Like most of you, I don’t tune in regularly to watch the “Mayor’s Hour” on CTTV, Channel 15. Truth be told, I mostly happen upon it when channel surfing.
Anyway, I do make an effort to watch in December. That’s when Mayor Pam Iorio invites her father, John Iorio, to spend some quality culinary time with her and the viewers. They cook and they chat and they feed each other straight lines. It’s unabashedly corny stuff, the likes of which you’d never see in most cities – let alone the hub of a major metropolitan market. But Tampa, as we know, is a city with a small town feel. The Mayor’s “Holiday Cooking Show” is a warm reminder.
Only this year, John Iorio was too ill to go on. Instead there were highlights of the 2004-05 holiday shows plus footage of this year’s Festa Italiana, featuring the dueling Iorios.
But it just wasn’t the same without the irrepressible “Red Sauce Master” this holiday season.