News Channel 9 WSYR, July 15, 2011

WHEC News - Rochester, NY

WYNN News - Rochester, NY

WKBW News - Buffalo, NY
Ithica.com

"Serving up the 'Calamari Sisters'"
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There are a whole lot of cooking shows on the ol' flat screen nowadays. But you're not likely to find one as, shall we say, lively as the Calamari Sisters' "Mangia Italiana!" (Translation: "Eat Italian!")
Ithica.com

"Cooking with the Calamaris"
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Look out Emeril Lagasse. Watch your back Paula Deen. There's a new cooking show, starring two sisters from a large New York Italian family coming to town that may bump the popular Food Network stars off the air.
Ithica.com

"Review: 'Cooking With the Calamari Sisters" in Sugar Loaf"
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If you hunger for a dish of comedy with a side of silliness, then this show is the perfect recipe. Indulge your appetite and go taste what the Calamari Sisters are cooking up in Sugar Loaf.
Ithica.com

"More Please! Auburn Falls in Love with the Calamari Sisters"
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Cooking with the Calamari Sisters was BIG – even bigger than the hearts of those two vivacious sisters, Carmela and Delphine. After a six-week run and forty-seven audiences served, Cooking with the Calamari Sisters: Mangia Italiano! was a colossal success for Merry-Go-Round Playhouse and the Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival.
Ithica.com

"That's Italian!"
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This delicious foolishness is the brainchild of three men: Jay (James) Falzone, Dan Lavender, and Stephen Smith, and though the program won't tell you, Dan plays Carmela and Jay is Delphine. The plot is just a pizzelle-thin pretext for pandemonium: This is the sisters' final show together, as Carmela is off to the "real" world of show biz in Boca Raton. But before long, old rivalries resurface and the ladies are slinging insults along with the salami.

"Lunacy Over-Cooked in MGR's "Calamari Sisters"
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Much like any personality-infused cooking show one might see on “The Food Network” (Emeril, Mario, Rachel, etc.) the centerpiece of the show is the interesting persona, with the food coming in second. From the top of the show when we are introduced to Carmela and Delphine Calamari (Chris French and Bruce Warren, respectively) from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, we know we are in for an uproarious “television” experience. The “sisters” don’t disappoint in that regard.
AburnPub

"'Calamari Sisters' serve laughs at APT"
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The Merry-Go-Round Playhouse couldn’t have picked a more perfect show for audiences to sample the potential of next summer’s Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival.
AburnPub

"Serving Up A Comedy"
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The Merry-Go-Round Playhouse continues its 2011 season with “Cooking With the Calamari Sisters: Mangia Italiano!” The interactive musical comedy stars Carmela and Delphine Calamari, two vivacious sisters with an Italian cooking television program on public access television.
Examiner.com

"Cooking with the Calamari Sisters is a feast for eyes, ears and stomach!"
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Thank goodness we haven’t heard the last of the Calamari Sisters because Delphine announced at the end of the production that there would be a Christmas play coming up soon. December can’t get here soon enough!

New Times Blog

Food Fights With the Calamari Sisters
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As the story goes, these ladies discover that their cooking show is about to get chopped from the lineup at the public access cable station, so they drown their woes by singing Italian favorites like "That's Amore," "Come On-A My House," and "Mambo Italiano" while cooking and throwing food around. Typical siblings, if you ask us. 

REVIEWS:

From WHEC:

Television cooking shows are popular than ever these days. People are tuning in to learn how to make everything from scrambled eggs to escargot. But one TV cooking show, now on stage at Downstairs Cabaret, is so popular they've extended the run into January.

It's called "Cooking with the Calamari Sisters: Mangia Italiano!"

Two sisters, Delphine and Carmela, are also two cooks who kick up their heels as hosts of their own show.

It's broadcast on a small public access television station near Brooklyn. They are part of a close knit Italian family, cooking traditional Italian dishes but there's nothing traditional about their show.

News 10NBC sat down with the actresses who portray the sisters and they stayed in character the entire time!

Delphine says of their show, “We're very different from any other cooking show which is why we want to get picked up by the Food Network! We think we have a nice niche here."

Delphine and Carmela love to mix in music and stir in songs while they cook. Delphine says, “When we grew up that’s all we did was cook in the kitchen with our mother and grandmother and sing these wonderful tunes by Rosemary Clooney, Dean Marrtin, Bobby Darin."

But this particular broadcast is a swan song of sorts - their last together. The sisters are splitting up. Carmela is moving on. She laughs and says, "Basically, I've hit the big time, well, not the big time -- that would be the Food Network!"

From the singing and the dancing to sharing bits and pieces of their family history, what happens on their last show together is so spicy.

Delphine and Carmela are packing them in at Downstairs Cabaret and after seeing Cooking with the Calamari Sisters, you won't go away hungry!

 

From YNN Rochester:

This week's OnStage segment features a holiday story with true Italian flair.
The Downstairs Cabaret Theatre presents "Cooking With the Calamari Sisters: Mangia Italiano!"

"Hey mambo! Mambo Italiano! Hey mambo! Mambo Italiano!"

The brassy sassy Calamari sisters host a cable-access cooking show in Brooklyn called 'Mangia Italiano.' The question is, will they make it through their final broadcast smoothly, or will it turn into a salami- slamming food fight?

"What we've tried to make it feel like, and I feel we've succeeded at, is going and being with your family for the holidays if you have a big Italian family," said co-creater Daniel Lavender. "And I think it's not just about Italian, I think it's about any family."

"It's one of those shows that people will want to see again and again. Lots of things change within the course of the show from show to show; there's a little bit of audience interaction, so that also influences what happens on stage," said Ann Marie Sanders of the DCT.

"Mangia Italiano' is on stage at the Downstairs Cabaret Theatre Friday and Saturday at 4 p.m and 8 p.m., and Sunday at 4 p.m.