- Tonight on WPBS Weekly Inside the Stories Johnny Spezzano is back in the kitchen with special guest Chris DiPrinzio of DiPrinzio's Kitchen in Clayton.

They'll show you how to create a delicious lobster roll perfect for summer entertaining, and dive into your next read with Laura Teberiu as she breaks down "The Alice Network" by Kate Quinn.

Your stories, your region coming up right now on WPBS Weekly Inside the Stories.

- WPBS weekly inside the stories is brought to you by - When you're unable to see your primary care provider.

The Carthage Walk-in Clinic is here for you, located off Route 26 across from Carthage Middle School.

Comfort and Healing close to home when you need it most - North Country Orthopedic Group is there for your urgent ortho or sports related injuries.

With our onsite surgical center and same or next day appointments, we're ready to provide care for patients of all ages.

Your health matters to us North Country Orthopedic Group, keeping healthcare local.

- We are the north country we're protecting one another like family is who we are and where our tomorrow will always be worth defending.

Find out how we keep the North Country strong, at claxtonhepburn.org today.

- Select musical performances are made possible with funds from the statewide Community Regrant program, a REGRANT program of the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of the office of the Governor and the New York state legislator administered by the St. Lawrence County Arts Council.

- Good Tuesday evening everyone, and welcome to this edition of WPBS Weekly Inside the Stories.

I'm Michael Riecke.

New England may be known for their lobster rolls, but in Clayton one restaurant makes them a different way and it just so happens they also cook it with fire.

Tonight Johnny Spezzano is joined by Chef Chris DiPrinzio to share his recipe for a wood fired lobster roll that is sure to leave your mouth watering.

- Hey, come on.

- Well, hello.

We meet again.

Welcome to another episode of Johnny on Fire.

I'm Johnny Spezzano.

We're gonna cook some stuff on fire.

I've got my guest Chris DiPrinzio from DiPrinzio's Kitchen.

How you doing - Chris?

Doing great.

- Welcome.

- Thank you.

- It's really cool.

'cause they have a wood fire oven in their restaurant and we got one here.

And today one of your recipes, - The Woodfire lobster roll is what it is.

Ooh.

- All right.

Let's get right to the ingredients.

- Yes.

- What do we got - Here?

So we have some six to seven ounce cold water lobster tails.

We have some spring onions, some green onions, celery, lemons, Italian parsley, tarragon, and a little bit of white wine.

I - Thought that was for us to drink.

- We can drink some of it.

Well, mine's not a traditional lobster roll.

Okay.

So it's, it's a little bit different than your traditional Boston Lobster roll.

- All right.

Special recipe DiPrinzio style.

All right, we're gonna get started.

Let's get going.

All right.

- Yeah.

- So we obviously, you said these are wood fired lobster - rolls.

Yes.

So we, we, we line a cast iron skillet.

So we, we will split the lobster rolls and line this with some onions in the bottom sweet onions, the vidalia onions, and then a little bit of olive oil.

Yep.

Go ahead in there.

- Go.

Let's get started.

- Not too much.

- Okay, - Let's get her going and then we'll split some lobsters.

Gonna grab me that cutting board over there.

Okay.

So we just pull 'em out and you just gotta be careful with these 'cause they, they can be a little bit slippery.

Just get you knife in there.

Slice right through the shell.

- We were talking about this before.

Those of you watching at home, if you don't have a woodfired oven, don't worry.

You can do the same recipe - Yep.

Right in your oven.

If you wanna grab me one of those onions.

- Sure.

You want the young onions?

- Nope, just the uhs.

The sweet.

Yeah, the, the vidalias.

- Okay.

If you can't get fresh lobster, you can always get the frozen tails and do the same thing.

- So what I like to do is just cut it in half and then I just peel it.

You know, you take the first layer off because it's always dry anyway.

- Yeah.

Nobody wants that.

By the way, for those of you who don't know, DiPrinzio's Kitchen is an amazing restaurant right in Clayton, right on the waterfront.

It's a family run place.

- It's Yes.

Yeah, I have my son, he is in the, he runs the kitchen in the back and my wife's the front and my daughter's in the front of the house too, by the way.

We started - By wife said, all these recipes are yours.

- Yes.

Pretty, pretty much.

I do, I do plagiarize a few recipes, you know, that I like, but I think everybody does that.

- I I don't have a lot of experience with lobster rolls.

- No, - I've had a few, but I know people love them.

- Yeah, they're, they're, you know, your traditional lobster roll will be on your New England style bun with basted with butter.

And, you know, the tradition, I, I do like a little lobster salad is what I do.

- Okay.

- It's a little bit different.

I actually had somebody from Boston that wanted to hang me up by my feet because I, it wasn't a traditional lobster roll, but - Yeah.

It's Clayton New York.

- Yeah.

- This is good though.

I think I, I bet you he was a fan by the time he got done.

So we'll leave it at that.

So you're gonna place the onions in the bottom of the - Yes, on the bottom, - Which is nice.

'cause the, the aroma.

- Yeah.

It gives it the aroma.

A little bit of flavor, just something a little bit different.

Then we're gonna take all these lobster halves and lay 'em around there.

Wanna grab me a couple more tails over there?

Sure.

- This looks pretty easy so - Far.

It's super easy.

It's a super easy recipe.

If there's certain things you don't like the herbs, like I like to use tarragon.

You can use chives if you like chives better.

- Good sharp knife.

Just - Cut them right - In half sharp - Knife.

Just be careful 'cause they're a little bit dangerous.

If you're trying to cut through 'em and lay 'em right around there.

We'll fill right up.

- Okay.

- Ooh, one more.

Right in there.

Okay, there we go.

- All right.

So we got a pan cast iron skillet filled with lobsters.

- Yep.

And so now we're gonna season, you wanna put a little salt on there?

A little bit of pepper.

- All right.

Got - A little salt.

Just a little bit.

Salt - Pepper.

I see you got some old bay.

- That's a must on the lobster roll.

- Is that going on now too?

- That goes on.

- Okay.

- Yep.

We'll season it now and then we'll season it when you do the salad mix.

- Sometimes the best recipes are the simplest.

- Yeah.

- I love this.

Okay.

- And some nice thin lemon.

Good old bay.

Yeah.

And these, we're just gonna, we're gonna take a little bit of white wine, a little white wine on the top, not too much.

And then a little glug of olive oil around there.

- Geez.

I want to come to the restaurant and cook with you now.

This is great.

- And then we're just gonna line these right around.

- Wait till you hear how Chris got into the restaurant business.

This is beautiful.

I, I know once it comes out of the wood fire, it's gonna be amazing - As well.

- Yeah.

Now we're gonna do something that you do at the restaurant with the wood.

- Yes.

So we're gonna put a little bit of smoke on it, so what we do is we throw some cherry on the fire, let that get, get going, get some fire on it, and then we snuff the fire out.

- Yeah.

- And that's, let 'em cook like that for four to five minutes.

And that's all they take.

- Fills with smoke.

- Fills with smoke.

Then you gotta, you know, open it carefully.

'cause the smoke is it, it'll, it gets pretty, pretty smoky.

So we've set, we've set off the alarms at the restaurant before doing it.

So we gotta be careful with it.

- All right.

So we got a, looks pretty good of lemons.

- Yep.

- Let's take a look at this.

Now we're gonna put it in the woodfire oven.

Oven in.

So we've closed the oven up.

- Right.

- So now the smoke is just gonna saturate.

- Right.

- And again, do the same thing on your gas grill.

Just throw a log on there.

- Yeah, throw a log on there.

Or get the little smoke box if you have one.

And - All right.

- Throw it in there.

- So it's just gonna take a couple of minutes.

Yeah.

Now what do we have left here?

- Do we, so now we're gonna do the salad mix.

So I do like a little lobster salad with a little bit of mayo, the celery, the spring onions.

- All right, let's - Get to work.

And the herbs.

- So I'll let you do some choppin.

So just, - We're just gonna thinly slice the celery.

I just use the hearts for, for this part.

'cause they're a little bit more tender.

- I mean, it looks better than regular Brock Parsley.

- Yeah.

Or, I'm sorry, celery.

- Celery.

Celery.

Gosh, I've cleaned those off for years.

See what we learned here on Johnny on Fire and you know, it still has that celery - spirit to it.

Yep.

Oh yeah, definitely.

- Just a little milder.

- A little milder.

Slight bit of bitterness to it - As far as DiPrinzio's goes.

You guys have waterfront dining.

- We have waterfront dining - So people can come enjoy a lobster roll.

Waterfront dining - That's - On special.

- Yep.

- Yeah, - Absolutely.

Course.

And if the weather's good, you can sit outside in the patio.

We have a full patio.

Yeah.

- If you haven't been, you gotta go.

Amazing Wood-fired Pizzas.

- Yes.

- We, what's your favorite one?

Or what's the most sought after one?

- Sought after one?

The one that we sell probably the most, it would be the, the Bianco.

So that has caramelized onions on it.

It has feta cheese, spinach, ma Italian meats?

There's no Italian meats on the Oh, that's a different one.

The Bianco.

- Yeah.

Okay.

'cause that's - The one I get.

The super saada is the one too, like the hot super saada.

And then we do the hot cherry peppers on it.

- So what are we gonna do here?

- So we're gonna throw these in.

- I feel like this is gonna be so good on that lobster roll.

- I hope so.

- Little onion, - A little spring onion.

We're just gonna use the back part here, the, the ball part.

- In a minute we're gonna talk about how you got started in the restaurant - Business.

Sure.

Yep.

- You know, sometimes we talk to people and they went to culinary school.

You got the school of hard knocks with your family, right?

- I, I did, yes.

I didn't, no culinary school, but we, we had moved to Ithaca.

They had, that's the first Wegmans I've ever been to.

So once you go into a Wegmans, I think changed - Your life forever.

- It kind of changes your perspective on food, so to speak.

And they have great restaurants down there.

And then when we moved back in 2007, that's when we started actually doing some catering.

Alright, - We'll - Stir that a little bit.

So we a little spring onion in there.

Okay.

And then we're gonna chop up some of the herbs.

So I use some Italian parsley and I love tarragon.

So tarragon kind of goes with, with lobster.

And I just slice it nice and nice and - Thin.

How many years has DiPrinzio's been open as a restaurant?

- So DiPrinzio's restaurant downtown has been open since 2017, but we started in 07' doing some catering on the side with our full-time jobs.

And then we did that till 2014.

And that's when my wife was traveling on the road and we decided to open a little market, our house, we converted our garage into an Italian market and that's where the pizza oven went in.

And so we've been doing it since 2014.

- Really?

That's where we got started.

- That's where we really got started.

And then when I turned 50, that's kind of midlife crisis or whatever, we decided to open a restaurant - Out, out.

So you can relax.

- You relax.

Yeah.

Instead of retirement, we open a restaurant.

But it's been great, you know, right from the get go.

- All right.

So we're gonna mix this together.

What's left?

- And then we're gonna wait for the lobster and just put the lobster in that.

- What do you think?

Should we go take a look?

We can - Take a look.

See what looks like.

- Let's take a look.

Ah, ooh.

Oh my God.

These look incredible, bro.

All right.

So they're nice.

What do you want me to do with these?

Want me to put em right here?

So, - No, we're, we will peel 'em right out of there.

- Okay.

- And we'll let 'em Cool.

They're a little bit warm right now, so we just basically pop 'em out the shell.

We're - Just in it for the meat.

- Yep.

- Okay.

- And they pop out real easy and let 'em cool down before we make the salad for it.

- The smell in here is unbelievable.

We got the wood smoke smell, we've got the fresh smell of lemon and lobster and old bay.

And these are gonna make some incredible lobster rolls.

Speaking of rolls, what kind of rolls are we using?

- So these are a brio roll is what they are.

So they're a little bit bigger than, they're a little bit different than the traditional new New England style.

- You want me to put these and toast 'em in the oven a little - Bit?

No, we're gonna, we're gonna fill 'em - Oh, - With a salad and then we're gonna put 'em in the oven and toast 'em.

Oh.

- Oh, excuse me.

- Yeah, we fill 'em first, then we put pop 'em back in.

- Okay.

- And just get a little bit of a char on 'em.

- Oh, great.

See, I would've browned them first.

I like how you're - Thinking.

You wanna pull one out or, I mean, you might burn yourself.

- There's another one in there.

Yeah.

A little warm.

I'll let you do it.

Well, I got some soot that I got from the oven, which is a hazard that I deal with here on a regular basis.

So obviously you can find out more about DiPrinzio's kitchen.

Right in Clayton, New York.

Right on the river.

I mean, it doesn't get any more beautiful than sitting out on their patio looking at the Thousand Islands in the St. Lawrence River.

And if you could only imagine - Yourself, the ships - In the ships going by enjoying one of these lobster rolls.

- There we go.

I think we got 'em all.

- All right.

My bad.

Okay, wait a minute, just a little piece.

Okay.

To that guy who said that's not a traditional lobster roll.

This is way better.

The flavor is unreal.

Chris.

Is it good?

Oh my God.

- All right, so now we're gonna mix it in.

Okay.

- Wow.

- That A little bit of pepper in, little salt.

And of course, old bay.

And a little squeeze of lemon juice and olive oil Right there.

Just a dash of olive oil.

And then we're gonna put our mayonnaise in.

Not too much.

This is, it's not a mayonnaisey lobster roll, so it's just, just kind of brings it together.

- Just enough to coat it.

- Yep.

Just to coat it.

Then we'll look to see where we're at with the salad mix.

- It smells so good.

Guys.

Try this one at home.

Do it on your grill and do it like Chris did by adding a little cherry wood or something.

- Yeah, something to get a little smoke on 'em.

All right, - Let's, let's, so we ready to fill 'em?

- We're ready to fill 'em.

- Okay.

- I'm gonna grab a little smaller spoon to get 'em in there.

- So we're gonna put this back in the wood fire.

How long we will, we just for a few - Seconds, just maybe just 30 seconds to a minute just to get it.

Get a little, you get a little char on the roll and it warms it up a little bit.

There we go.

We'll hold that up.

So she's just like that.

Close them up a little bit.

Okay.

- In the fire.

- In the fire.

- Okay.

Here we go.

Chris, I'm excited.

Let's take these lobster rolls outta here.

See if they got a little brown to 'em.

- Oh yeah.

Oh yeah.

We get a little bit on there.

- Yes, they did.

Alright, - Perfect.

Now - Okay chef, I'll let you - So we just a little bit of green onion on the top, or chives, whichever you like.

That's it.

And then a little bit of olive oil - Making - Glisten a little bit.

There we go.

- I gotta take a picture of this for my family.

They're gonna be so jealous.

Okay, Chris, I'll let you got the gloves.

I got the dirty hands, - So I'll - Let you plate 'em up there.

- Set 'em up on the plate.

- And they're not dirty, they just get sooty.

- Yeah, that soot.

Those are nice.

Amazing.

There we go.

- Okay, here they are.

DiPrinzio's famous wood fired lobster rolls.

And I'm gonna try it out.

- Give it a shot.

- Can I?

- Let me know what you think.

- All right, let's do it.

Oh, they're crispy.

Nice - And soft.

Not bad.

- Amazing.

Want one?

- Well, of course.

- Do it.

So fresh.

So good.

I thank you.

Chris DiPrinzio from DiPrinzio's Kitchen in Clayton, New York.

Try it out this summer or anytime they're open Year round, right?

- Year round.

- Yeah.

It's a great family experience.

A beautiful spot.

Right on the Thousand Islands.

- All good.

- Thank you so much.

Make sure you go to wpbstv.org.

Watch all the episodes of Johnny on Fire and enjoy them and stream 'em.

Watch 'em anytime you want.

I'm Johnny Spezzano, check out the dinner at Johnny's podcast.

Have a great day.

Thank you.

Thanks so much.

Thank you.

So good.

Good.

Thanks for sharing this with me.

Oh, I think, I think my family just text me.

They want me to send them some.

We'll ship 'em.

- Ship 'em over.

Wow.

- If you're looking for more great fire grilled recipes from Johnny, just visit wpbstv.org and scroll through our library.

Also, if you'd like to be a guest on the segment, send us an email at WPBSweekly@wpbstv.org.

Make sure you include your name and of course your fire grilled recipe idea.

Well, Laura Teberiu is back with another must read tonight.

She looks at The Alice Network by Kate Quinn.

This mesmerizing story of courage and redemption tells the tale of two women during World War II.

One is a female spy recruited to the real life Alice Network in France, the other, an unconventional American socialite searching for her, missing cousin.

Here's Laura with more.

- Hello and welcome back.

I'm so happy to be here again and happy to have you tuning in.

I am excited to talk today about a book that completely left a mark on me.

I read this book years ago and I still vividly remember the characters.

And when you've read hundreds of books in your life like I have, that's a pretty incredible feat that I still remember the plot points and especially the characters.

And that incredible book is The Alice Network by Kate Quinn.

Now this is a historical fiction and I wanna preface by saying sometimes that genre gets a bit overlooked.

It's not as trendy.

And it often in bookstores if you go in, isn't right at the door or really flashy or on promotion a lot.

And I think it's because people hear historical fiction and assume boring or not as interesting.

And that is so wrong.

This incredibly moving and beautiful book, like I said, changed my life.

And to get into a bit of the plot, this follows a dual timeline story.

So we have one timeline happening and it flips every chapter one is happening during World War I, and the other is happening just after World War II.

And what's incredible is as you go through the book, you realize, one, why we have both timelines and how some of the characters are maybe connected, but it's a mystery.

So each chapter you're digging and digging at the plot, trying to find out how they're connected, why it matters.

And the beauty of this book is the story of the Alice Network, which is the title.

And so I didn't know, this is based loosely off of real events, but the Alice Network was a female led underground society of spies during World War I.

And they basically had an incredible impact and helped with the war by being, you know, overlooked.

Oftentimes as women have been a lot in society, but especially at the time around the 1915 when the war was happening.

And our main character Eve is recruited into the Alice Network when she's young during World War I.

And we follow her journey in that timeline and then in present day.

And the story of resilience and power and standing up for yourself and what you believe in was so inspiring to read as a girl in her twenties.

And I found myself really getting lost in the book.

I would forget to pick up my phone or scroll on social media because the story was so good and the mystery piece of it.

That's why this book can honestly transcend so many genres.

There's also a really touching and beautiful love story, both in the past timeline of World War I and in the current one that we're in and around 1947 after World War II.

And I vividly remember, of course, like I said, Eve, our main protagonist who is part of this Alice network, but also our second protagonist who we're following in present day and she's trying to uncover a big family secret and save her cousin.

And who does she ask for help Eve.

So then they form this beautiful bond.

They're both these strong women who their entire lives have kind of been told, yeah, your voice doesn't matter that much, or you can't achieve that much.

And they together just realize that's not true at all.

And as you follow, there will be a lot of emotional moments and a lot of, oh my God, jaw dropping moments.

And with all that being said, to prove it just a little more, I have two quotes that I would love to share just to show how beautiful it's written as well.

Kate Quinn is incredibly talented.

And so the first one is, "Poetry is like passion.

It should not be merely pretty, it should overwhelm and bruise."

I adored that when I read that.

I thought, what a great way to encapsulate something as difficult to talk about as war.

Because amidst all of that tragedy and overwhelmingness and hardship, you still found love in light through art and through romantic relationships while all of that was going on.

And that quote in particular is talking about when they try and have a little bit of a happy moment by reading some poetry and falling in love with art.

It's just that duality of finding lightness in something like poetry while a war is going on.

So I, I thought that stood out a lot and it, it definitely resonated with me.

And then the second quote I have here near the end of the book, there we go.

This one, this one definitely made me tear up a bit.

"Hope was such a painful thing, far more painful than rage."

And I think that can be applied to anyone in their life.

I think when we get hopeful about the outcome of something, whether it's in university or work, or with friends or a relationship that hope and almost delusion and the the idea of something can build up so greatly and that can be so detrimental and painful if what you hope for doesn't come to be true.

And this book talks about that a lot really beautifully.

And so I resonated of course as a young adult because you're really hopeful for how your life is going to turn out, but sometimes it doesn't go how you hoped.

And having those high expectations really hurts and and cuts deep because it was never promised to you.

You just had the hope for it.

So it was nice to feel seen and relatable in a very different context of a historical fiction.

But still that hope piece, we're all human and we all feel it.

And I loved reading about it.

But I will leave you with that.

I hope I convinced you enough and eloquently talked about this book because truly it is gorgeously written and like I said, you will just fly through it even if it's a genre you don't normally read.

I highly, highly, highly recommend.

- That does it for this Tuesday night.

Join us next time for a fresh look inside the stories.

We hit the Greens with pro golfer Peter Beames.

Discover the fascinating life story of this traveling linksman and meet an educational organization dedicated to George Lucas's Star Wars.

Also, we celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Erie Canal.

Discover how New York maintains the canal and the preparations underway to commemorate this engineering marvel.

Meantime, if you have a story idea you'd like us to explore, we'd love to learn more.

Just drop us an email at wpbsweekly@wpbstv.org and let's share it with the region.

That's it for tonight.

Have a safe evening everyone.

We'll see you next time.

Take care.

- WPBS weekly Inside the stories is brought to you by - When you're unable to see your primary care provider.

A Carthage Walk-in clinic is here for you, located off Route 26 across from Carthage Middle School, comfort and Healing close to home when you need it most - North Country Orthopedic Group is there for your urgent ortho or sports related injuries.

With our onsite surgical center and same or next day appointments, we're ready to provide care for patients of all ages.

Your health matters to us.

North Country Orthopedic Group, keeping healthcare local.

- We are the north country we're protecting one another, like family is who we are and where our tomorrow will always be worth defending.

Find out how we keep the North Country strong, at claxtonhepburn.org today.

- Select musical performances are made possible with funds from the statewide community Regrant program, a REGRANT program of the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of the office of the Governor and the New York state legislator administered by the St. Lawrence County Arts Council - DiPrinzio's, famous wood fired lobster rolls.

And I'm gonna try it out.

- Give it a shot.

- Can I - Let me know what you think?

- Okay.

All right, let's do it.

Oh, they're crispy, nice - And soft.

Not bad.

Amazing.