A Reporter Eats and Drinks the News Charlie Gasparino, a senior correspondent with the Fox Business Network and Fox News, is known (some might say notorious) for his dogged, determined pursuit of scoops on the titans of Wall Street. He is known, too, for his unusual habit of going on the air and chatting about what he had to eat (and drink) the night before. Mr. Gasparino, 51, met for a late lunch at San Pietro, one of his Midtown haunts. On dining strategically "I've got to eat where the people I cover go. It's good in this place, particularly at lunch. You'll see me here - I'll be at the bar usually. And I will have my lunch, and roam up and down. See that row of tables by the window? That's called Chairman's Row. It's usually filled with John Mack and Larry Fink and Tim Geithner. Listen, I've done this a lot. When there's a news-breaking thing and they're in here? For example, when Dick Grasso won his case against Eliot Spitzer? I got a call from a patron who said, "Grasso's in here, they're having a celebratory lunch." So I sat there. I had my cameraman across the street. And we just waited. That's kind of how I do my job. I figure out how information flows, and these restaurants - everybody has to go out, you know? F.B.I. agents go out. Elaine's was a big place of mine - I was a big-time regular at Elaine's. I was very good friends with Elaine, two or three of my books were on the wall. But the food there was infamous "Now that she's dead I can actually say this. She loved me, but I wouldn't eat there. I just hated the food. It was so bad, and there was nothing healthy you could get that was good there. So every time I walked in there, she'd yell, "Where did you eat tonight?" And I used to make up 400 excuses. My biggest excuse was, "I was at a reception." I used to tell people, "Just say we went to a reception." And so about three years into the reception routine, she went nuts, absolutely nuts on me, she threatened to throw me out. On the origins of his food fascination "When I was 15 or 16, I started working in restaurants. My dad was a bartender on the side. He got me a job at a couple of restaurants, primarily this place called the Silver Moon in Yorktown Heights. My dad got me a job dish washing, and when you dish wash, you learn how to cook. I actually learned how to cook easy stuff pretty well. I could make really good lasagna. I could make really good meatballs. How to make great meatballs "Listen, I think you need good Italian bread. And you need breadcrumbs. And I think you put a little onion in it. And if you really want to kick it up, put milk, whole milk, with the bread, to soften the bread up. And here's the thing: don't overseason. People mess it up - I've noticed this with non-Italians making meatballs: too much oregano, way too much salt, and too much garlic. Those three things. Italian is, like, less. Italians from Italy use very little garlic. Why he loves Bamonte's in Brooklyn "It's simple. Very simple. And good. The best mussels marinara ever is at Bamonte's. See, Anthony Bamonte will tell you, and most places will not guarantee this: He'll guarantee his mussels 99 percent. You can never give 100 percent on mussels. You can get sick off of mussels. He'll give you a 99.9-percent guarantee, because he basically checks them every day. He's a fanatic when it comes to mussels. Most places aren't. You know, a lot of these places, they don't clean "em, you can still see the beard on "em. But that place is immaculate. A recipe for a good martini "My martini, I have it down to a science now. Metal is better, because it keeps it colder, but I can make a good one in a coffee thermos. Ice. A lot of ice. I use Ketel One. I squeeze a lemon in it. Sometimes I'll squeeze a lime and a lemon, depending on how I feel. And then I'll take the cap, for vermouth, and I'll just fill it with a little less than a quarter of a cap of vermouth. Then I'll chop the ice with a spoon. Now, the reason why the metal thing works better is because you can gauge the temperature better. When you're holding the metal and you're chopping the ice and your hand gets numb, you know you're done.