This memorable M*A*S*H cook once owned his own restaurant

Everyone wanted to dine with Val Bisoglio in the Seventies and Eighties.

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One of the most memorable cooks in the 4077th was played by a veteran character actor called Val Bisoglio.

He's first introduced as "the cook" in the ninth-season M*A*S*H episode "The Life You Save."

In this episode, Hawkeye Pierce is attempting to teach the surly cook how to prepare "the greatest French toast you ever tasted."

As Hawkeye preciously dictates how to make the family recipe, he tells the cook that he'll know the French toast is ready by pinching the bread after it soaks.

We then watch as the cook carelessly dumps the ingredients into an enormous pot, emptying a bag of bread into the eggy mixture before turning to Hawkeye to ask, "Would you care to pinch it, or shall I?"

The surly nature of this exchange became a recurring joke as Bisoglio made two more appearances in the next season.

In "'Twas the Day After Christmas," it's Charles Winchester III who becomes one cook too many in Bisoglio's kitchen.

Whereas in "The Life You Save," Bisoglio is simply known as "the cook," in this second appearance, the character gets a name: Sal Pernelli.

Winchester's desired menu he dictates to Sal, of course, is much more pretentious than Hawkeye's simple French toast request.

The snooty major requests chipped beef bourguignon, potatoes Lyonnaise and rum baba, which he tells Sal is fine food, "the likes of which have never before crossed your plebeian palate."

When Sal confirms he doesn't know how to make any of this food, Winchester insults him by saying, "You call yourself a chef?"

"I call myself a cook," Sal answers. "Chefs ain't got tattoos." (Funny how that line has not dated well.)

Taking the bit further, in Bisoglio's final appearance in the episode "A Holy Mess," it's not just one cast member ordering him around in his kitchen, but a whole group of soldiers who all want their eggs cooked differently for breakfast.

"Everybody gets scrambled," Sal says after the chaotic ordering goes on for too long. "No special orders. Period!"

When Bisoglio made these M*A*S*H appearances, he was better known on TV for playing Danny Tovo, the owner of Danny's, a restaurant that Jack Klugman's character on Quincy, M.E. frequents.

Bisoglio played Danny Tovo from 1976 to 1983, and he said told The Daily News in 1982 that he had so many scenes written into Quincy, M.E. because his restaurant gave writers a place to turn whenever they had a few extra minutes to add to an episode.

"Whenever the writers find they're a little short of time after they wrap up the case, they write in a little scene at the restaurant," Bisoglio said. "It’s only one minute or two, at the most. So, I'm the one or two-minute man!"

Bisoglio was at home as a restaurant owner in this role, because he actually owned a luncheonette in New York before he became an actor.

He told the Tacoma News Tribune in 1981 that his restaurant was "quite similar to the one I operate in Quincy."

The story goes that Bisoglio left that restaurant to his family to run and then moved to Las Vegas, where he worked as a waiter until a doctor told him he should try getting into acting as a form of therapy for his bad nerves.

"I thought it was kind of silly at first, but pretty soon I got to liking it — the acting bug bit me pretty good," Bisoglio told The Montgomery Advertiser in 1981.

Once bitten, Bisoglio started taking acting classes and moved to Hollywood, where he also worked as a waiter at Earl Carroll's Supper Club.

These restaurant jobs would later help him once he got cast on Quincy, M.E., where Klugman saw Bisoglio as a true character, and Bisoglio saw Klugman as his greatest teacher.

"Working with Klugman is like having a built-in tutor on hand to keep your efforts at their highest levels," Bisoglio told the San Bernardino County Sun in 1981.

In his career, Bisoglio appeared on TV on hit shows like M*A*S*H, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, All in the Family and Bonanza, always making the most of his "one or two minutes." Over time, he became the kind of character actor who casting directors put out bulletins seeking: "a Val Bisoglio-type."

Though TV fans might remember him best as the owner of Quincy's favorite restaurant, movie fans can't forget him as John Travolta's father, ruffling Tony's fluffy hair in Saturday Night Fever. His roles became more diverse, but at first, he was typecast not as a restaurant owner or cook, but as a gangster.

"All I kept getting offered were Italian gangster parts," Bisoglio told the Daily News in 1982. "I had my old nose then, all broken and out of shape, and I really looked like a hood. No wonder that's how they saw me. I'm older now, and I’ve really mellowed out."

This was right around when he was appearing on M*A*S*H, as the cook with tattoos who is decidedly not the "chef" that the 4077th wants him to be.

"Now I think of myself as maybe a nice guy, a little on the shady side," Bisoglio said.

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31 Comments

DIGGER1 33 months ago
R.I.P., VAL BISOGLIO(B.05/07/1921/1926-D.10/18/2021).
JHP 33 months ago
"I call myself a cook," Sal answers. "Chefs ain't got tattoos." (Funny how that line has not dated well.)

that is classic MASH - so good
Kenner 33 months ago
R.I.P. 🪦 Sal. This gifted actor passed away this past October.
Pacificsun 33 months ago
This story was worth waiting for, through the holidays, when we were suffering from an absence of MeTV Articles. We still hope the Staff Writers had a nice time away. But glad you're back in business.

Don't remember anything being written about the cook, clever angle and love the Quincey, M.E. add-in. What an interesting actor, and certainly help make MASH funny!
Andybandit 33 months ago
Considering the food they got on Mash. This guy was a professional chef.
daDoctah 33 months ago
The article doesn't mention the thing I most recognize Bisoglio for: he was the Indian chief who comes into possession of the Torah that was stolen from Rabbi Avram (played by Gene Wilder) in the movie "The Frisco Kid". His description of the book is at once both utterly parochial and wonderfully ecumenical and inclusive.
Pacificsun daDoctah 33 months ago
Good Tip, thanks!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Frisco_Kid
CaptainDunsel daDoctah 33 months ago
(Loudly, to the tribe) "I have read this book!"
(Softly, to Avram) "Did not understand one word."
Moody 33 months ago
Nice story. I had to laugh when he said everyone gets their eggs scrambled. It reminded me of the times I was on field maneuvers with the Army & going to the mess tent for breakfast. The army sergeant I was working with told me I could have my eggs any way I wanted as long as they're scrambled. They meant it too.

I can somewhat relate to his comment about being typecast as a gangster. Being of Italian heritage some people I've known over the years had this assumption that my family was somehow connected to the Mafia or that we grew up with the Mafia. Well, that's complete BS! I never knew anyone who was in organized crime when I was growing up nor did anyone in my family have any connections with any crime "family". But Italians are stereotyped by others who think we all have some connection to the mob. Italians in movies are rarely depicted as the close-knit, law abiding families that most of them are. They see the gangster movies & form their opinion of us from that. It's very frustrating & very irritating. We are no different from most other Americans who just want to live in peace & raise their families in a safe environment. Sorry for the rant but I felt it had to be said. Peace! ☮✝
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MrsPhilHarris Moody 33 months ago
I had the best carbonara in Rome in a small family run restaurant. I have never had one to match it. It was a life time ago and I’m still talking about the food I ate in Italy.
CouchPotato19 Moody 33 months ago
My next door neighbour and his friend are Italian mafia! Not sayin' that means you are, though.
Pacificsun Moody 33 months ago
There's a difference between people living among a truly diverse culture (I was raised in a very broad urban setting) and dumb people who just get their ideas from the media (TV and movies) which do it for convenience, when they don't want to sketch out a broad character from scratch!
LoveMETV22 33 months ago
Thank You MeTV for an interesting story on Val Bisoglio. Enjoyed his humor on M*A*S*H, and his other tv and film roles.
Also a belated RIP: Italo Valentino Bisoglio
Born: May 7, 1926 in New York City, New York.
Died: October 18, 2021 (age 95) in Los Olivos, California
Peter_Falk_Fan LoveMETV22 33 months ago
I mostly remember Val Bisoglio in the dinner table scene in "Saturday Night Fever". But he was good whenever I saw him on TV.
Yep, he was Travolta's father! I remember "Don't touch the hair!" I also remember the 2 times Travolta was happy: "The raise today...and dancing at the disco..." For obvious reasons, I can't finish THAT line here...LOL!
Michael 33 months ago
I thought "Igor" was the famous cook on MASH. He even had a cookbook, I found a used copy once and gave it to my sister.
Michael 33 months ago
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Gary/Radar run a restaurant after leaving the 4077th?
LoveMETV22 cperrynaples 33 months ago
I think it was his daughter Gena Burgoff and husband you are referring to. Montana Jack's restaurant was the restaurant she managed and her husband was the chef. According to several stories it was closed.
Does it include a recipe for creamed corn?
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