Peter Napolitano, a fruit and vegetable maven who gained unexpected fame by genially dispensing advice about everything from apples to zucchini on a New York television station for more than 30 years under the name “Produce Pete,” died on Monday in Paramus, N.J. He was 80.
His son, Peter, confirmed the death, at a hospital, but did not specify the cause.
When it came to fruits and vegetables, Mr. Napolitano was the real thing: He owned and ran a produce store in Bergenfield, in North Jersey, for many years. He became “Produce Pete” in the early 1990s, when he began appearing on the WNBC-TV news program “Weekend Today in New York,” delivering segments on Saturday mornings from the station’s Manhattan studio, as well as from farms, restaurants, pumpkin patches and corn fields.
In his friendly, unpolished style, he taught viewers how to tell, for example, when pineapples from Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic were ripe (by their changing colors); how to properly carry a pumpkin (from the bottom); and how to appreciate odd-shaped Jersey tomatoes for their exceptional taste.
“My father, God rest his soul, that’s what he looked for, he looked for the odd-shaped tomatoes,” Mr. Napolitano said in a segment last October.