who have helped me evolve the concept as well. There are many more that helped make this possible, but what makes me so happy is that we all did it for the magic food has to bring us together.

In reality it’s my mom I have to thank for all of this, really, everything. I mean besides giving me life which kinda set the stage, she is the one that taught me everything that made me fall in love with food. She’s the one that always showed love through food as well. I was very lucky to have the mom I do. Thanks, ma.

So what’s next? Well, Tribeca is in site which is exciting. After that we can release the film for everyone to enjoy. Perhaps best, we’re developing it into a series with UTA, so hopefully there will be a lot more tasty for a hungry audience.