Chef Manny’s Blog

Portuguese cooks spice cable TV in Ludlow

LUDLOW - Manuel Lopes is cooking up something special on Ludlow cable public access television.

And the secret ingredient is really no secret at all. His new TV show, “Cooking With Dad,” features three of his children - Franc, 26, Jaclyn, 22, and Thom, 20. Together, they offer some of their family’s favorite Porgtuguese recipes.

Lopes, who immigrated from Portugal with his parents when he was 6 years old, said his family has always cooked together.

In the 1970s and 1980s, his parents ran the Portuguese restaurant, Caravela, on State Street. Lopes said he was one of the cooks there.

While the eatery has since closed, Lopes said he has continued to cook with his children.

“They have all enjoyed cooking with me,” he said.

Cooking is the centerpiece of Portuguese family get-togethers, Lopes noted.

“My mother is a great cook, and passed on the family recipes,” he said.

Lopes said his mother, Lucia Lopes, also is featured in some of the cooking shows. “These are her recipes we’re using,” he said.

He said the show is a vehicle for showing another generation how to cook.

“My children all made themselves available to film the cooking,” he said.

The backdrop for some of the filming was the annual Our Lady of Fatima Festival, which takes place in Ludlow every September.

“We showed people how to make the marinade for the barbecued chicken,” he said. “We showed the camaraderie that goes into preparing the recipes.”

Other backdrops for the show are the Ludlow Central Bakery on East Street, known for its pastries, and J.R. Butcher Shop on East Street. Lopes said he purchased the meat and fish used in the recipes from J.R. Butcher Shop and Alianca Market, also on East Street.

One episode was filmed with chef J. Rocha Nunu of The Primavera Restaurant on East Street.

So far, Lopes and his children have filmed 13 episodes.

“It was very creative,” he said. “It’s fun to do stuff with children.”

The shows are airing in Ludlow on the cable access channel, and also on cable access television in Rhode Island. Lopes said he hopes to soon market the show in New Bedford and Fall River, both of which have large Portuguese-American communities.

The dish filmed at The Primavera Restaurant was traditional pork with clams and potatoes.

“It is delicious,” said Lopes.

Anyone who watches the show can send comments to Lopes through the Web site, www.cookingwithdadtv.com Recipes also are available on the Web site.

Click Here to read the article in ”The Springfield Republican”

12 Responses to “Portuguese cooks spice cable TV in Ludlow”

1		January 5th, 2009 at 10:44 pm Trinda Nehmer says:
		I Read the whole article at Masslive.com. it was Really great. Can’t wait to see the TV shows when I go back to Massachusetts.

2		January 7th, 2009 at 9:03 pm Michael Joao says:
		Manny and family, Great work! I’m checking it out here in Virginia and sending the link to your website to friends here that are really interested. take care, Your Cousin, Mike.

3		March 23rd, 2009 at 12:50 pm Dan Mckenney says:
		I have enjoyed watching your show, and I have actually tried one of your recipes at home with surprising success, I love to cook, but not coming from a portuguese family makes it quite difficult to even know where to start, your show has changed that!! I am a firefighter here in Ludlow and needless to say we do alot of eating/cooking when we can, anyway, I tried one of your recipes at the station about 2 weeks ago and it received RAVE reveiws, to say the least. So, here is a big THANK YOU from everyone at the Ludlow Fire Department!!! Keep the recipes coming, we will be watching!!! Dan McKenney

4		October 3rd, 2009 at 8:23 pm michael says:
		Hey very nice blog!! Man .. Beautiful .. Amazing .. I will bookmark your blog and take the feeds also…

5		November 2nd, 2009 at 9:05 pm donald holliday says:
		Commenting normally isnt my thing, but i’ve surfed an hour on the web site, so thanks for the information Greetings.

6		November 19th, 2009 at 9:40 pm Crasty says:
		In truth, immediately i didn’t understand the essence. But after re-reading all at once became clear.

7		December 10th, 2009 at 3:09 am craig and malcolm says:
		YOU ROCKDIG IT,

8		December 11th, 2009 at 4:00 pm Steetezespemn says:
		I highly enjoyed reading your article, keep on posting such interesting stuff.

9		December 17th, 2009 at 6:32 pm new years eve san francisco 2010 says:
		Hello its a very nice site!

10		January 18th, 2010 at 7:58 am Beluga says:
		Very nice recipe! ;). I like studying your blog. Greetings from poland.

11		June 6th, 2010 at 8:38 am Jon Delbridge says:
		Heya¡­my very first comment on your site. ,I have been reading your blog for a while and thought I would completely pop in and drop a friendly note. . It is great stuff indeed.

12		June 6th, 2010 at 12:38 pm Michael McCollum says:
		Nice! Nice post…Thank you for sharing some good things!!

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