What made me want to be a chef? Maybe it was my mother's tired old pot roast and my father's faved canned green beans. Maybe it was the lack of onions in the cuisine that made me a teenager. Maybe it was Sister Rita's beef noodle dish she loved to cook and couldn't remember the name of. But most of all I think it was Uncle Vic's gravy that made me crave the kitchen. He'd start the cooking at 8:00 a.m. and end some time around five. He put a little of this and a little of that in the pot till it was just right. When my brother and I got a deer each season, Vic found it was time to make gravy. And that gravy was like no other Italiano's gravy I've ever had. Vic taught me the love of cooking. From his gravy to grean beans to duck in orange sauce. His cornish hens with sausage stuffing cannot be replaced in my menus. A little of this, a little of that and a little of what you like makes love happen.