About

The Full Story

About Michael Monaco

I’ve spent a lifetime in the kitchen and a lifetime collecting stories—most of them too wild to make up. I started as a teenage apprentice under Sinatra’s personal chef and ended up running some of North Jersey’s most talked-about restaurants during the wild decades when the mob and politics ran closer than most people dared to admit. If there was a back door, I knew who walked through it. If there was a sauce worth remembering, I probably made it from scratch.

Now, I write about it.

My first book, Cooking for Wiseguys, is a chef’s memoir laced with the kind of characters you’d meet at midnight in a walk-in fridge or a back booth with the blinds half-closed. My second, There’s a Fredo in Every Family, takes a hard look at betrayal—through stories we’ve all lived, or tried to forget.

I created this site to connect with readers, fellow storytellers, and anyone who’s ever wanted a front-row seat to the underbelly of the restaurant world in North Jersey—served with a side of red sauce and real talk. Whether you’re here to buy a book, read a chapter, or drop me a note, you’re welcome at the table.

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There’s a Fredo in Every Family

If Cooking for Wiseguys is about the heat of the kitchen and the power plays behind closed doors, then There’s a Fredo in Every Family is about what happens when trust turns sideways—when the people closest to you become the ones you can’t count on.

The book digs into the age-old story of betrayal, but not from the safe distance of fiction. These are real stories—some mine, some borrowed, some sent to me late at night by people who needed someone to listen. It’s about brothers who sell you out, partners who smile while pocketing your share, and friends who disappear the second things get hard. The title nods to Fredo Corleone from The Godfather—the weak link in a powerful family. But you don’t have to be in the mafia to know what a Fredo looks like. We all have one. Some of us have been one.

This book blends memoir, reflection, and cultural commentary in a raw, sometimes funny, sometimes painful look at family, loyalty, and survival. It’s the second part of my story, and for anyone who’s been burned, crossed, or underestimated, it might just be yours too.