Frank Pendola cooks with his soul. He has no fancy training or culinary school behind his enterprises, which include the supper club Nostrano tucked into the basement of his Town Hill home and Frankie’s BBQ at the Hollywood Casino Raceway in Bangor. But, Pendola grew up in one of the best environments for cooks: an Italian neighborhood.

The Niagara Falls, N.Y., native learned at the waist of not just his grandmother but all the nonnis in the neighborhood along with aunts and uncles, et al. “They pretty much brought the old country with them,” said Pendola.  “I didn’t realize I grew up in Italy until I left,” he quipped. “They love what they do in the kitchen so much they want to share it with the people who come to their homes,” he said, describing his neighborhood.