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A Catered Affair on Stage

What’s cooking at Hartford’s TheaterWorks?

Plenty.

The last time the stove-top burners were on high at the theater was in 2012 for the world premiere of I Lived, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti, Jacques Lamarre’s hit stage adaptation of Giulia Melucci’s memoir, which combined tales of romantic woes with comfort from making pasta and sauce from scratch.

Audience members in the front section even got to taste the finished goods.

In Lamarre’s new stove-to-stage adaptation, The Raging Skillet, which has its world premiere Thursday, July 20 to Sunday, Aug. 27 at TheaterWorks, it’s likely that the entire audience will have at least a little nosh.

After all, the subject is Chef Rossi, “a Jewish lesbian punk-rock alternative caterer” who is used to feeding a crowd in unusual ways. Dana Smith-Croll will play Chef Rossi.

Lamarre was immediately taken by Rossi’s rebel spirit after reading her memoir two years ago. It was something that was different from the solo, love-lorn nature of Spaghetti.

“I loved the thought of something with a different kind of energy,” says Lamarre, who lives in Manchester and who is senior project manager for the West Hartford-based marketing and events company BuzzEngine.

Lamarre says both the memoir-with-recipes and its stage adaptation is all about that rock ’n roll rebel spirit that put Rossi—she goes by the single monicker—against her parents, her orthodox religious upbringing, and, later, the male-dominated food industry.

But Lamarre also found a tender familial tale and a late-in-life understanding between mother and daughter.

The setting of the one-act play is the book launch of Rossi’s memoir where she (Testa) is relating her life story while making a dish here and there for the crowd. But unlike Spaghetti, it’s not a solo show, but rather a three-actor play that includes the book launch’s DJ (it’s always a party, Rossi insists) and appearances by her mother who plays an important part in Rossi’s evolution. Marilyn Sokol plays Rossi’s mother.

Rossi’s love of food was a rebellion against her mother “who was not a good cook,” says Lamarre. “Once her mother discovered the microwave that ended cooking as they knew it in their New Jersey household.”

The mother is every stereotype of a Jewish women, says Lamarre, but later it’s revealed she’s deeper that you think.

The play tells the story of Rossi as a teenage runaway being returned by the New Jersey police to her parents, who then ship her off to live with a Hasidic rabbi in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, hoping that a more strict environment is just what the out-of-control kid needs. Instead, it’ where her New York dreams begin.

And it starts with her love of food and cooking, but putting that rebel twist to better use.

“What really allows Rossi to take off is when she caters the 10th anniversary star-studded event of the socially conscious hit play The Vagina Monologues, which she undertakes with vagina-themed delicacies. That’s what first puts her on the map.

“She loves when she can do bizarre and creative twists on various cuisines or fusions on things you wouldn’t expect, like her ‘Jamaican-Chinese Oreo crack.’”

With crazy good snacks, a fierce DJ, and lots of laughs, “the intent at the end of every performance there will be a party,” says Lamarre.

Recipes from Chef Rossi:Oreo Crack

• Open Oreos and slather—LOVE THAT WORD—peanut butter inside.

• Close cookie

• In a double boiler, or just a bowl over a pot with simmering (not boiling) water, melt good high-quality sweetened dark chocolate

• When chocolate is melted, pour into bowl and dip Oreos. We use two forks to fully submerge.

• Lay on wax paper or parchment paper and chill.

N’awlins Vacation Barbecue Sauce

Serves up to 12 people, depending on what you put it on.

Ingredients:

• 1 white onion, chopped

• A few pinches garlic, minced

• 1 shot bourbon

• 1 shot balsamic vinegar

• 2 hefty scoops tomato paste

• A few drizzles Worcestershire

• 1 generous drizzle Tabasco

• A couple of spoonfuls molasses

• Salt and fresh ground pepper

• 1 pinch cayenne pepper

Directions

Sauté onion. When it starts to brown, throw in a few pinches of minced garlic. Let this cook for a spell, and hit it with a shot of bourbon. After the bourbon cooks off, throw in a shot of balsamic vinegar.

Let this cook for a minute, then throw in a couple of hefty scoops of tomato paste, a few drizzles of Worcestershire, a generous drizzle of Tabasco, and enough water to thin the paste to a nice sauce-like consistency.

Stir over a low simmer for about 10 minutes, then add a couple of spoonfuls of molasses to sweeten things up. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper.

Pulled BBQ Chicken on a Ritz

• Marinate dark meat chicken like breast or thigh in barbecue sauce, slathering it in sauce, and about a half inch in pan, too.

• Put in oven in baking pan covered with foil and bake at about 350 degrees. You want it totally falling-off-the-bone soft, so about an hour.

• When cool enough to handle, pull with your hands then mix in more bbq sauce when all done if it needs it; it may not. Plop the gorgeous goob on Ritz crackers and garnish with sliced scallions.

Editor's note: This story was updated on Friday, July 21, 2017 to reflect new cast members.