Eating Through The San Gennaro Festival

Anne Burrell shares what she'll be savoring as grand marshall for the feast's 98th year

Photo by Laine Doss

Billed as the “feast of all feasts”, the San Gennaro Festival takes over the streets of Little Italy in New York City now through Sunday, September 22.

The feast celebrates San Gennaro of Napoli, a Bishop who was martyred in 305 AD. His body still lies in Napoli, where he is believed to protect the local people from fires, earthquakes, and the future eruption of Mt. Vesuvius.

Now in its 98th year, the Little Italy feast spans multiple blocks and attracts about one million visitors annually to stroll, enjoy music, and eat.

And what a feast it is: sausage and peppers, baked clams, zeppoles, cannolis, gelati, and calamari are the most popular items, but since New York City is an amalgam of cultures hungry festivalgoers will also find Peking duck, barbecue, gyros, grilled corn, and tanghulu while strolling the various food stands.

One of the highlights of San Gennaro is the annual grand procession. Held Saturday 14 from 2 to 5 p.m., the grand procession is a parade down Mulberry Street that features floats, bands, and the presentation of the statue of San Gennaro. This year, the grand marshall is celebrity chef Anne Burrell

Burrell spoke to me on the phone, while preparing a blueberry cobbler from her Brooklyn home. “When they asked me to be grand marshall, I was jumping up and down. I was super excited,” she says.

Burrell says she looks forward to San Gennaro feast time each year, both for the food, and as a signifier that summer is ending — and Autumn is about to begin. “September in New York is one of my favorite times of the year. The weather is beautiful. In the summer, everyone separates, but in September we all get together again. It’s such a joyous, happy time and San Gennaro always speaks to me for that reason.”

Burrell, who will ride in one of tomorrow’s parade floats, was invited to serve as grand marshall in the most New York way possible. “I was at a New York Rangers game when I ran into Steve Schirripa (The Sopranos’ Bobby Baccalieri). He was with a friend who was on the San Gennaro committee. We exchanged numbers and he invited me to be Grand Marshall!” Burrell, clearly excited over the honor, said that her sister and friends were driving down from Upstate New York to ride on the float with her. “I get to wear a sash,” she gushed.

The best part of her grand marshal duties? Checking out all the food after the parade. Burrell even has a strategy worked out to make sure no treat goes untasted. “We’re going to have a group of people, so we’re breaking up into groups of three or four and make this a progressive thing. That way we can all try the calamari, scungilli, pizzas, and clams. Then, we’ll all pick a restaurant and have dinner, because I need a chicken parm fix.”

What are Burrell’s can’t miss items at San Gennaro? “I definitely look forward to the sausage and peppers.” Her preference, by the way, is sweet sausage with onions, hold the peppers. Burrell doesn’t stop there: “I have also been a meatballer for a long time, and anything fried is good for me. Then there are cannolis, Italian ices, all of it. Yes, yes, yes to all of it.”

For Burrell, just the scent of fried zeppole dough mixed with the cries of the carnival game barkers and strains of Sinatra crooning is enough to make the annual pilgrimage to San Gennaro a rite of Fall. “I do love the electricity and the people watching. I feed off the energy. I am not Italian by heritage, but I believe I am Italian in my heart. Being named the Grand Marshall is the cream in my cannoli.”