Lindsay Marie Morris

Sicily is steeped in multicultural heritage, and navigating the island's complex history can be challenging. Thanks to historians like Palermo-based Louis Mendola, we have several comprehensive yet approachable books to serve as a road map. A leading medievalist, Louis leads his readers through the island's layered past, challenging stereotypes, unearthing hidden and forgotten histories, and giving voice to descendants. 

I recently reached out to Louis after reading The Peoples of Sicily: A Multicultural Legacy, which he co-authored with Jacqueline Alio. The book serves as an essential starting point for exploring the region's roots, highlighting the many conquerors, wayfarers, and rulers who left their mark on its food, architecture, and language. Louis, who grew up in Upstate New York, has called Sicily home for the past 30 years. It's a return to the place of his ancestors and a base for first-hand research. He shared with me how he got his start, surprising discoveries, his favorite historical period, challenges, future projects, and his hopes for his readership.

What led you to specialize in Sicilian history?

Mostly because I'm Sicilian. I've been reading a lot of these things since I was a teenager. So, in my case, I like to say that I didn't look to join the field, but the field kind of sought me. It makes sense that somebody would study a field of history that pertains to their own ancestry instead of, let's say, just choosing someplace else. 

What are some of the most surprising discoveries you've made in your research?

It's the holy grail for historians to find original stuff that nobody else has published. In my case, some of the original things I've found have been slightly arcane. For example, I found a reference in the Vatican Library in an uncataloged manuscript to the Assizes of Ariano of 1140. We have two manuscripts of that, two codices that were discovered after 1700: one at Monte Casino, the other at the Vatican. And I actually found a reference to them. It was written about four or five years after that, which was rather interesting. So, it wasn't an earth-shattering discovery, but it reinforced the dating of the documents. 

How has Sicilian history shaped the island's identity?

In my books, I make the point that by 1300, we had what I refer to as a monoculture. It was essentially Latin. It's what you see today.  

We have to consider that the Jews of Sicily were expelled or converted in 1493, a year after Spain. So from that point onward, we ended up with the monoculture, and you might even refer to it sometimes as an ethnocracy, which is a government or a place based on one ethnic group instead of many.

In some of my recent books, I discussed whether there's a philosophy to the study of Sicilian history. Many of us believe that there is, and part of it is the multicultural element. Sicily had all kinds of different ethnic cultures, and for some periods, you had them all at one time.

During the Norman period, up until about 1200, there were Muslims, Jews, Latin Christians, and Orthodox Greek Christians. So, there were four essential societies.

Which period is your favorite?

I would say the Norman-Swabian period. It was more interesting than a lot of other periods of Sicilian history. It also represented a period when the Kingdom of Sicily was actually independent because in 1266, with the Battle of Benevento, the Hohenstaufen Dynasty of Frederick II was defeated. The capital was transferred under the Angevins to Naples from Palermo. And then a little bit after that, in 1282, with the War of the Vespers, it actually split. So, you ended up with the Kingdom of Naples and the Kingdom of Sicily. That was true sovereignty and with kings in the case of Roger II, then Frederick II, his grandson, and all the others. These were people born in Southern Italy, even though their dynasties had come from elsewhere.

What challenges do you face researching and writing about Sicilian history?

Oddly enough, the greatest challenge is not the research or even the writing, which is very labor-intensive. That's not even it. The real issue is that you end up either debunking misconceptions to set the record straight, looking into things more profoundly, or expressing it in a cohesive way. Those are the real challenges. The work itself, a lot of people can do, and a lot of people do. It's a question of presenting the work in a cohesive, understandable way. That's the biggest challenge. 

Where is the biggest gap in understanding Sicilian history?

A few years back, there was a book that was written, and I remember verbatim the first lines in the prologue: "What's the first thing you think of when you think of Sicily? If you're like most people, you think of the mafia."

The mafia has only existed since about 1800, and it's evolved from that. So it was tantamount to somebody writing a book about Germany or the Germans and only talking about Hitler.

That's really rather recent, and for that matter, Fascism in Italy is frankly rather recent. So it's unfortunate that people look at this, and even a lot of Italian Americans, because there are people—screenwriters like David Chase writing The Sopranos and people on social media—who seem to promote this mafia-thug type of culture. It's not just professional actors and actresses. I could give them a pass because they have to work. But a lot of this ties in with the Guido macho, tough-guy mentality. I think it's just extremely unfortunate that in those circles, mostly in the U.S. and Canada, it has developed in that way. Because if you look at the diasporic Italians in places like Argentina or England—for example, I have cousins in England—it's nothing like that.

It's a very different view of the culture of Sicily or Southern Italy. So that's a matter of concern over time because some people in these other categories that seem to glorify that lifestyle or that limited view of Southern Italy can be very vociferous. They're adamant about their beliefs. They can even be obnoxious. And I've seen that on social media. That's extremely unfortunate because they've been sold a bill of goods and deceived. And it's not just the mafia stereotypes; it's even the idea that the unification of Italy saved Italy and that Garibaldi was greater than he really was and Meucci invented the telephone. These are ideas that, unfortunately, a lot of even Italian-American organizations support.

What's more, they have nothing to do with the people of Southern Italy. Southern Italy had a kingdom of its own until 1860. A lot of people who don't study history don't know that.

What future projects are you working on?

The first one is called Sicily by Sicilians. It's going to be 17 or 20 chapters, each written by a different person. And what they have in common is that they all have roots in Sicily or Southern Italy. So it's autohistory, which is what I promote in my other work. It's people writing about their own history and their own ancestors. The topics range from philology, which is a study of linguistic origins, to music, to the history of women, which doesn't get as much attention as it deserves. And it's a very interesting group of people, some of whom have not really written that much in these fields before, even though they're experts. And as it stands right now, three-quarters of the work is going to be written by women, which, again, is a little bit unusual.

Another project after that will be a general history of Sicily, which goes from pre-history up until the present. 

How do you hope your work influences the understanding of Sicilian history and culture?

The greatest impact of my work is in anglophone circles because I don't usually publish in Italian. My work until now—the books themselves—is in English. Most of the readers are not actually Italian descendants, but that is the growing percentage that we see—for example, Canadian Italians, Italian Americans, and Australian Italians. So there's certainly an interest there. And it's gratifying that, in some cases, we're setting the record straight about the history of Sicily because people don't always get that from other things that have been published in English. 

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One of the highlights from my last trip to Sicily was a visit to the Solunto ruins just above my grandparents' former home in Porticello. Founded between the 8th and 7th centuries B.C. on the promontory of Sòlanto, Solunto was refounded after the tyrant Dionysius I's destruction of Syracuse on Mount Catalfano in the 4th century B.C. It represented a key settlement occupied between the Phoenician and Roman eras.

Getting there is part of the experience as you hike along a rambling path behind homes with wisteria-covered walls and sweeping views of the Tyrrhenian Sea.

I recently had the opportunity—thanks to the support of the team of Uncovered Sicily—to speak with Gabriella Sciortino, a Palermo-based archeologist specializing in Phoenician-Punic Sicily, who shared more about this special place, its multicultural roots, and its historical significance. 

What is the significance of Solunto and its location?

The location of the earliest Solunto reproduces a colonial settlement pattern that shows significant topographical similarities with the Phoenician foundations in the Mediterranean, particularly the ones of eastern Andalusia (such as Morro de Mezquitilla, Almuñecar or Toscanos). This colonial settlement was open from the most archaic stage to a multiplicity of socioeconomic relationships with the indigenous communities of this part of the island and the Greek communities, particularly with the very close colony of Himera.

The site was open to the Tyrrhenian Sea and its traffic and people, such as the Etruscans or the Greeks. Solunto was a very important economic and trade route in the Mediterranean between the East and the West; moreover, it was strongly connected with Southern and Central Italy. So, the location, in this case, is a key element of the importance of this ancient settlement. It mirrors some patterns already outlined by other Phoenician settlements in the Mediterranean.

How did various cultural influences shape Solunto?

Solunto was shaped by the influence of Phoenician and Punic culture, as well as Greek-Hellenistic and Roman elements. If we look at the name Solunto, we see the Greek name Soloeis or Solous, meaning "the rock." We call it by its Roman or Latin name, Solus or Soluntum. So, just beginning from the name, we can see how many layers there are about this culture. In fact, the original Phoenician name was connected to a toponym, Kfr, which is Semitic for "the village." We know that in the fifth century B.C., there were some coins with a double legend with the Greek name and also with the Semitic toponym Kfr. This strongly reflects the mix of cultures at this settlement.

Of course, we can recognize part of this cultural influence just by looking at the settlement and the ruins. For example, the sacred areas of the settlement are connected to the Phoenician and Punic religion. Along the main street, the agora street, there is a three-pillar altar, which is very typical of Semitic religion and culture. Another important area is close to the agora, on the terrace above the theater. It's a temple with two naves separated by a central wall and covered by a vault, where the niches and structural podiums in the rear must have housed two statues. The first is a bearded male statue seated on a throne, identified with Baal Hammon, in the Greek guise of Zeus, now preserved at the Salinas Museum. The second is the female one, probably depicting Astarte—the most important goddess of the Phoenician pantheon—seated on a throne, with two lions side by side, according to a widespread oriental iconography and dated in the Archaic period.

Tell us about the daily life of Solunto residents.

The settlement was very full of life. It can be demonstrated, for example, by the number of beautiful Roman houses that are quite well-preserved and also by the fact that there were important public buildings such as the theater. So it demonstrates that it was very alive. Moreover, along the main street, there were shops and commercial activities. So surely, the richest people of Solunto had to be involved in trade and agriculture. They had the possibility to have a rich life and enjoy all kinds of cultural activities.

What contributed to the downfall of Solunto?

The First Punic War was a very difficult period. At the time, Solunto was Punic. The city finally surrendered to the Romans in 254 B.C. Under Roman rule, we have information about Solunto, as Cicero names it, between the "civitates decumanae" vexed by Verre and later others. The historical source is a dedication on epigraph—dated between 202 and 205 A. D.—and some coins of the Commodo's age (180-192 A.D.). Finally, the city was naturally abandoned by its inhabitants since the beginning of the 3rd century A.D. as the territory was subjected to a progressive ruralization as usual during Late Antiquity.

The Ruins of Solunto. The Gymnasium by Pietro Volpes (photographed by Gabriella Sciortino)

What do you hope visitors will take away from a visit?

The experience can be strongly connected to the natural and cultural heritage, as it is possible to admire the painting by Pietro Volpes, The Ruins of Solunto. The Gymnasium (1891), exhibited at Villa Zito, the Pinacotheca of Fondazione Sicilia, in Palermo. There are very important archeological sites in Sicily, but Solunto's surroundings are very charming, and it is a very well-preserved settlement with a rich antiquarian constituting an added value for the visitors for a complete understanding of the site. It can be very interesting to visit and understand the daily life of a city on a mountain in ancient times.

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Thank you to all who joined us on January 16 at The Last Letter from Sicily Virtual Launch Party, celebrating the debut of The Last Letter from Sicily. It was an honor to share the evening with so many friends far and wide. Watch as I read a passage from my novel and answer attendee questions.

I look forward to more events, book club appearances, and interviews, and I am so grateful for all of the support I have received on my author journey!

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Much of my author's journey has involved immersing myself in the Italian experience of World War II. One of the most surprising finds was that the 600,000 Italian soldiers in Mussolini's army were taken as prisoners of war by the Allies, and 51,000 of them were brought to camps in the United States. 

Yes, you read that correctly. The Allies transported POWs to several countries, including the United States, where they were held until the conflict's end.

Filmmaker Camilla Calamandrei worked for ten years to make the 2002 documentary film Prisoners in Paradise. The film follows the journeys of six Italian men, starting with their war conscription through their internment as POWs in America and the critical decision they faced after Italy's 1943 armistice: whether to support the U.S. war effort as part of groups called Italian Service Units.

Some 35,000 Italian POWs chose that route, allowing them to work in various jobs supporting U.S. troops (i.e., doing laundry, construction, or farming), depending on their location. In most of the camps, the POWs were allowed to have visits from local Italian American families on Sundays. At times, they were allowed to attend social gatherings outside the camps, under supervision, or sometimes even dine in locals' homes. A number of ISU members developed romantic relationships with women they have met during these years. Although all POWs were repatriated to Italy after the war, a number of women went to Italy to marry these men and came back to the U.S. to live. (Italian POWs who chose not to collaborate with the U.S. war effort were sent to camps in Texas, where they faced harsh restrictions and reportedly reduced food rations.)

These stories are richly documented in Camilla's film, using interviews with surviving POWs and their wives along with rare archival footage. Prisoners in Paradise serves as a valuable, lasting document of the impact of these wartime experiences on these people's lives. It is filled with moments of humor, poignant stories, and reflections on loyalty and identity during a turbulent time. I recommend it to anyone who wishes to learn more about Italian World War II history. 

Camilla took the time to speak with me about her inspiration, memorable interviews, surprises, and more.

What inspired this film?

My father was an Italian who fought as an anti-fascist partisan during WWII and then came to the U.S. after the war to study, and eventually became the American correspondent for a major Italian newspaper. I didn't know anything about Italians who had served in Mussolini's army until one visit with my family in Tuscany. I had visited my family in Italy a number of times throughout my childhood, but I did not speak Italian, so our conversations were limited. Then, once, when I was visiting in my early twenties, my uncle  (who didn't speak English and who had never been to the U.S. during my lifetime) started to recount a story in Italian, "When I was a prisoner in America during the War…"  I had no idea what he was talking about. I had never heard his story of being a POW, and I had no idea that there had been Italian prisoners of war in the U.S.

I started looking for information in books or films, but there was very little documented about Italian POWs, just a handful of academic articles and one book by a man named Louis Keefer, Italian Prisoners of War in America, 1942-1946: Captives or Allies? He had interviewed a number of POWs who had returned to the U.S. and published a collection of their oral histories.

I contacted Mr. Keefer, who shared some of his contacts, and I used a large and varied network to find surviving POWs who had returned to the U.S. and others who had remained in Italy. I traveled around the U.S. and interviewed 19 surviving POWs and their wives before we began filming. They don't all appear in the film, but I learned a lot from them. I then selected those who I thought would be most compelling for the film. I also found Italian POWs who had not collaborated and had not come back to the U.S. and interviewed them in Italy. Several American historians and an archival researcher also helped me.

What were some of your more memorable interviews?

The first story every surviving POW told me about arriving in America was about food. One Italian officer tells the story of when a U.S. soldier opened a can and pulled out an entire cooked chicken. Another tells the story of his disbelief that so much food could be for the enemy POWs. And yet another tells of POWs hiding bread in the rafters of their barracks because they feared it would run out. The Americans couldn't figure out how the Italian POWs were eating so much bread, but eventually, they discovered what was happening. 

The POWs I interviewed also had almost identical descriptions of being amazed by the wide-open vistas as they were being transported across the country by train. And the very strong similarities in their experiences continued as they joined Italian Service Units, regardless of where they were held in the U.S. Even their perspectives, decades later on, of having a split identity between the U.S. and Italy are the same. That's why the film is constructed the way it is: We took the beginning of each man's story but then took the next piece from just one or two people and the next piece from another. We didn't need to revisit every step of each man's story—together, it is a tapestry of moments and experiences that add up to the story of all of them.

What was the most surprising thing you encountered?

There was this powerful sense of America. My uncle talked about being captured by the British and immediately saying to his friend, "Let's go with the Americans! That'll be better." Somehow, they already had this impression of what America would be like and wanted to see it. There's a long history, even before World War II, of Italians coming to the United States to work and then going back. This sort of strong connection was already between Italy and the United States.

I remember this one family who still lived in Utah. Mario was held as a POW in Ogden, just outside Salt Lake City. He ended up marrying an Italian-American woman, Anna, who came to visit the POWs with her family (and the local minister) on Sundays. Mario was repatriated after the war, but Anna traveled to Italy to marry him, and they came back to the U.S. They lived the rest of their lives in Ogden, the same town where he had been a POW. Their first house was even an old POW barrack they adapted.

One poignant note that is not in the film is that Anna, as a young woman, had always wanted to move to the West Coast, but Mario became very attached to her family, so they stayed in Ogden and raised three children. She never got to live by the ocean, but she had a rich and vibrant family with plenty of grandkids. Mario closes the film by saying, "Down deep, you love your country (Italy), but America gave me everything."

You present individuals who chose not to join the Italian Service Units. Tell us about that.

It's interesting. We included two men in the film who did not collaborate, including one extremely articulate man, Gaetano Tumiati, who wrote a book about his experiences later. He chose not to collaborate because he felt it would potentially mean he would be working to harm his brother, who was fighting in Mussolini's army when they last saw each other. He would only find out after the war that his brother had fled the army and joined the partisans. So his view, in the end, was, "My judgment after all this is... democracy! How fortunate we did not win the war! How lucky that we lost and the Americans won. Because we realized… what would have happened if Hiter had won."

Then there was another man who, for his entire life, just saw the war and his years as a POW as lost years. He blames the United States and is super angry about it.

For those of us who've grown up never having to be involved in a war, it is always educational to understand that people are plucked from youth and put into these situations not of their own making that changed their lives. You don't get those years back. 

What was your goal with this documentary?

The purpose of the film was to provide a window into this world or this experience that people are not aware of. I like the hidden-in-the-margins-of-history idea. My film is one of the most comprehensive documents about the experience, along with Louis Keefer's book, so I feel good about that, and I am glad that people continue to be interested in it.

>>Read more about the film Prisoners in Paradise.<<

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Los Angeles-based Italian American Lauren LoGrasso has quite the juggling act as a singer, songwriter, podcaster, producer, public speaker, and creative coach. Her key to keeping all the balls in the air? Scheduling.

"It's easy to let our creativity pass us by if we just treat it like a thing that will show up whenever we want it to," Lauren says. "We have to prioritize it the same way we prioritize our relationships—especially when nobody's asking you for it—when it's all self-driven."

Driven is the keyword for this "multi-passionate" creative. In the past year alone, she won not one but two Webby Awards for her podcast, Unleash Your Inner Creative, released a single, and helped others realize their creative potential through coaching. 2025 also promises to be a big year, with several exciting projects on the horizon.

We recently had a chance to sit down and discuss our shared Sicilian heritage, where she gets her creative inspiration, what it means to have an award-winning podcast, her favorite interview moment, future plans, and her overall goal.

Tell us about your connection to Sicily.

I am 75% Sicilian. My mom is half Sicilian and half northern Italian, and my dad is 100% Sicilian. I grew up feeling very connected to it. We were over at my grandparents' house for Sunday dinners. They had a huge part in raising me because my parents worked, so they took care of me a lot. 

I had a pretty classic Italian-American upbringing. I was very close to my cousins. I'm an only child, so my cousins were more like my siblings. My heritage is something I have always been really proud of, but as so often happens with our culture, in particular, it gets watered down.

Our people really wanted to assimilate and threw a lot of their customs away. And so I feel like my role in my twenties and thirties has been about reclaiming and retracing some of the steps and figuring out some of the things we lost or gave away because we wanted to fit in.

Part of that was being the first person in my family to go back to the towns where my family was from. Two weeks before I was going to Sicily for the first time, my dad handed me a letter that his first cousin Nicola had written to him back in 2009. He just never answered it for some reason but held onto it. I asked, "Do you want me to do anything?" He's like, "Just go to this address." So my boyfriend at the time, now my fiancé, and I went to Marsala.

We were like, "We have to go to this address just in case they're somehow still living there from 2009." It was back in 2022 that we went, and we took this little cab, and we showed up at their apartment door, and it still said LoGrasso on it. So I was freaking out. I started violently pressing the buzzer, and I was panicking in that split second because we didn't have a phone number for them.

All of a sudden, these two guys come out on the balcony on the second floor. They look down at me, and I say, "Hello, my name is Lauren LoGrasso. I think I'm your cousin." And they look at each other, they look at me, and they go, "One moment," and they rush down the stairs.

I pulled up the picture of the letter I had on my phone. It was from them. We were hugging and crying. They let us up to their apartment. They had this thing that said "Foto America" on it, and it wasn't like it was buried in a bin. It had pictures of all of us—their American cousins.  It was right next to their kitchen table. And through that, I ended up getting to meet them: Nicola, my dad's first cousin; his wife, Maria; their son, Alessandro; another cousin of ours, Salvatore; and his wife, Rosa. And it was just one of the most beautiful experiences of my life, and they had been waiting for us all of that time.

It still brings me to tears now, but Salvatore wrote in Google Translate, "This moment has been awaited for 70 years."

I've always been very connected to my Sicilian heritage, especially over the past two years, as I've gotten to know them and built our relationship. I was able to bring my parents back to meet them for the first time. I feel very connected now. I'm learning Italian, and it's been like a reclaiming. It felt like a puzzle piece that had always been missing in me was put back into place. 

Lauren has been singing since she was a little girl. 

What inspired you to pursue such a range of creative outlets?

I always loved singing. That was probably one of the first things I did from the time I was little. My mom got me a karaoke machine when I was two and a half. When I was three, I started doing musical theater, and then at the end of high school, I was like, "Well, I should probably do something more practical. So I'm going to go into broadcast journalism because I want to be a talk show host."

I had no desire to actually be a real journalist following a story, so I ended up dropping the journalism thing. It really wasn't for me. And I got a BFA in acting and a BA in communication. 

I originally came to Los Angeles just to act, and I discovered music kind of accidentally. I had always done musical theater, but I didn't write music until I came here.

When acting started really breaking my heart because of all the rejection, I discovered this ability and passion for songwriting. I linked up with this guy I knew from Michigan State, and we started playing all around town. 

When I was on my way to these gigs, I would listen to SiriusXM radio. I'd done radio in college, but just DJing. But that's when I really fell in love with the medium of talk radio.

So I just got this obsession with it, and I was like, "I'm going to work at SiriusXM someday." I didn't know anyone who worked there. I really only had this college experience of radio. But, long story short, I ended up working there. That got me into hosting and producing, and then I transitioned into podcasting.

Public speaking is something that I have wanted to do since I was in middle school or high school. But this whole time, I've kind of felt like I need to wait until I actually have something to publicly speak on. So, I knew that I needed to build experience. Being in L.A. and pursuing the arts in any way definitely gives you the chops, pain, and resilience to speak from. So now I speak about the topics that I've kind of discovered through my journey here and on my podcast, which are related to creativity and self-development. 

Coaching was a natural thing that I started doing because people were asking me for my advice all the time, and I found myself getting burnt out by doing it constantly for free. So finally, I was just like, "I guess I should just make this part of my job. People seem to want it, and I do love giving people advice." So it's really nice when they solicit it because I'm trying to work on not giving unsolicited advice!

Unleash Your Inner Creative airs on podcast platforms.

Tell us what motivated you to launch your podcast, Unleash Your Inner Creative.

There were a couple of things. Number one, I really believe, and now I have proof via a NASA study that we are all born creative, but that life knocks it out of us. And so I wanted to help people remember, reclaim, and unleash it. Because I saw a lot of people, whether it was people in L.A. who came out here with a big dream and, just as things got disappointing, pushed it further and further down, or people in my family who I could tell just never even let themselves turn that creativity on.

I started to notice a level of depression or even numbing out in them. I really believe that repressed creativity causes a lot of personal suffering, and I don't want to see that happen anymore. 

I was also producing a podcast, and this guy on it said, "In 50 years, 85% of all jobs will require creativity; it's the one thing AI can't do on its own. It can replicate human creativity, but it cannot be creative."

So there was this more spiritual self-development reason that I believe repressed creativity causes suffering and a practical reason that being creative is the one thing in the world that will always make you financially viable. There is nothing more powerful than a good idea. 

The show aims to give people tools to love, trust, and know themselves enough to claim their right to creativity and pursue whatever it is that's on their heart. It sits at the intersection of self-development, mental health, spirituality, and creativity/the creative process. 

Lauren proudly holds one of two Webby Awards she won in 2024.

You've won Webby Awards. What does that mean to you personally and professionally?

It was wild because I had applied for the web awards several times before I was even nominated, and I was nominated and won for the first time last year. The year before that, I was an honoree. But what it meant to me was that almost six years ago, I was right to take a chance on myself. 

There was a company I was supposed to work with at the time who was going to produce my show. They ended up pulling out at the last minute, and I decided to still go forward and produce it independently. And it was just a signal to me that, "Wow, I was right to take a chance on myself. This is resonating." 

Also, it meant a lot to me personally because of how my community supported me. Unfortunately, many times in life, we have to wait for something bad to happen to find out how much people support us and love us.  My community, listeners, friends, and family showed up for me so beautifully, and because of that, I was able to see how much people wanted to see me shine and felt like they were part of my success. 

I wish that for every person because I think we should all have that opportunity and privilege to get to know how much people want to see us succeed. 

I think it's easy to feel like the underdog and feel like, "Oh, nobody sees me." But when something like this comes up, and people actually show up for you, that, to me, was the greatest win. 

Once we got to the awards, I looked at the program, and there were all these huge companies like Vox Media, PBS, MSNBC, and then Lauren LoGrasso Productions. It was like, "Hell yeah!"

Lauren poses on the red carpet at the Webby Awards.

You've interviewed multiple notable personalities. Can you share a memorable moment from one of those interviews?

They've all been memorable in different ways. There's this one that really stands out to me: Julia Cameron. I've gotten to interview her every year for the past four years. The first time I got to interview her was mind-blowing because there would be no Unleash Your Inner Creative without Julia Cameron. She was the first person in our general time period who actually said, "Everyone's an artist. There are ways to unleash these qualities within us. Here are some tools."

Her book and the "Morning Pages" changed my life so dramatically. So, the whole first time interviewing her was really beautiful, but at the end, she sang, and it felt like I got to see her younger self come out. 

It's interesting because when you're in a supportive role, whether you're a coach, a teacher, or even a self-development writer, I think people often don't see you as your own creative being and artist. They just see you as the teacher.

When she sang the song at the end, I got to see her younger self and true artist come out. And that was really special. 

"...your worth doesn't hang on whether or not the ambition ever comes to fruition."

What advice do you have for someone who's just starting out?

The thing I wish I had, looking back on it when I was starting, and even now, I need to work on it every day, is taking my worth out of outcomes. It's really easy to confuse creativity with how something is received, and your creativity and artistry have nothing to do with how far your work goes.

You are an artist, or you are a creative, regardless of whether or not you ever become mainstream or anything close to it. And I think starting out, knowing that you are worthy, the chances of you being born are literally—this isn't a random statistic— one in 40 billion.

So, just the fact that any of us are here is a miracle. And as much as we can, taking our worth out of outcomes and knowing that the pursuit of doing it, just doing it, just putting it out is the whole exercise.

You can still be ambitious, but know that your worth doesn't hang on whether or not the ambition ever comes to fruition. That and self-knowledge, I really do believe, are the keys to pretty much everything in life. But you definitely deserve to unleash your creativity and share it with the world. It's much more holistic than we give it credit for. The inner work is really important, and you should also enjoy life.

When I first moved to L.A., I was so obsessed with making my dreams come true that I didn't let myself be a person. And if you don't let yourself just be out in the world and enjoy human things, you have nothing to create from. So I would say make time for joy, make time for rest, and make time to remember who you are outside of what you do.

Lauren has spoken publicly at events, including the Girlboss Rally.

What future projects or goals do you have in mind for your career, and what can we look forward to?

I've been doing more and more public speaking over the last year, but I'm going to be going really hard with that in 2025. For public speaking, I just finished my reel and my speaker's deck. I'm launching a new website, so you can expect to see me out in the world speaking a lot more. And I'm incorporating music into my speaking, which is really cool. I've been trying to find a way to bring all my creative children under one roof for a while. So that will be coming.

I've got a few new singles. One is about the personal shadow and integrating it so you're a whole person. Another is about my struggles with codependency and healing from that. And I've got some other ones about family generational trauma and stuff.

I've been working on a children's YouTube show with a friend for a long time, so I'm hoping that will come out. We're very close to the end, but just a few more things to tie up and hopefully work with great new creatives and people doing podcasts.

I love helping people find their voice and bring that into the world. That's definitely one of my passions. And so yeah, hopefully, meeting new people to work with and support them in their creative journeys, too.

Lauren says the key is being yourself. 

What is your goal with all of your creative pursuits?

The first thing that came to mind was just to be myself. I think a lot of us have a dream to make our living being ourselves in some way, whatever that means to us. And yeah, I want to use my voice to help other people feel empowered to find and use their voice or whatever their creative outlet is. So, the goal with all of it is to be able to feel fully expressed and not feel like I left anything on the table when I leave this world. 

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I was born in Milwaukee, a place known for beer and bratwurst. But starting in the 1890s, it was also home to significant numbers of Italian immigrants, particularly from Sicily.

My nonna and her family settled in Milwaukee in the late 1930s. She and my nonno, who arrived after World War II, shopped at Sicilian-owned Glorioso's and Peter Sciortino's Bakery. 

In later years, Nonno would meet us at Milwaukee's Festa Italiana, the city's longest-running ethnic festival, where we'd eat arancini and cannoli, watch folk singers and dancers, and stay for the Bartolotta fireworks. 

I recently stumbled upon Storia Italia: Milwaukee, a documentary that aired on Milwaukee Public Television. While broadcast in 2015, the themes remain relevant, and it was a joy to see familiar names, faces, and storefronts. This was the Milwaukee that my family knew.

The documentary not only highlights Milwaukee's historically Italian neighborhoods—the Third Ward, Brady Street on Milwaukee's lower east side, and Bayview—but also shares personal stories of what these immigrants had to overcome, the contributions of Italians to Brew City, and reflections on what it means to be Italian in Milwaukee today. 

I reached out to producer Maryann Lazarski to learn more about the making of this important documentary.

A veteran broadcast journalist, television producer, and educator, Maryann produced and managed Milwaukee's ABC affiliate, WISN-TV, for 20 years. More recently, she retired after a decade at Milwaukee PBS, where she produced a newsmagazine program and documentaries for broadcast and digital. Maryann has taught broadcast journalism and communications at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Cardinal Stritch University. She currently teaches a multimedia news storytelling class at her alma mater (and mine), Marquette University. She also serves as president of the Milwaukee Press Club, the oldest continuously operating press club in North America.

What inspired the creation of Storia Italia: Milwaukee?

This was the first documentary I produced for Milwaukee PBS (Milwaukee Public Television, MPTV, at the time). National PBS was airing a series called The Italian Americans, and the station wanted to have a local documentary to tie into the national broadcast.

So, I decided to visit Milwaukee's Italian Community Center, which displays hundreds of photographs of local Italian immigrants. At the time, I met with the center's historian, who was a wealth of information.

Milwaukee's Central Library. Carol M. Highsmith Photography

How did Italian immigrants contribute to the development of Milwaukee?

Many of the immigrants were artisans/sculptors who helped beautify the city's grandest buildings, including Central Library along Wisconsin Avenue, with Italian marble and tile. The immigrant men worked in factories and on the railroads, and others became entrepreneurs, primarily in the grocery business.

What challenges did the first Italian immigrants face when they arrived in Milwaukee?

As mentioned in the documentary, the language was a challenge for the immigrants. Even among the different "groups," they had different dialects, so it was often hard for them to communicate with each other. They didn't know how to read and write.

Housing was limited. Some lived with relatives who already arrived in Milwaukee.

Many were unskilled, so they learned trades or worked in the factories or on the railroads.

Tell us about the core neighborhoods where Italians settled and some of the businesses that reflect that history.

In Milwaukee's Third Ward—as mentioned in the documentary—was an area called Commission Row, where fruits and vegetables would be delivered. Other small Italian meat and grocery markets popped up there. Other Italians migrated to Brady Street on the lower east side of Milwaukee. 

 
Blessed Virgin of Pompeii Church. Photo courtesy of Pompeii Men's Club.

You mention the Blessed Virgin of Pompeii Church. What role did the so-called Little Pink Church have in the community? 

The Little Pink Church was a sacred space for the Italian immigrants to gather and share their Catholic faith. During this time, they also had church street festivals and honored Mary. The Italians were heartbroken when the church was bulldozed to expand the highway. There's still a marker commemorating where it once stood. That's when many moved to Brady Street and attended St. Rita of Casia church on the east side of Milwaukee.

The developer of the senior community center and housing is also Italian. He wanted to bring back the Little Pink Church, so he incorporated a new Little Pink Church into the complex.

Fest Italiana mass. Photo courtesy of Pompeii Men's Club.

How have Italian-Americans preserved and celebrated their heritage in Milwaukee?

Festa Italiana is a popular summer festival along the lakefront on the Henry Maier Festival Grounds. Milwaukee is known for its ethnic festivals throughout the summer.  

Along Brady Street—where Italian immigrants once settled—there is an iconic Italian market called Glorioso's that's celebrating nearly 80 years. They just sold to new owners but will keep the traditions there intact. 

On another part of town, in an area called Bay View, there's another iconic Italian corner market called Groppi's. 

What do you hope viewers will take away from Storia Italia: Milwaukee?

Storia Italia is a story about immigrants and community. I would like viewers to listen carefully and appreciate what these immigrants went through to seek better lives and contribute to a city like Milwaukee. Their dedication to their faith is something to be admired and respected. Those of us who live here certainly appreciate the Italian and Sicilian culture and what they brought to our community, including a strong work ethic, camaraderie, Italian art, and, of course, great food! 

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Mangia was one of the first Italian words Solae' Riddle learned from her mother, Silvana Phillips. For her, to this day, it means so much more than its literal translation, "eat." 

"If you know anything about the Italian culture, food is their love language, and there is no better time spent than around the table," says Solae'.

Food has been Mamma Silvana's way of sharing her culture as someone who had emigrated to the U.S. from Sommatino, Sicily, as a young girl. Her passion inspired Solae' to seek to preserve her mother's recipes along with the memories they carried. 

What started as a pet project led to the ladies launching Mamma Mangia, a destination for people who love to eat, a digital brand that feeds the soul.

Solae' recently shared with me how Mamma Mangia started, their recipe method, ways they engage with their audience, their most celebrated achievement, future plans, advice for new bloggers, and more.

What inspired you to start Mamma Mangia?

In our family, recipes have been passed down only through stories and lessons in the kitchen. If you are lucky, you may be able to find a list of ingredients (without measurements or instructions), but that would be a rarity. 

As a new mom, I felt a push to preserve our family recipes, memories, and culture. So, in 2017, I approached Mamma Silvana with the wild idea that we should write down all of our Italian family recipes. At first, she was taken aback by the idea of writing down these sacred recipes. To her, they are so much more than just a list of ingredients and directions. They are memories of her mother and father, who have long since passed away, memories of a life that is tangible only through our food. The thought that someone else may have access to these sacred recipes felt scary to Mamma Silvana. 

After much convincing at the benefit this would bring to our future posterity, Mamma Silvana agreed to join me in making a family cookbook. We gathered recipes from as many of her eight siblings as we could and pieced together recipes from her mother and father. It quickly became so much more than just another cookbook. We decided to include pedigree charts, our family's immigration story, pictures, and details about the lives of this generation that have never before been written down. Each member of the family had a page dedicated to the details of their lives so that one day when my children make a recipe from this book, they can know who these people are and connect to a part of their own history. 

It took five years to finish our family heirloom cookbook. It was an experience we could never fully put into words. For me, it changed me. It filled a void in my soul that I didn't realize was there. It created a connection to a group of people I didn't know in this life, but somehow they were a part of me. Each recipe brought a memory for Mamma Silvana that also connected her to her own past and ancestors. It was a reminder that although she is now an American citizen, she will always be Sicilian. That her immigration changed her life and the life of her posterity, but her past is just as influential. We often talk about having roots in Sicily, and those roots have become deeper and stronger than ever before. 

After we finished the cookbook, we had an overwhelming feeling that this wasn't the end of our journey. We knew we needed to share this experience with others and encourage them to connect to their own "roots." In August of 2020, we decided to launch a little page on Instagram we called Mamma Mangia. Here, we share our family recipes and culture, but our true hope is that it will encourage others to start a similar journey of their own.

Mamma Silvana shares her memories.

Describe your recipe development process.

Many of the recipes we share are not "new" but rather family recipes that we have been making for generations. That being said, when Mamma Silvana moved to Utah, there were not a lot of options for Italian food items that were available in Sicily or even on the East Coast. So, she started making her own versions so that she could continue to enjoy the food she loved so much. 

Mamma Silvana has an impeccable sense of taste and smell and can dissect nearly any food simply by eating and smelling it. It is like a superpower. When creating recipes, she always knows what she wants and how it should taste and, therefore, does not usually require much testing or perfecting. 

As for me, I love to create new recipes, and though I have been gifted with the ability to create recipes, my powers are not nearly as refined as hers. When I create a new recipe, I always send it to Mamma Silvana for her stamp of approval! 

Mamma Mangia's sourdough pasta

Your recipes often include unique twists, like sourdough pasta. How do you balance innovation with tradition?

Our sourdough pasta recipe was the first recipe to really go "viral." It was during the pandemic when everyone was experimenting with sourdough. 

The reason we created the recipe was for personal reasons. Both Mamma Silvana and I have dealt with different health issues that have required adjustments in our diet. As Italians, giving up pasta is always the hardest. In our journey, we learned that if we were to make sourdough pasta and ferment it with an active sourdough starter for 72 hours, it would reduce the gluten content by nearly 90% and also add nutritional benefits. So we ran with it, creating a "healthier," more digestible, and yet completely delicious version of homemade Italian pasta. 

We recognize it is not "traditional," but sometimes, you have to move from tradition slightly in order to continue to eat the things you love. Many recipes that we have shared with a unique twist are born from needing a "better-for-you" option.

How do you engage with your audience?

We are truly blessed with the best audience that only gives us positivity and encouragement. Many of our followers are looking to us for inspiration and recipes to connect to their culture and ancestors. Though we have been hesitant at times to share our family recipes that feel so special to us, we are often reminded by our audience about the way in which our recipes have blessed their lives. We have received dozens of messages from people who have searched for lost recipes from their parents, grandparents, or great-grandparents with no luck, only to find that our recipes are almost identical. This type of feedback helps to remind us of our "why."  

Can you share a particular achievement you are especially proud of?

The biggest achievement for us isn't the number of followers or sales received but rather the connections that have been made. Mamma Mangia has brought us closer together as a family as we cook and create together and has introduced us to many members of our audience who have become real-life friends. 

What are your future plans?

The first family heirloom cookbook we made was our inspiration for Mamma Mangia, but it is not something we can sell to the public as it contains a lot of personal information and recipes that aren't ours to share. That being said, we have had such a demand from our audience for a similar product that they can purchase. We are currently working on a cookbook with all of Mamma Silvana's recipes. It will include over 150 recipes, high-quality photos, personal stories, and hundreds of cooking tips and tricks throughout. We are hoping to launch the cookbook in the spring of 2025.

An heirloom cookbook project started the journey.

What advice would you give someone looking to start their own food blog or recipe website?

Understand your "why!" Why are you doing it? What are you hoping the outcome will be? Who do you want to connect with or inspire? People love real life and real people. If you know your "why" and have a fire within you, others will want to follow along and learn from you. Be genuine, be yourself, and remember your "why." 

What do you hope your audience takes away?

We have always wanted to inspire others to start their own journey in connecting with their family and loved ones through food. It doesn't matter what your ethnicity and/or background is. Your family has a story to tell. 

Food and recipes have a unique way of telling their story through smell, taste, and tradition that can not be found in any other form. It is our hope that we will influence others to have a desire to gather their family and loved ones around their table and share their love and traditions through food. 

Mamma Silvana and Solae' enjoy a pizza.

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Between Sicily's cannoli, cakes, and gelato-stuffed brioche, the island offers plenty of tempting sweet treats. But not everyone can partake.

Kasia Bos, who suffers from gluten intolerance, was tired of the lack of choices for people like herself. So, in 2022, she and her partner, co-founder Diego Di Giovanni, launched Terved, a Catania, Sicily-based company committed to not only meeting dietary needs but also exceeding taste and quality expectations. 

I caught up with Kasia and Diego to discuss Terved and its inspiration, the challenges the young entrepreneurs faced, how they balance tradition with necessary ingredients, how they build relationships, what Terved's future looks like, and their advice for aspiring entrepreneurs.

What inspired Terved?

Kasia: I had gotten prescribed a gluten-free diet because of problems with my intestine. So my doctor advised me to go gluten-free, and from there, it started this new world of gluten-free. 

Diego met me a little bit after I had started this gluten-free diet. We were both young, and we wanted to do something. We thought, "Why don't we do something about the problem many people have, which is that it's still impossible to be gluten-free?"  We turned it into something productive and beautiful.  

Tell us about your product offerings.

Diego: We focus on the more regional and typical products, such as the cannoli and brioche we use for ice cream. But then the demand and the market also asked us for more and different products. We also developed products such as donuts that are more international. We made muffins and mini tarts with pistachio and apricot jam. Right now, we are trying to evolve and adapt to the market demand to satisfy and cover all the possible scenarios that we can. 
 

What challenges did you face starting your business?

Diego: We started very young. I was 22, she was 18. So, we both didn't have much life experience to deal with failures. So the first nos were very hard to take. Also, it was difficult to co-work and have two minds, two ideas that had to meld together at the end of the day. 

The most difficult, from my point of view, is the financial part because business knowledge is something that we managed to get from studying from other people as well as from experimenting, from failures, and so on. But the financial part is tricky because to make money, you have to invest money. And when you are so young, you don't have money. No one wants to give you money. 

Terved Co-founders Kasia Bos and Diego Di Giovanni

What is your process for developing products?

Kasia: When we started, we thought, "We are in Italy. He's Sicilian. So what can we do? Where can we start? What do people need?" So we came up with the concept of cannoli and the brioche, the most typical Sicilian products you can find. 

We already had a small community of people who followed us during the beginning of our journey. So we would try recipes with them. People who had celiac connected with us, and we asked them, "Is this an interesting product? Could this be a better product?" We did a little quiz. 

The difficult part was actually making that product happen. So we went from making recipes at home to going to specialists who could actually make those products last. From there, it's just been about spreading the product as much as possible. 

How do you ensure there's no cross-contamination?

Diego: All the products are individually packed. So even when they arrive from the laboratory to the final destination, we make sure that they are one hundred percent safe.

Kasia: At the end of the day, it goes from the laboratory to the hands of the consumer without getting touched by anyone. 

How do you balance traditional recipes with the need for gluten-free ingredients?

Diego: Of course, the flavor is not the same because when you change the flour, you change both taste, texture, the proofing of the product, the softness, the air—a lot of things. But our goal is to make a gluten-free version that reminds us of the traditional products. We are trying to develop a product that is as close as possible to the original one. 

How do you build relationships with clients, customers, partners, and distributors?

Diego: It depends on where these customers are located, but let's say that from a broader vision, we have a first approach on email. We use LinkedIn a lot. We introduce our company and what we do and send a catalog and a company presentation. Then, if we make a call, for example, to discuss a possible partnership, we send samples. If they're here in Sicily, we go meet them.

In our packaging, we include a little bit of our story and how we started. On social media, we try to entertain and talk about, for example, what we ate for dinner. We also try to attend events and fairs so we can meet customers. 

What's been the most rewarding part of this journey?

Kasia: For me, at least, it's actually having a face-to-face with the final consumer. When the actual client comes to you or writes a message to you and says, "Oh my God, your brioches are amazing!" 

The whole point of doing this is connecting with those people. In person, it's even better because once or twice, we were walking on the street, and out of nowhere, someone popped up and said, "Please never stop. You're amazing!" 

Diego: That's very heartwarming and beautiful. I would also like to add that I was astonished when a company reached out to us and told us they would like to bring our cannoli to Boston. 

We started from Catania, a small city of 200,000 citizens. Now, we are bringing our products to Boston, Australia, and the UK, and it happened so fast. We have another possibility for Miami and another company in Boston. Having your product so far away from your hometown is almost unbelievable.

Terved brioches on display at a supermarket.

What does Terved's future look like?

Kasia: We want to create more products and products that maybe haven't been seen before. We want to create more options. Right now, our focus is on supermarkets to really get in the hands of as many people as possible with higher quality products.

Diego: We have so many products that we could create. Another thing that we are trying to do is bring to supermarkets not just another gluten-free company but a premium gluten-free company. Our goal is to create a variety that is not currently in the market, at least here in Italy.

Kasia: The U.S. is way more advanced in that supermarkets carry 20 different kinds of gluten-free breads and 50 types of cookies. In Italy, it's really bad. You see two companies where there should be more options.

What advice do you have for aspiring entrepreneurs?

Diego: We started with no experience, with no money, with nothing. We were very naive and a little bit reckless.

Surround yourself with experienced people. Try to listen because we gained knowledge from people who knew the business and knew more about life. Don't be scared of losing friends or sleep. Eventually, it's all going to be rewarded.

What experience do you want for your customers?

Diego: We just want them to feel listened to, not to be excluded.

Kasia: This is why we started, right? For them not to feel excluded. So when they eat, it's not like they have to think about it. It is just there. We want people to feel at ease.

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January 6 marks the Feast of the Epiphany, recognized in Christianity as the arrival of the three magi, who brought gifts to baby Jesus. But across Italy, the morning is also celebrated for the appearance of presents from a benevolent witch called La Befana.  

To learn more about this Santa Claus-like character, I reached out to Alessandro Testa, an associate professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Prague. Dr. Testa specializes in the history of religions, social anthropology, and the ethnology of Europe. He's also explored whether Christmas hides a deeper connection to ancient pagan traditions. We discussed La Befana's origins, how she is celebrated, the evolution of La Befana gift-giving, and what society can learn from Italy's beloved witch figure.

What are the origins of La Befana?

We know it is a figure that was quite likely already present in the Middle Ages, but the first sources date back to the 16th century or 17th century. We are not sure about its exact origins. Usually, these are syncretic figures made up of different symbolic elements from different traditions. We are not sure what these traditions might have been; they were probably pre-Christian rituals or ceremonies at the end of the year. Ultimately, La Befana is a hag. In Italian, we also use La Befana as a synonym for hag or crone, an old witch, or an ugly witch with some pejorative connotations.

We know the word Befana from the 16th century and that it was associated with this kind of figure, but we are not sure about the etymology. I see this similarity with the Epiphany as significant because, in Italian, Epifania, which is like the transliteration into Italian of the Greek word, is similar to Befana. This could be one of the possible origins of the name. But the truth is that there is no consensus on this. From the 19th century onwards, just like with many similar Christmas traditions, Santa Claus or the three kings, these customs crystallized and acquired their final form, which we still observe nowadays. We have this benevolent witch or benevolent witch-like figure who brings gifts and is kind to children, or at least to good children. She leaves the gifts in socks or by the fireplace at night and, as many traditions want it, flies around on a broomstick.

Tell us more about how La Befana's arrival is celebrated.

In Italy, every region, every town, and every village has its own traditions concerning La Befana. Normally, the night before the Epiphany, on the 5th of January, some mumming or dances occur, or a bonfire is lit. Very often, during the bonfire, a puppet is burned, representing the old year, which dies out and has to be burned. And in this respect, it is a typical winter festivity. If we consider other winter festivities such as Saint Lucy with the lights and the candles, Carnevale, Christmas traditions, or end-of-the-year traditions, they're very often associated with this dismissal of the old, of what must be forgotten, destroyed, or put aside, so that the new can come again, cyclically. And in this respect, the burning of the Befana puppet is very typical. These fire/light traditions are very common in this period of the year. So, there's also this seasonal, obvious association with the fact of burning what is old during the darkest period of the year when you need warmth and light, which the fire provides. These elements come together, but the burning doesn't happen everywhere in Italy.

What is truly widespread in Italy is the gift-bringing for sure and the fact that there is a witch who is poor and wears rags and broken shoes. There is this element of Christian moralization that probably occurred sometime during the 18th or 19th century in which the good children are rewarded, and the bad children are not, just like Santa Claus or Krampus and many other similar traditions. The bad child gets coal or garlic, and the good child gets a gift.

What kinds of gifts are given?

That's very regional. It has changed in time because of the different availability and level of wealth or prosperity. It was usually fruits or dried fruits, something that could be kept, that could be eaten. That was useful. Then sweets started to appear later. But even more recent are toys, books, and clothing. I received when I was 10 a copy of Lord of the Rings. You could see this small sock bulging in the shape of the book. Nowadays, La Befana is just a sort of duplicate of Santa Claus.

What can society learn from the story of La Befana?

What is interesting about La Befana is that she is kind of a made-up figure who emerged at some point literally from nowhere. There's no story behind her or myth, as is the case with Santa Claus. But, of course, there's been a process of interpretation or overinterpretation perhaps of the figure. And now she is considered a very positive figure in spite of her appearance. There is a sort of moralizing discourse that wants it that the Befana, in spite of looking like a witch, is actually a benevolent figure, not malevolent. The lesson to be learned being: Never judge a book from its cover!

On the 5th or 6th of January, you have—in the big cities especially—people dressing up as La Befana and acting as La Befana would with the kids. So, another moral to take away is respect for diversity. This is yet another value or meaning of La Befana today.

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Kendra Matthews is on a mission to feed kids better and make mealtime easier for overextended parents. As a busy entrepreneur with two sons, she's got first-hand experience juggling responsibilities and ensuring a proper supper lands on the table.

The founder and CEO of San Diego-based Hidden Foods attributes her passion for food to her Sicilian side. Her father's family has roots in Palermo and Grotte. 

She recently took time out to chat about her background and journey to Hidden Foods, the challenges she faced along the way, product offerings, and more. 

What is your background?

My dad is fully Sicilian, and my mom is fully English, so I'm about 50/50. It was always a joke between my sister and me: Italian is a huge part of just who we are, and it's this weird pride, even though we're here in America. My mom got us the DNA test, and we said, "We don't want to take it. What if it turns out that we're not?"

So, I had it sitting on my counter for probably two years, and I finally sucked it up and took it. And it came back half Italian (40% Sicilian and the rest from other parts of Italy).

As a Sicilian, besides the fact that we use our hands a lot, cooking ends up being a really big part of my family and who we are. At the table, my kids laugh and say, "Oh, the Sicilians, they all just say mangia!" And I say, "Well, then, mangia, sit, and eat your food."

When I talk to the kids, if we go on a trip, my first question is, "How are you? What did you eat?" Because I think we're constantly trying to feed people, and that is a very strong part of who I am.

Share your journey to Hidden Foods.

Deep down, I'm an entrepreneur at heart. I consider that a sickness because it just doesn't stop. You're just like, "What's the next thing?" It's always been food. 

I started with tea, which I was very passionate about. Then, I moved on to cake truffles, which became really popular. Then, I had a macaron company, which kind of led to this.

Baking and sweets and pastries are something that I have always been passionate about, but I have two kids: a 7-year-old and a 10-year-old. My younger one got really picky about eating, and he still is.

I always make homemade sauce. We don't eat anything out of a jar. I make ragù that will sit for a day or two, and then we freeze it, and that's what we eat all year. Those are the things that he liked. It was getting to the point where it was like, "Well, I don't have time, so here's something out of a jar."

It made me feel guilty, so I decided I could do it on my own and bottle it so we could have it. I would also stick some stuff in it to make up for the lack of nutrition that they were getting in other places.

For me, it's about flavor because I want them to shape their palettes. I can give you chicken all day and a piece of broccoli, and I can say, "Yeah, that's really healthy." But if you don't have a variety of foods you're tasting and experiencing, you're not going to grow up to appreciate those different flavors, which I think is a really big deal for an Italian.

The project actually started with ravioli. I had created pasta that had nutritional value in it, so it had some protein, and it had different powdered veggies in it. And then I thought, Well, I can double it up, and then I can put some really good ingredients in the ravioli.

The kids were loving it, they were eating it, and then I coupled it with the sauce and put it all together. 

What were some of the challenges you faced?

The manufacturing process for all of this is really hard because once it leaves your kitchen, it's got to go to a really grand scale. You get into this problem where, first of all, you're too small for somebody who has the machinery to be able to do it. Second, when you decide, "Okay, we're going to do that huge gigantic run, and we're going to test it out," some of it just becomes a little complicated. To get the right flavor, it has to cook this way, or it has to do this, and they said, "That's not going to happen. It's going to be all thrown in a pot, and that's just what it is."

So it was kind of a balance to figure out, "Does this work?" I ran into so many roadblocks with it. My husband and I sat down and just said, "Well, let's just start with this sauce and see if we can get that made."

That, in general, was really, really difficult, too, because if you understand anything about products on a grocery shelf, they have to be obviously shelf stable. But in order to do that, they have to maintain a certain pH. When you stick all those healthy vegetables in it, the pH goes through the roof, which is why it's healthy. Typically, tomato sauce is fine because it's got that acidity to it. And if it's all done, the only thing you're worried about is botulism, which is not small, but that can be something you can fix.

We've got pureed beets, carrots, kidney beans, and spinach in there. And so it was really complicated. I talked to a ton of different manufacturing sites, and they all looked at it and said, "Nope, we're not touching that. The pH is way too high."

We ran across somebody who said, "Listen, we'll entertain this." They were able to help me with that one. We actually have five sauces; it's a really big process to get these done.

I don't want to go down the refrigeration road. Our mission is to really make it easier to feed families better. So by having those shelf-stable products, they last longer, and people can take them with them.  

After a year, we launched the marinara sauce, and I also had a meat sauce. Our family sauce is really good. But that's been a really big challenge because then the USDA gets involved and wants to tear everything apart, and it has nothing to do with your ingredients. It's solely your label.

I would say "no added sugar" and then "zero added sugar," and they'd say, "No, you can't." Then I'd go back, and they'd say, "Add not a low-calorie food." And I'd say, "Well, it's not really high-calorie, but OK, I'll write that on there." Then you'd submit it, and the next time, they'd come back and say, "Now remove that." I said, "But you told me to put it on there."

After a year, we finally got it approved.

School children are being served Hidden Foods muffins.

Where can we find Hidden Foods?

We're on Amazon and sell through our website. We're in a lot of stores in San Diego, like Seaside Market and Frazier Farms. We're also in some Sprouts down here. We just launched in Lazy Acres up in Los Angeles, and it's kind of a test. Then, we'll branch out to their other stores, just slowly growing that way.

We also have a line that we're working on with the school districts. Again, my goal is really to feed kids better. A lot of their nutrition—in California, especially—comes from the school. So they go in, they have breakfast, and they have lunch. There are also a lot of rules coming down from Sacramento about what these kids can eat—reducing added sugar products and no fake dyes.

We're slotted as a perfect match for the schools. So, right now, we're working with them to make sure we can create some long-lasting, pre-made, and prepackaged products. We just launched some muffins, and so the kids are getting those at school for breakfast. 

You've mentioned sauce and muffins. Tell us about your pancakes.

We have four flavors for pancakes. We have homestyle, chocolate chip, cinnamon churro, and gluten-free. All of those include our vegetable blend, so it's essentially your greens for the day, as well as high protein and oat flour, flaxseed, and no added sugar. Those are sweetened with monk fruit and banana powder. You just add water. Again, we're just trying to make it easy for families.

What is your goal with your products?

I'm on a mission to make sure that people are fed better. And how this kind of started was just being so sick of kids having cancer and being sick. The lack of nutrition is so much more than even being physically sick: There are attention deficits and behavior problems and patterns. A lot of that comes from that lack of nutrition. So, my goal was really to feed these kids better. It also needs to be easy because I think parents are saying, "Yeah, I want to feed my kid better, but I'm going for the easier one. I'm going for what's in a jar."

My goal is to partner with moms and say, "We've got your back. Here's some really good stuff, and let's branch out."

I would like this to be everywhere. I want parents to rely on us, trust our brand, and say, "If it's Hidden Foods, it's got to be good. " I know I'm going to give them the nutrition that they need.

So obviously, to get in stores everywhere would be my goal, but also to really break through school districts because I feel that is also something that when it's in front of a kid, they'll eat, and then they move on. And I don't need this to be, "Oh my gosh, this is the best thing I've ever tasted." I mean, I would hope that it is, and I think so. But really, I want them to just eat it and move on. If they don't stop and say, "Oh, what is this? Why is it different?" and they eat it, that is a huge win because of all the nutritional benefits in it. 

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