FOX biz anchor a Bronx guy in his heart – and stomach

FOX biz anchor a Bronx guy in his heart – and stomach

You can take the boy out of the Bronx, but you can’t take the Bronx out of the boy – or out of his stomach at least.

Fox Business Network anchor Charlie Gasparino said after being born in the borough known for some of the best food in NYC, he has had a hard time staying away.

“That was my home away from home basically when I was a kid, up until I was twenty and then I went away to graduate school,” Gasparino said. “My wife is from Brooklyn, but I used to tell her instead of going out to Brooklyn, there are some great restaurants right here and we started going back.

“Even rather than going to Arthur Avenue I used to go to Throggs Neck. The places I’ve been shopping – I mean Pastosa Ravioli has been there since 1980 – are the easiest three places to shop for really good food: Pastosas, that meat market, Ritchie’s, and that fruit and vegetable store and you get everything you need. And I still do it once a week.”

If he had to dream up the perfect meal, Gasparino said it would all come from Throggs Neck.

Gasparino provides on-air reporting throughout the business day for the network, covering the latest news from the financial world.

But on his free time, he enjoys cooking and eating, especially back in his old stomping grounds.

Gasparino lived in the Bronx until he was about six, and then moved with his family to Westchester, but said he spent almost every weekend back at his grandmother’s apartment on Bruckner Blvd.

“My grandparents lived in a housing project and you know, I think it helped me in that regard. You understand people a little differently, you understand that people aren’t that different. In a lot of ways economics plays a role in the way people act.”

One of two sons, Gasparino said he was the first to graduate college and attend graduate school.

“My dad was a construction worker, he drove a cab when he was out of work, bartended a lot. I come from that type of back ground. I thought I was privileged to go there.”

Gasparino returned to New York after graduating with a Master’s degree in journalism and started his career in print journalism as a senior writer at Newsweek magazine where he broke major stories involving Wall Street and corporate America, including developments at the New York Stock Exchange under Richard Grasso and former New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s crackdown on corporate crime.

Gasparino also served as a writer for The Wall Street Journal, earning him a New York Press Club award for best continuing coverage of the Wall Street research scandal.

Prior to joining Fox Business Network, he was also an on-air editor for CNBC, responsible for breaking some of the biggest stories during the financial crisis.

“I think the most important story of my career was covering the financial crisis,” he said. “I think you could say the reporting I did during that time was the most significant I ever did. It was important it shined a light on some of the crappy practices that Wall Street engages in.”

Gasparino is also the author of three best-selling financial books, “The Sellout: How Three Decades of Wall Street Greed and Government Mismanagement Destroyed the Global Financial System” and “Blood on the Street,” as well as critically acclaimed “King of the Club: Richard Grasso and the Survival of the New York Stock Exchange.”

Gasparino said he worked hard to master the craft of writing and always made sure he was able to multi-task, which he believes has always kept him working.

His advice to aspiring writers, reporters and journalists would be to keep writing.

“I would say this, to someone who wants to be in journalist – get literate, writing sharply, communicating and asking good questions. And the only way you can do that is if you are literate and can understand the world around you.”

Kirsten Sanchez can be reach via e-mail at [email protected] or by phone at (718) 742-3394