‘Produce Pete’ Napolitano, fruit and vegetable celebrity, dies at 80

Peter Napolitano, the fruit-and-vegetable expert known as “Produce Pete,” died on Monday in Paramus, N.J. He was 80, his son, Peter, confirmed; his son said the death occurred at a hospital but did not specify a cause. For more than 30 years Mr. Napolitano dispensed produce advice on New York television, building on a sales career that began when he was 5.

He owned and ran a produce store in Bergenfield, N.J., and became “Produce Pete” in the early 1990s with regular appearances on WNBC-TV’s “Weekend Today in New York,” reporting from the station’s studio as well as farms, restaurants, pumpkin patches and corn fields. On air, he taught viewers how to judge ripeness and quality—such as detecting when pineapples are ripe by their changing color, carrying a pumpkin from the bottom, and appreciating odd-shaped Jersey tomatoes for their taste.

He often mentioned his immigrant father and his mother’s recipes, and he advised that produce should feel “heavy in the hand” to be worth eating; WNBC anchor Pat Battle imitated his Jersey accent, saying, “If it feels like you’re holding a piece of paper, it ain’t good inside.” Mr.

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