Perry Rea doesn’t follow a recipe. He cooks from intuition.
Born to Italian parents from a region south of Rome, he never had a recipe handed down to him by his parents or grandparents. Instead, his knowledge came from watching them in the kitchen.
So when the idea took shape to publish a cookbook of beloved family recipes, both to share with Queen Creek Olive Mill customers and preserve for future generations, the Rea family, including his wife, Brenda, and their five children, gathered around him, jotting down formal recipes as he cooked.
For the first time, dishes that had existed largely through memory and instinct were being preserved on the page.
“My daughter Sydney would be writing down exact measurements,” he says. “After I’d make it, I’d taste it. ‘Oh, it needs a little more salt.’ So, we’d add a little more salt [in the recipe].”
Although they were never written down, some of the dishes in the cookbook reach back at least to Perry’s grandparents. He remembers watching his grandfather make spaghetti all’ aglio, olio a peperoncino.
“These are classic and very simple Italian dishes,” he says. “You gotta remember they grew up on farms in Italy. Everything was grown; if it wasn't in season, they didn't eat it.”
The Rea family keeps this tradition alive with gardens on site at the Mill that supply the kitchen with herbs and other offerings.
Of all the recipes in the cookbook, Perry says his favorite might be the lemon chicken.
“But all of the pastas are good,” he adds.
Brenda, meanwhile, is a fan of the spaghetti all’ aglio—the first meal Perry ever made for her when they were courting.
The cookbook isn’t only an ode to Perry’s Italian heritage. Brenda is an accomplished baker, and the entire section devoted to desserts is her doing.
“I bake all of our bread at home. I have sourdough going all the time,” she says.
Many of the recipes she developed incorporate olive oils available at the mill, including Meyer lemon and vanilla bean.
Perhaps the sweetest recipe in the book is the double chocolate olive oil cake. It was served at Perry and Brenda’s wedding and subsequently became the birthday cake for each of their five children. For years, that meant the cake made an appearance seven times a year for the family’s birthdays alone.
The cookbook also draws inspiration from Perry and Brenda’s travels abroad, including time spent meandering through markets and restaurants in places such as Milan and Madrid. Wherever they go, Brenda says, her husband taste-tests and gathers inspiration for future dishes.
Of course, olive oil is the thread running throughout the book, from savory dishes to Brenda’s desserts. Perry also hopes readers will actually cook with extra virgin olive oil rather than reserving it for dipping or finishing a dish. In particular, he wants to dispel a persistent misconception about sautéing with it.
“Some people think that it gets too hot, so it’s just not good. That’s false,” he says.
In the Rea family, food has always been at the center of time spent together. In the early 2000s, before backyard pizza ovens became ubiquitous, Perry and Brenda were making their own pizzas from scratch with their five children.
Those children now have spouses and children of their own, but Sundays are still reserved for long family dinners. Perry and his sons, Angelo and John, often cook together for everyone.
And another generation is already finding its place in the kitchen.
“Our almost 5-year-old grandson, Lorenzo, comes to our house all the time, and he’s cooking with Papa,” Brenda says. “He goes and gets the stepstool. He’s up there, stirring. And the two of them make our breakfast or dinner or whatever.”
It’s remarkably similar to the way Perry learned to cook in the first place: standing alongside the generations before him and watching.
Although Lorenzo apparently has one additional priority once the cooking is finished.
“Mamo, do we have cookies?” he asks his grandmother.
You can find the Queen Creek Olive Mill Arizona Family Cookbook at the Mill: 25062 S. Meridian Rd.
EXPERIENCE IT
Taste the Rea family’s philosophy of gathering around the table for a long, lingering meal during Queen Creek Olive Mill’s October Tavolo dinner, featuring a meal from the executive chef Bernie Kantak of The Gladly, a two-time Southwest James Beard semi-finalist.
"Everything was grown; if it wasn't in season, they didn't eat it.”
In the Rea family, food has always been at the center of time spent together. Before backyard pizza ovens became ubiquitous, Perry and Brenda were making their own pizzas from scratch with their five children.