| Cheril Vendetti wants you to eat something. |
"Paula picked my video as one of her favorites," says Vendetti, who will appear in Kansas City on Sunday, December 19 doing her stand-up act at the Eighteen22 Ultra Lounge at 1822 Main Street.
She'll be selling her cookbook too.
Cheril Vendetti, a native of Wooster, Massachussets, would like to be a version of Paula Deen -- but funnier. She currently lives in Sacaramento with her partner (and business manager) Tonya and their 9-month-old daughter Sophia Rose. But Cheril -- who sounds like a Jersey girl -- isn't just any stand-up comic. She recently published a combination novella-and-cookbook called Mistress of the Mob Cuisine.
"I've been collecting cookbooks forever," says Vendetti. "My late brother, David, once gave me a celebrity cookbook by Kate Smith. Remember her? Big heavy singer? Anyway, he told me to write my own cookbook someday, but not a regular cookbook because, well, who really reads those? My book is also a novella featuring twelve members of the Vendetti crime family and two wanna-bes. They're fictional versions of my real family members."
Each of Vendetti's recipes have funny titles, she says, but are serious recipes. The real directions for cooking the recipes are in black ink; the jokes are in red. "The book will be on Amazon.com next spring," Vendetti says. "But I sell them now on my website and I'll bring a few on my Kansas City visit. And take orders, of course."
When Vendetti travels, she says, she likes to eat: "I go out to dinner a lot when I'm around the country working. When I'm in Kansas City, I'll be with Tonya, the baby and our gay friend Scott from Tulsa. I mean, someone has to hold the baby while Tonya does my hair and make-up. But we're already talking about going out for some good barbecue."
