Henry Appleby has an appetite for life. As a recent high school graduate and the son of a wealthy family in one of Chicago’s affluent North Shore suburbs, his life is laid out for him. Unfortunately, though, he’s being forced to follow in the footsteps of his successful attorney father instead of living his dream of being a chef. When an opportunity comes his way to work in a real kitchen the summer after graduation, at a little Italian joint called Fiorello’s, Henry jumps at the chance, putting his future in jeopardy.<br><br>Years ago, life was a plentiful buffet for Vito Carelli. But a tragic turn of events now keeps the young chef at Fiorello’s quiet and secretive, preferring to let his amazing Italian peasant cuisine do his talking.<br><br>When the two cooks meet over an open flame, sparks fly. Both need a taste of something more -- something real, something true -- to separate the good from the bad and find the love -- and the hope -- that just might be their salvation.

Dinner at Fiorello's

The kiss was just a peck, and Henry had imagined it as more.


There was a relative in Rogers Park his mother had mentioned before, and Henry had only forgotten.


Those things shriveled up and died like a Popsicle dropped on a hot sidewalk at the height of August’s heat.


The hard thing was that Henry could not, as much as he wanted to, convince himself that his eyes had deceived him. There could be no other interpretation for that passionate kiss. No alternative to frame seeing his mother tonight and earlier in the summer here in Rogers Park than she was having an affair. An affair. It seemed so tawdry, so lifted out of a television soap opera. An affair was not something that would raise its ugly, lying face in Henry’s own family.


Chapter 44