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From Dream Board to Vineyard: Rachel Villa’s Sicilian Love Story

Rachel Villa was living in Oxnard, California, working for a military child care program, and going through a divorce when a counselor asked her how she was feeling.

 
"Well, I'm feeling pretty crappy," she remembers saying.

 

At that moment, she was facing an existential crisis. She'd been a military wife and put her career on hold, and now she faced living on her own. She didn't know what she wanted to do with her life.


The counselor asked Rachel where she might want to take a vacation, to which Rachel responded, "You know what? I've never been to Europe, so I'm going to Italy."


The counselor told her to put it on her dream board, something Rachel had never heard of. Soon, she was clipping a cartoon picture of Italy from a magazine and tacking it on a board. That push-pin dream board evolved into a Pinterest page. Eventually, thanks to a chance encounter with a friend of a friend, she found herself facing a whole new world of possibilities in Sicily: a husband, a vineyard, and a family.


I recently had the opportunity to chat with Rachel about how her dream board became a reality and how she helped launch Catania-based Gimmillaro Family Vineyards.

 

 

What brought you to Sicily?

In another life before my ex-husband, I was in Pensacola, Florida, where my dad was stationed. Pensacola is the cradle of naval aviation and where the military trains all the pilots that we have agreements with.

 

During my college internship, I got a job on base that provided housing. I was there with all these other girls; we were with the officers and all these Italian Navy pilots. And man, that was fun. Every weekend, we would pile up in my Jeep and go to Pensacola Beach.

 
I stayed in touch with one guy (Ruggiero)—totally platonic—over email for 20 years. While dealing with this dream board, I decided to message him and tell him I was looking to come to Italy.


He said, "Where are you going to go?" And I said, "I don't know. There are a couple of jobs available. One of them is in Naples." He said, "You do not want to go there." And I was like, "Well, if it gets me to Italy, that's better than nothing!"


I applied for the job, and I got it. There were over a thousand applicants, and out of seven people, I was one who got this training position to be a manager with a child youth program.


Before I went to Naples, they wanted people to do some temporary assignments. So they sent me to Sicily at Sigonella Naval Air Station, where my friend was stationed in the Italian Navy. So I messaged him and told him when I was coming. And he said, "Actually, I'm on an assignment with the Italian Navy for the beginning of that time, but I have a friend who I can hook you up with to show you around."


I got a message from this guy named Marco, and I could hear his accent through the way he wrote, "I hope I do not disturb you."


I was like, "Who is this?" I started looking at his pictures, and he seemed to be in the military. And I was like, okay, so this is probably Ruggiero's friend. So I told him when I was arriving, and he offered to pick me up. And I was like, "No. My boss is picking me up, but just meet me at the residence." And he was waiting for me there. He was there every single night for the next 90 days.


Apparently, I had a boyfriend. Within 10 days of meeting this guy, he took me to meet his mom. And after 90 days, I had to go back to the States, and I was like, "I have a boyfriend in Italy. What am I going to do?"


I was not looking for it at all. I just was looking for an adventure. But gosh, I found a man.


He kept saying that he was a farmer and worked as an agricultural scientist, which was his degree. He was telling me some things about that, but I didn't ask many questions. I was not taking him seriously. I wouldn't say I didn't care. It was about me. It was me-time.


So, I came back to Oxnard and realized, "Wow, if I don't go back to Sicily, I don't know what we're going to do. This is going to be a crazy long-distance relationship. I'm going to have to go back and forth from Naples to Sicily every so often to see this guy. Is that even a relationship? Do I want to do that?"


During this training period, which took about a year, I ended up going to Key West, Florida, and everywhere else except Sicily. I finally decided to take him seriously as this relationship was progressing.

 

I had no idea that every time he went to a vineyard, it was his. I came to visit, and it was in October of 2017, and he took me to one of his locations where he was going to be doing a vendemmia, which is a grape harvest; our mutual friend came down, and his sister was there, and all these people he knew came. And I was like, "So whose farm is this?" And Marco was like, "It's mine." And I was like, "We have been together for a year. How did I not know that you had a vineyard?"


He said, "I don't come here very often. We just came for the vendemmia, and I trim the branches throughout the year and tend to the soil, but this is my vineyard."

 

I suddenly felt really out of my league and started getting emotional. And I said, "Marco, I don't know if this is going to really work because I have been a military kid my whole life. I move a lot, and I'm going to go to Naples, and you're here, and that's a lot of back and forth, and I just don't think I can do it. I need somewhere where I can plant my roots."

 

He literally bent down into the dirt. He picked a little bit up, held my hand, and said, "Plant your roots here with me."

 

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Tell us how the vineyard evolved.

It was just a plot of land he was making patronale with, like garage wine. It's what the locals make for themselves.

 

As a Californian, I had a little knowledge of what people want when they go to a vineyard, especially somewhere like Santa Ynez Valley or Temecula. We're expecting meals, a beautiful wine tasting, and sometimes just a flight and just sitting there and enjoying the view. But definitely some customer service and a learning experience.


One of the things I noticed while doing some reconnaissance wine tastings around here was that nobody was having people come and do the harvest just for fun. There were opportunities to do a grape stomp, but nobody was being allowed to do real hands-on. And I thought, "Why is there some legal reason?"


Marco looked it up and said, "Actually, there is a legal reason. There need to be 'tutors,' and the work must be declared."


And I was like, "Well, how do you declare this work?" Marco explained that it would need to be a "demo."

 

I said, "So, we can do it. We're not going to get in trouble if we have people come, and we could even give them a barbecue." He said, "Correct, because the product is separate from the main production. Then they've done the work, and we can show them how to make a patronale."

 

I was like, "Oh, Marco, Americans would love that!"


And so we've come up with this from the reconnaissance and knowing nobody else was doing any kind of meaningful hands-on at the level people really wanted. Having a tour of a beautiful vineyard and a beautiful winery with all this professional equipment isn't educational. It's a tour of something already established and expensive. But people who want to know how to grow and produce wine are not really learning how to do it. So we came up with a year of vinification, a year of wine, which is all the processes.

 
So we have a harvest. It starts with that. We bring people out, they harvest, and we separate, we squish, and then we transport to the place where we do the vinification with those people, and then we give them a barbecue.

 

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The next process is turning the grapes, the maceration. When it's in the containers with the skins, you can't just let it sit there; you have to move it around. Could I make an event out of that? Possibly. We haven't yet.


Then, the next process is moving the liquids to the travaso and then bottling, and it still has to sit in the bottle for a while. So, I thought, "I'll have another event where we do a wine tasting, and we invite the people that came to the vendemmia and say, 'Let's go bottle your wine, and we'll have a party.'"


We had a wine bottling event, and about 12 people showed up. Five of them had been to the vendemmia before. They absolutely loved the thought that their effort had gone into the bottles and the liquid they were bottling.

 
We let them do the hand bottling because we didn't have the machine. We just filled it up with a tap, and it dripped everywhere. It was such a mess, but everybody had the best time!


After the fact, I thought, okay, what do people really like the most? Did they care about the food? No, they cared about the experience they weren't getting anywhere else. And I was like, "How can I turn this into a moneymaker?"

 

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What challenges have you faced along the way?

It's been a process of trying to find out how I can market this because if I deal with just Italians, there's a lack of interest around here. The foreigners are where I am focusing, especially the people from the base here, who speak English, and I know what they want. The problem is they require things that most tourists or expats wouldn't because they live here and they have to deal with the roads. And some of them are very homebody. So I was like, "Well, I have to rent a van or get a bus and have an event. And I've got to calculate that into the cost of the whole thing."

 

I did a vendemmia with 60 people. I had a 30-person van and another 30-person van. I had to eat the cost because 15 people didn't show, and I still had to pay for that or otherwise ask the other people to pay more after the fact. And that was like, "I'm not going to do that." I'm learning on the job.

 
We finally have a vintage. We have a 2022, and we lost all of our grapes at our primary vineyard in 2023 due to a fungal blight, but we had a secondary vineyard that we bought grapes for as an experiment, so we technically have a 2023 as well. We are not going to label it. We're going to keep it a patronale because, legally, it's not registered on our land, so we can't sell it that way. We can sell it as a patronale, though.

 
So we technically have two vintages, and this year, we're going to have a white. And I'm trying to stick to the guns here and be a completely bio vineyard. It makes your job exponentially more difficult. You're highly volatile. Your processes have to be dead on. There are certification processes and criteria that need to be adhered to in order to qualify.

 
White has been very hard. We've lost it every year for the last five years. It gets skunky so fast. The summers have been unusually hot. We don't have a temperature-controlled environment, and we are off-grid, which is again part of our process of having a bio vineyard. This year, we are working with a nearby cantina to be sure to follow the white properly.


We could get a business loan, dredge the land out, get some water flow from the city, have a sewer line put in, and do some irrigation, as well as all the things we need to have what the other big vineyards are doing. But we're trying to be off-grid to show people that it can be done and can be done well. A lot of times, when these producers grow their production, they just abandon those simpler ways in favor of the more efficient industrialized vinification styles. And while those are great, we're just trying to be as authentic and practical as possible.

 

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What are your plans for the future?

We are working up to more events as we develop different wines. For instance, we want to do a sparkling wine in the future. Of course, we want to keep the demo vendemmia. The best way to teach people about wine is to let them help create the basic/patronale wines and also let them work on the vineyard.

 

We have hosted several groups from the Sigonella base to volunteer their time for community service credits with their command. They come on weekends and prune or plant cover crops on the terraces. Not only is this helpful for the vineyard, but it's also a way to get our name out there as a place where you can really learn about the wine industry.

 

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What experience do you hope to share?

The ups and the downs. I want people to see that it doesn't mean you're wealthy to have a vineyard. It just means you're putting effort into something and trying to make it great. And sometimes, it fails. And what is the outcome? I'm going to try to pull myself up like they say, "by my bootstraps," get back up, and start going and keep it going. I'm not giving up.


A lot of times, people just think that every year, the wine's going to taste the same as last year, even though you have these wine tastings, and everybody says, "This is 2022. It has more berry flavor; these are the same grapes on the same land. This is 2023, and it tastes woodier, blah, blah."


It does taste different. I can't even explain why it tastes so different from one year to the next or why we have the same grape varieties. They're separated by three miles and taste completely different.

 
It's a beautiful thing, and I can see why people get so wrapped up in wine and everything about it. It's a challenge, and it's unbelievably rewarding. It is a science and an art. And then again, it's farming, so it's extremely volatile.

 
People have so many little experiments up on Etna. We are friends with this neighbor, and he's trying to make a sparkling out of a grape that nobody would've made a sparkling out of before. And he is like, "I'm going to do it. It's going to be amazing." And I love that positivity.

 
So when I have people come, and I am showing them all the work we've done, I'm not here for the applause. I'm here because it's like when I was a teacher, and I had a child that was very difficult, and other people were just constantly giving up on this child. How cruel is that to just give up on a child? It's finding that path out and finding another direction to do something. And that's what makes wine special: everybody has a different process.  

 

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Rebuilding After Hurricane Helene: One Baker’s Sweet Journey of Resilience and Heritage

The deadliest hurricane to strike the mainland U.S. since 2005's Katrina, Helene caused widespread and catastrophic damage, wrecking thousands of homes in the Tampa area alone.

 

"Our whole home was flooded," says Tampa-area resident Victoria Mahdieh, who counts herself among the luckier ones. "Our cars were totaled, and we lost almost everything. It's been a journey, so I've had to start from scratch."

 

But she wasn't about to lose her business. For the past decade, the owner of SugarBar Tampa has baked and decorated custom cookies and cakes out of her cottage kitchen.

 

Sure, she had to buy all new appliances. And she's had to scale back a bit; she doesn't have the same room in her new space in Carrollwood.

 

But it's temporary, she says. "We're building it back little by little."

 

Victoria is used to facing challenges. She built her business from the ground up, doing everything from baking and designing to packaging. She's grateful for the help of her family, who has pitched in on many occasions, like that time when she baked 1,000 cookies for the Chamber of Commerce, and they acted as an assembly line.

 

She may have inherited her drive from her great-grandparents. All four came from Sicily. One great-grandfather became a land developer, learned English, and became Ybor City's first Italian councilman. And one of her great-grandmothers rolled cigars when she was 14, standing on a stool at one of the town's many cigar factories.

 

But it's her paternal grandmother whom she credits for shaping her into the baking businesswoman she's become. Victoria shared more about her hero, her journey, how she ensures her baked goods look and taste good (not an easy feat!), how she engages her community, advice for budding bakers, and what keeps her motivated.

 

 

Tell us about how your grandmother inspired you.

My grandmother was the best Italian cook you'd ever know. And I used to kneel on a chair, grating cheese, as she cooked pots of sauce and meatballs on Sunday afternoons. I always watched her in the kitchen and still have many of her cooking utensils. The most precious of which are the heart-shaped cake pans she used to make my birthday cakes as a child. I use them often.

 

She was a huge nurturer, and I inherited that gene from her. She always expressed her love through the food she served. So that definitely was part of our household and still is.  

 

She once made 2,000 meatballs for the Tampa Boys Club. She always baked cakes and goodies for the Catholic Women's Club and many school fundraisers and events. And I've always loved to do that kind of thing as well. And I always went in a little "extra" for my kids' birthday cakes when they were growing up or making pizzas with their classes on career day. So, it kind of went from there and developed over the years. Also, my husband and I were in the restaurant business for many years, so it's always just been in my blood.

 

Tell us about that journey from restaurants to baking.

It pretty much happened organically. When we left the restaurant business, my husband opened a small car dealership. My oldest daughter became engaged, and her friends started getting married. I would make their cakes and decorative cookies for showers and parties. At some of those events, people asked if they could order from me, and I thought, "Wow! People will actually pay me to do this."

 

Then we started doing markets and trunk shows, and it just grew from there. Now, it's a regular full-time business. I'm doing something I love to do, and I get to create and make people happy. 

 

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How do you ensure your baked goods are both beautiful and delicious?

I just use the best quality ingredients and recipes I've developed that work best for me. With some designs, I ask myself, "Why did I say I could do that?" But somehow, with prayer and perseverance, it always works out. So, we keep on going through trial and error. When some things don't work, you just start over and do it again.

 

I've learned to say no to things I don't enjoy doing. Covering cakes with fondant is one of them. I love to make accessories with fondant, but I prefer covering them with buttercream. So, that's what I do.

 

The designs just come from the inspiration of the theme, methods I've seen and tried, the client's wish list, and what they envision it to be. 

 

What have been your most memorable creations, and why do they stand out?

There was one: a four-tier wedding cake that I had to deliver to a hotel in Channelside. It was pouring down rain, the wind was blowing, and the whole time, I was thinking, "Oh my gosh, how am I going to get this cake in there safely?!"

 

When I got there, the sun came out, and suddenly, a strong and tall valet was standing behind me and said, "Can I help you?" 


It was like God sent him to me that day, as he helped me carry that heavy cake all the way to the banquet room and even helped me situate it on the table. Mission accomplished.

 

How do you engage your community?

Just by putting out a good product and being approachable and friendly, I now have a great customer base who just keep coming back and referring their friends. The best way is word of mouth. So if you put forth a good product, business tends to come.

 

Several customers have been with me since their children were small. And one of them just turned 13. It's fun to watch how she's changed her style as she's grown up from a little girl to a teenager. It's also fun to follow people from engagement parties to bridal showers to weddings, baby showers, gender reveals, et cetera. 

 

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What advice would you give someone starting in the baking industry?

Just keep trying. Go forward. Don't be afraid to take risks; just do it.

 

Things tend to fall into place. Do your best and use the best ingredients you can find and learn by watching videos and learning new and different techniques. Go to marketplaces and try to get yourself out there so people get to know you. Don't be afraid to give a few things away; it helps to engage people and lets them try your product. If I have a new product or flavor, I will offer a taste when they come to pick up their order. Nine times out of 10, they end up placing an order for it the next time.

 

I would also trade products at one of the markets. I would trade my baklava for organic honey from a local vendor and share things with others. It gradually comes together.

 

What keeps you motivated?

The joy it brings people makes all those hard hours worth it. There are many 14-hour days, Christmas, graduation, and other seasons that are so busy you barely have time to breathe. But knowing that it's bringing people joy and putting smiles on their faces makes me happy, too. That it made their event that much sweeter is the icing on the cake. 

 

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Sweet Solutions: How Terved Redefines Gluten-Free Sicilian Desserts with Tradition and Innovation

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. 

 

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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.

 
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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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How Hidden Foods Brings Nutritious Convenience to Family Meals

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.

 

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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. 

 

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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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How Mario’s Hard Espresso Became a Family Legacy and a Growing Brand

It started as a holiday gift—handcrafted hard espresso—which Mario Grasso distributed among family and friends. With each bottle, he distilled the rich traditions of his Sicilian family, providing an opportunity for celebration and togetherness in each pour. 


Today, Mario's legacy lives on through his son, entrepreneur Joe Grasso. Joe transformed this special recipe into Mario's Hard Espresso, which is now sold in five states at more than 350 locations. 


I recently spoke with Joe, who shared with me the story of his family and Mario's Hard Espresso, the challenges he's faced, what sets his product apart, his advice for other entrepreneurs, and more.

 

 

Tell us about your family and connection to Sicily.

My grandfather and grandmother were from Linguaglossa, a small town at the base of Mount Etna. The town is known for an eruption in which lava flowed down the hill right toward it and literally went around a statue of the patron saint. 


My grandfather left at the turn of the century when they were all starving for opportunity, and there wasn't much to be had. He came on a boat by himself at 19 to the U.S. through Ellis Island and settled in Rome, New York. He subsequently sent for his brothers and went back to Italy to marry my grandmother. 


When they came to the U.S., he and his two brothers settled on farmland so black and rich it was referred to as "the muck." They each had a farm across the street from one another and down the block a little bit. They were blacksmiths, butchers, farmers, and toolmakers, but they were also insanely crafty, like most immigrants. 


My family did everything themselves. They built their own homes. They were carpenters. They were brick layers. They opened a butcher shop. My grandmother and my aunts (her daughters) opened an Italian bakery in town. My grandfather made wine, and the others made all kinds of things. My father, Mario, was the same way; he grew up in that culture and transferred all of that to me. That's really the origin of our spirit. 


I have this piece of railroad tie that's only about eight inches long, and I cherish it. It was given to me by my father, and it was given to my father by my grandfather. It's just an old chunk of railroad tie, but it's the one that my grandfather used to build and create tools on. He used to hammer on it, bend on it, and shape on it. It's all beat up from him doing all this work on it. And then my father used it, and now I have it, and I use it. It's a testament to them and that sort of mentality, and as I said, I cherish it.

What inspired Mario's Hard Espresso?

My father made his hard espresso every year as a gift, and he did it as far back as I can remember. He did a lot of other things. He made biscotti and wine cookies, but the espresso was particularly interesting. He had this recipe—I don't know its actual genesis; I assume it's part of everything else they did as crafty Sicilian immigrants. He'd only make about a dozen bottles for family and friends, and so it was very special. He'd put a handwritten label on it and seal it with masking tape around the top. 


When I got a little older and started drinking, I was like, "Man, this is really good!" And so I was fortunate to learn the process and make it with him for the last few years of his life. It was something we did together. 


When he passed away about 14 years ago, I wanted to continue the tradition in his honor. So I brought my son Aaron in, and every year, we would make a batch to honor my dad. We gave them out as gifts to family and friends, and we called it Mario's Hard Espresso because that's what it was: his recipe.

 

I've worked in the film business my whole life. That's been my profession. I've been a writer, a storyteller, a director, and a cinematographer. I've also been sort of entrepreneurial and gotten involved in a lot of things, some good, some not so good. One day, I read an article about contract distilling, which I had never heard about. The article was about Grey Goose Vodka and how Grey Goose is not a distillery per se; it's a brand, and they have the vodka distilled for them. And I said to myself, "You can do that?"


I started doing a little research into contract distilling. I thought, "I wonder if I could build a brand around Mario's and have someone make it for us per our recipe. Let's see what happens." So, I set out on a journey almost six years ago, whereby I just kind of chipped away at it every day. It took about two and a half years of designing the bottle, designing the labels, pulling photographs, and trying to tell the tale of my father and our family in a concise way. 


Finding a contract distiller was very difficult because we insisted it had to be my father's recipe, and a lot of distillers wanted me to reverse-engineer it. They told me, "You've got to go to a flavoring company." I had no idea what that meant, actually, so I sent samples to a flavoring company, and then they started sending me samples back. They were fake and horrible with artificial ingredients. I learned very quickly what "flavoring company" meant, and I was like, "We are not going to do this." I mean, after all, it's my Dad on the label!


I finally found a small distillery in San Diego, and they agreed to make a small batch per my father's recipe. It turned out awesome. And we launched the brand in November 2021.  

 

What challenges did you face bringing your product to market?

One of the things that's interesting about this recipe is that my father used 190-proof neutral-grain spirit, meaning pure-grain alcohol. It's illegal in California, so my father would drive to Nevada every year and buy 190-proof Everclear, and that's what he used as his base spirit. So because that was going to be an integral part of our recipe, I had to find a distillery that was capable of that. But the real challenge was producing the espresso in the amounts and the concentration we needed, finding real vanilla that fit the flavor profile that we could buy at scale, and then finding a distillery. The distillery was tough because it was during COVID, and a lot of distilleries had shifted their extra capacity to making hand sanitizer.


It was pretty difficult. I had never been in the spirits business, and every phone call was an educational event. So, I made some mistakes or went down some rabbit holes I shouldn't have. But I was just trying to discern what the path was going to be and what the best way to do this was.

 

When we finally found the distillery, we said, "Let's make 300 gallons." It was about 1,500 bottles, a very small batch, but without a distributor, I had no way to sell them.


I knew we weren't going to get distribution without any clients, so I got my wholesale spirits distribution license. In November 2021, I took those 1,500 bottles, put them in a warehouse, and hit the ground running in L.A. 


It was a remarkable experience to see that first bottle on the back bar, see my father staring out, and know that it's our family brand. It's just humbling. And I'm always honored every time we get a new account. We basically did it by getting liquor to lips and through word of mouth from the ground up. Currently, we are in about 350 locations in five states and growing. So it's been a pretty remarkable three years.

 

What sets Mario's Hard Espresso apart from other coffee liqueurs?

You'll see the term cold brew thrown around. A lot of coffee liqueurs lean into cold brew. We are not cold brew; we are real espresso. So that's the main differentiator. It's more traditionally Italian of all the liqueurs on the market. There's one Italian brand called Borghetti that's extremely popular in Italy. From a flavor profile standpoint, it comes closest because it is also a true Italian espresso. So that really sets us apart. 


The other thing is that we use 196-proof, triple-distilled grain-neutral spirit. It has a silky mouthfeel and a little bit of sweetness. It's corn-based, so it's naturally vegan, of course, and gluten-free. 


What's great about the neutral-grain spirit is that because at 196 proof it's pure alcohol, we can use less of it to hit our 28 percent, which minimizes dilution and allows us to maintain the proper concentration of coffee and vanilla, which allows us to create a super-balanced profile. 


When people try Mario's, they'll get really smooth notes of espresso and coffee flavors upfront, but it's never bitter. Then, some people will taste chocolate and caramel in the mid-palate, primarily from the combination of the coffee and the Madagascar vanilla. And then you get a little bit of heat on the back end and know you're drinking a spirit because it is 28% (alcohol by volume). 


The Tasting Panel magazine scored Mario's Hard Espresso 95 points. They got a bottle and tried it, and we are so honored to get that score from them. They specifically called out the balance and lack of bitterness of the spirit, so that was awesome.

 

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What are some favorite cocktails made with Mario's Hard Espresso?

In our family, we drank it straight. My Dad started this way before the espresso martini, so I didn't even know about them really when we launched the brand. I didn't really think that it could be so versatile. But literally, within the first week of bringing it to market, we met somebody who was a bartender at the time at Seven Grand in downtown Los Angeles. And he said, "Oh my God, I can imagine the things I can do with this."

 

So we went there, and he was making cocktails with whiskey. We never even thought of that. Subsequently, we've learned that it's an incredibly versatile spirit, primarily because we use a neutral-grain spirit that blends well with everything. 


Of all our accounts, probably 200 are doing espresso martinis with Mario's, but we're also seeing espresso negronis and espresso old-fashioneds. Mario's is amazing with mezcal and tequila. In fact, we put together a recipe card filled with cocktails just to show the versatility.

 

We did a collaboration with Madre Mezcal and created an amazing mezcal espresso old-fashioned. We also collaborated with High West Whiskey on a "Cowboy Coffee." We blended half Mario's and half High West Campfire and garnished with a slice of orange. It's amazing—dangerously delicious, as we like to say.


We also created an amazing brunch drink we call a Boozy Julius. It's a take on the old Orange Julius. It's one part Marios, one part orange juice, and a little float of cream. It sounds crazy, but it tastes just like a creamsicle, and people love it. 


Another drink we did as a slush in the summer is now being poured up as a type of dirty horchata espresso martini, which is our ode to L.A. We call it a 213, like the area code, and 213 is also the recipe. It's two parts Mario's, one part tequila, and three parts horchata. So you can shake it and pour it like an espresso martini. You can put it in a blender and make a frappe. And like I said, we'll put it in the slush machine during the summer. It's super good.

 

What advice do you have for other entrepreneurs?

First of all, you have to believe. You have to be as honest about it as you can. You've got to approach whatever project you're doing with as much integrity as possible. Be honest and put it out there; if you believe in it and work hard, hopefully, you'll be successful. That's the sort of mantra that I followed through this whole process and continue to follow every day.

 

I did a documentary project about eight years ago. I interviewed a bunch of different people who were living their best lives. We talked to them about the kind of work they did. One of the people I interviewed was Thaddeus Mosley, an amazing sculptor in Pittsburgh. He works in wood and makes massive sculptures that you'll see in large public spaces like hotel lobbies and airports. 


Thaddeus was 85 years old or so when I interviewed him. I asked him, "These logs are huge, and you work alone; how do you even approach projects of this size?" He said to me, "Man, people ask me that all the time. And I just tell them, you've got to be like a termite. One little bite at a time; you don't eat the whole log all at once."


For me, that was like a bomb going off in my head. I said, "You know what? I'm not going to set an end time. I'm just going to take a little bite every day. That's all I'm going to do." And that little bite could be a phone call, reading an article, sending an email, or whatever. So long as I take a bite every day, eventually, I will eat the whole log. 


That's what we do, and that's what I would tell anybody. Just take a bite every day. Don't make yourself crazy. Just learn. Learn and chip away at it; eventually, you will eat the whole log.

 

What experience do you hope to share?

Well, my father, Mario, made this hard espresso every year because nothing made him happier than people coming together to share a drink, tell a story, laugh, and have a human experience. And that is literally why we do it. It's what we lean into.


We make it ourselves now. We stopped the contract distilling because the volume just got to the point where we needed to control our inventory, quality control, and everything about it.


When we're in production, I tell everybody, "Look at each of those bottles; one of those bottles is going to end up on somebody's table." People are going to give them as gifts, they're going to go to weddings. They are going to be there for some of the biggest moments of people's lives, but also simple moments, like for people who take them skiing or camping. It's an opportunity to spread the love of my father. Telling this story and having people enjoy it is just the most amazing thing ever. 

 

I got a call recently from a couple that was getting married. Her name was Ginger, his name was Mario, and they wanted to give all their guests special favors. She had found a little bottle of ginger honey for herself, and she wondered if we made a small Mario's Hard Espresso bottle. She told me, "When I found Mario's Hard Espresso, I immediately ordered a bottle. As soon as we tried it, we ordered three more." It was really, really sweet. And I said, "We don't make a small bottle, but for you, I will."


So we made 150 of them and sent them to them for their wedding. That's just something I wanted to do because it's the perfect celebration for people to experience and enjoy Mario's for themselves. We call it "Sharing the Love." It's what motivates us every day and is literally why we do what we do.

 

 


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How Fast Penny Spirits is Redefining Amaro

Fast Penny Spirits Founder and CEO Jamie Hunt is on a mission. She wants to change the way we drink, and part of that means tapping into tradition. In Jamie's case, that translates to her Sicilian roots. Her grandparents came to the U.S. from Caltanissetta and Palermo. Her grandfather made wine, and her mother introduced her to the art of spirit-making.

 

American-made amari just couldn't compare to the complex flavors Jamie experienced in Italy, so the "mostly Seattle" native concocted her own, launching flagship varietals: Amaricano and Amaricano Bianca.


I recently had the chance to chat with Jamie about amari origins, Fast Penny Spirits' start, the company's generous give-back program, some of the 46 botanicals in the Amaricano recipe, and what she'd like to see and hear from customers.

 

 

What exactly is amaro?

It just means bitter in Italian. It's a bittersweet Italian liqueur. Other countries make it, but Italy is most well-known for it. It's made by macerating botanicals like flowers, roots, herbs, spices, and fruits. The botanicals are then put into either a high-proof spirit, which is the most common, or wine. 

 

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What is the history of amaro?

Preserving the health benefits of plants in alcohol has been done for centuries because there wasn't refrigeration and no way to freeze or sustain whatever those properties were. It's just interesting to see how it evolved from this liquid to help treat ailments into adding a little bit more sugar to make it more pleasant for people and eventually becoming more of an elixir or something you would drink whether you were sick or not.

 

There's also an interesting story about amaro with the Prohibition in the U.S. Because it was considered medicine, it could be sold in pharmacies in the U.S. So fernet and other Italian amari came in as medicine, and people could buy it at their local drugstore. That's the time when the Hanky Panky cocktail was created with fernet. 


So, there are interesting little moments throughout history when this comes alive. When we were in the Averna factory in Sicily, we went to the abbey where the monks created the recipe. It was fascinating to explore the gardens and see many of the ingredients used in the Averna recipe.

 

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How did you get started producing Amaricano?

I have been an amaro lover for a very long time since traveling to Italy in my twenties. I've been drinking it ever since. My family is Italian, and my grandfather used to make wine. My mom used to make Galliano and other Italian liqueurs, like limoncello. So I kind of grew up just used to being around people making beautiful things, whether it was food or liquid.


I worked as a consultant in the digital tech industry for over twenty years. I was looking for a new chapter and trying to figure out something I was passionate about that would be a real product, like a physical product. Because I've been doing so much that didn't have a physical element to it. 


I also wanted to create something that allowed me to give back. From the start, I knew I wanted to become a B Corp because I believe in business as a force for good—for people, the planet, and our environment.


Being raised in an Italian family teaches you the importance of welcoming, engaging, and building a sense of community. It's about being a place where people love to gather, enjoy good food and drink, and experience genuine hospitality. That's the spirit I wanted to create.


One night, I was having an after-dinner amaro with my husband at a local bar here in Seattle. For whatever reason, that night, I got curious about whether there was an American-made amaro. I had never really thought about it before. 


They had a few bottles behind the bar and offered us samples, as about half a dozen amaro makers are in the Seattle area. We tried them, and while they were good, they didn't have the same complexity as the Italian styles I was used to. That sparked my interest in researching the market and experimenting with my own recipes. 


Six months later, I launched the business and began developing the recipes, a process that took about two and a half years. During that time, I was also working full-time as a partner in the digital business at Ernst and Young.


In March 2020, when the realization came that COVID was here and we were in lockdown, I had to change my whole launch strategy. I planned to launch in July 2020 but could no longer launch with a distributor because distributors didn't want to pick up any new brands then. 


Restaurants and bars are typically the way you launch a spirit. And most of those were shut down and doing takeout. 


With all of that in mind, I made a decision about the direction I wanted to take in both life and work. I resigned from EY and dedicated myself full-time to Fast Penny. We launched in July 2020 and have been growing ever since.

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Tell us more about Fast Penny's give-back program.

It's called Pretty Penny, and we focus on several initiatives. Our main program is a quarterly 3% giveback from bottle sales to nonprofits that support women, the community, and the hospitality industry. We also volunteer our time with various nonprofits as part of this effort, and we frequently offer in-kind donations. Giving back is a core value for us.

 

How does Amaricano compare to Sicilian amari?

We use wooden casks and filtration methods similar to the amari facilities I visited in Sicily. We've also incorporated some of the same botanicals. My recipe includes sweet and bitter orange, as well as saffron, which is a traditional ingredient. 

 

Staying true to Italian tradition, I focused on sourcing local ingredients to highlight the terroir of where our amaro is made. I discovered saffron grown in Washington State, which was exciting. We also have Rainier cherries, named after our local mountain, which are stunning, as well as hazelnuts. Even truffles, foraged by dogs right here in Washington, are part of the mix.

 

I have a truffle dog as well. He's a Lagotto Romagnolo, the truffle dog of Italy. His nickname is Fiori. His longer name is Draco Fiorano. We call him Fiori because that would be a lot to get out! 


We work with a local forging company called Truffle Dog Co., and the founder, Alana McGee, sometimes comes by and grabs Fiori for a hunt. Unfortunately, I'm so busy with the business that I can't go truffle hunting on my own. So, she'll take Fiori along with her dogs, and they'll head out to find truffles, then bring them back to us.

 

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How do truffles factor into Amaricano?

It is beautiful. I dehydrate them, and when you dehydrate them, it concentrates the flavor and changes it a bit. So instead of that funkiness that we associate with truffles, which I love, it turns into more of a cocoa, fruity, earthy flavor, which really melds a lot of the other botanicals that are in the mix. 


At one point, I considered removing truffles from the main products to cut costs and reduce the price of the amari, but since they were integral to the recipe, it really didn't hold together without them. It creates a nice flavor profile and body. 


We also include hops in our product since Washington is the largest grower and exporter of hops in the U.S., producing over 75% of the country's supply, most coming from Yakima Valley where ours are grown. We thought, "We definitely need to incorporate that ingredient!"

 

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You give tours of your distillery. Tell us what those entail.

We share the story of Fast Penny, explaining the process of making amaro and how I developed the products they're tasting. Guests get to sample our limited releases, and we tailor the experience based on their interests. Typically, this includes tasting the limited releases, learning about our production process, and exploring the rich history of amaro, as many people are unaware that it has been around for centuries. Then, we end the tour with a cocktail made with our amaro in local spirits to highlight its versatility in entertaining. 

 

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What kind of feedback have you gotten about your products?

I wanted people to think, "Wow, I never realized I liked amari until I tried yours, and now I have a whole collection!" I've actually had several people approach me, unsolicited, to say just that.

 

I want people to love our product and keep using it, but I also aim to broaden the category as a whole. I don't view other amari brands as competitors; we're a small segment compared to the larger spirits industry. Instead, we can support one another and elevate the entire category together. 

 

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What is your ultimate goal with Fast Penny Spirits?

My goal is to create fun and memorable experiences that incorporate amaro. One way to do this is through cocktails or as a pre-meal drink, but if you've just enjoyed a big meal and want the night to continue, it's all about introducing people to the concept of a digestif.


We also host many events here at Fast Penny. We've organized a summer concert series, chocolate-amaro pairings, and mushroom happy hours. We're always looking for ways to connect people and create memorable experiences and community, whether at the distillery or in their own homes.

 

 

 

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Emilia Aiello Puts Southern Italian Wines on the Map with Cittavino & Co.

When you think of Italian wines, your first thought may be northern Italy or Tuscany. But Emilia Aiello is on a mission to challenge that instinct and educate wine connoisseurs on the virtues of southern Italy. 


The Oakland, California, native cut her teeth in New York restaurants, serving as wine director and then leading the beverage program at Greenwich Village's Lupa Osteria Romana. Her interest in wine led her down a rabbit hole to working at a winery through a harvest season in Sicily's Mount Etna region and creating her own regional wine map. She wished to share her experience and introduce more people to the area, leading her to launch her own online wine retailer/educational resource, Cittavino & Co.


Emilia is Italian on both sides, but her passion for southern wines partially stems from her drive to reconnect with her Sicilian roots. Her paternal grandparents emigrated to Pittsburg, California, from Isola delle Femmine.


I spoke with Emilia about her background, life-altering experiences, and what motivated her to launch Cittavino. She also shared career advice for those wishing to pursue a similar path and what she hopes to provide through her wine education.

 

 

Tell us about your professional background.

My experience with wine initially was my experience in restaurants, and I don't see them as different, at least in the first part of my life. I never intended to be in restaurants or wine. Most people fall into it and find that they're good at it. Growing up in my Italian culture, however local it was, I naturally understood how things work in Italy. It gave me a one-up. I was also very curious. I was trying to dance in New York then and support myself with restaurants. I just found I liked learning about wine.

I started bartending. Also, my cousin owns a restaurant here in Oakland, and I started getting interested there, but it was just kind of an interest, not really a career option for me. Then as the restaurant industry does, it definitely sucked me in. One, it's very demanding, and two, it pays your bills.

I started venturing into southern Italy more because there was just less about it and less available, so I wanted to know more. I had already traveled to Italy in college. I took some time off school, which started my interest in the South, and it was just another opportunity to bring it somewhere and have some structure around it.

I took over the wine program at Lupa Osteria Romana. I made it my objective to organize southern Italy like we had organized northern Italy and have more representation.

I could only do so much. Not much was happening in the way of seminars or marketing campaigns. When a marketing campaign for an Italian region makes it to the United States, there's a lot of effort, organization, and money behind it. We're seeing more with Etna, but as a whole consorzio campaign, we're not really seeing it.


So, I started traveling to southern Italy, but specifically with wine as the objective, so I could learn more. I kept learning more. I felt there was space for that kind of information in the wine industry and maybe among consumers. And I did that for a couple of years while working at the restaurant. I worked a harvest, and when I left the restaurant, it happened simultaneously with COVID. I had a lot of time to think.

 

I have Italian citizenship, so I was able to get to Italy during peak pandemic, and I stayed stuck there working a harvest and thinking a lot. I now know what I do to be more niche than I realized. I thought there'd be a little bit more of an audience for it. Within New York and now California, there are two totally different wine consumers, but it started with the restaurant and having to go to the source to understand things. Nobody was coming to me to present me with information or classes or whatever. And while it's changing, I still find that to be true, especially when you look at credentials like master sommeliers and people with higher levels of certifications; nobody specializes in southern Italy—maybe Italy in general, but often it's northern or maybe Tuscany. It's still a bit of a hole.

 

Describe your wine harvesting experience.

That was my first harvest-time experience. I just needed to take a break from work and figure things out, and they let me go for a couple of months. 


When I first started being interested in wine, Mount Etna wines were really coming onto the market. So, I've been able to follow that trajectory. They really started gaining momentum around that time. There was a demand from people asking about them. I also wanted Lupa to be at the forefront, focusing on southern Italy.

 

So I had a bunch of wines, and we were talking about them as if we were talking about other more well-known regions like Barolo, but not really anybody knew what they were talking about. Even just the simplicity of needing to organize it on the wine list, I was like, "Wait a second, we're comparing these two regions, but I don't even know how to put these on the wine list."

People were asking me the difference between these sectors. I had no clue, and here I was supposed to be the professional. So, I went to Etna for my first harvest experience to learn more. And I ended up with Biondi and stayed with them for a few weeks. I just started my journey of being on the ground there and tasting wines with other producers. So, I was able to finally wrap my head around the location.

 

I met an expat who lives there and has become the Etna wine expert. He was also the first to really take an interest in the region in a more analytical or organized way, and we became friends. So, he has been a great resource to me as well.

 

I didn't quite realize how much I was gaining in the moment. I kept asking people about maps. I used to always do that: ask about maps of the region, and sometimes they would be able to give it to me, but in the Etna region, there was nothing to give. So when I went back to the United States, I thought, "Well, I'll do some research online." Nothing was coming up.

 

But that was my moment of being like, "Gosh, I learned so much in just three weeks of being there on the ground, and I get to tell my colleagues so much." I brought back a map of the geology, which everybody was very keen on looking at. I was like, "Interesting. This means something."


That started my trajectory of not just going back to Etna but also the way I approach it now, learning about other regions. I really like to work a harvest or best I can, even if it's not months' worth of time, get some kind of physical movement in there and then just get a little bit more of an inside view with the producer. It's helped me tremendously, not just to gain an understanding of the area but also to understand the human's connectedness to it, why people do what they do, and maybe why we're kind of obsessed with it from afar. So that was incredible. And it was kind of my first adventure into approaching wine that way.

 

What motivated you to start Cittavino?

Probably recognizing when I was working in the restaurant that wines were coming out of the market, but there was not representation in the same way. And then kind of asking myself questions about why and then wanting to find the answers why. So, going there to Italy and starting to talk to more people who actually live there and make wine.

 

I had already planned to take a break from the restaurant, and then the pandemic hit, and I was kind of everywhere. But I just knew that I needed to get back for a harvest because that's where things happened for me. This was also when I started questioning quite a bit.


We still are in this natural wine movement, but at the time it was a new conversation. It'd been a couple of years. We were all still kind of wrapping our heads around it, asking, "Do we like it? What is this?" And I remembered drinking some wines, particularly this one from Calabria, that, as I was reading about it, hit all the criteria of what a natural wine was, but it didn't tout itself as a natural wine. I was like, "What's going on here? I need to go to the source to understand what this is." So I intended to go to Calabria, and then, because of the pandemic, I just ended up spending four months in Calabria. 


It was just a reckoning of my personal life, things happening in my career, and then the pandemic, but I mulled it over a lot. When you're in it, you don't quite realize what you're in.

 

When I got back home, things started circulating quite quickly, and I thought this was valuable to me and may be valuable to others. From the professional side of things, having a lot more information to offer people, the map, and drawing from a consumer side of things, just trying to communicate that inside view people don't get. They could connect with it more because I found for myself how enriching it was to take that time with people, as well as working outside in the vineyards, and how it grounded me. And I was like, "Well, maybe that could be grounding for others, too."

 

We're especially obsessed with wine in place, but do we really know what that means? We're just kind of obsessed with checklists and soil types as if we really know. But we're missing pieces to make it a more rounded experience. I think that about a lot of things, not just wine.

 

I started thinking I could be a resource for southern Italy, a promoter for people who don't have the funds and the Italian system to promote what they do. And there are some really excellent wines that I taste from small producers. So I am working with what you would call more natural (but I also don't like using that term), a certain type of wine that I feel is most connected to the person and the place. And that is my platform; I really only sell a particular type of wine.


Maybe because I've been there and I had the experience, but drinking that type of wine makes me feel a different way than just drinking to drink. That was the whole basis. It's certainly evolved since then. I had a very specific idea of what it was going to be, and it's taken on its own journey for better or worse.

 

I don't know how sustainable it is, but I keep coming back to what keeps me in it: that connection with the people who are making this thing and how important it is to connect with those people. I see it now as a lifestyle because of the wines I end up liking and the people I connect with who have made it their lifestyle. 


Certainly, there's business and finances involved like anything, but for them, it's their entire way of life. Maybe it's just me feeling like I'd like to give back more of that connection to agriculture and that way of life that we've become disconnected from. But that's what keeps me in the game. One could do that with other products and things. I just happen to do it in southern Italy, where I feel most connected, where I started this journey, and where that connection really is for me, that more agrarian kind of lifestyle. 

 

What sets Cittavino apart from other online wine retailers?

The focus, for sure, and the reality is now that, with being so niche, for better or worse, I can represent a lot of one region. With Italy, things are so diverse, and so much is going on. I really like being able to offer that diversity of Lazio, for example. I mean, who has a huge selection of Laziale wines?

 

My platform isn't just about drinking wine. It's trying to engage people on all levels of it and be interested in it, in the person, and in the hope that I'm giving, again, a grounding experience through wine. I'm not sure if everybody's taking it that way, but that's what I'm trying to present. And with this product that I'm giving, there's so much more in it than just your alcohol and grapes; they're charged. It sounds woo-woo, but I really believe it. And I've taken a little bit more of a clear approach to why my palate likes these wines better. And yes, there's kind of a checklist I could go down, but I just keep finding that when people have an entire lifestyle built around what they do agriculturally, their wines taste better.


I keep trying to shoot out different means of getting people to be attracted to that for whatever reason. We're so disconnected, and as we continue to advance in the new age and technology, we're getting further and further away from that. The best way I can pull us back a bit is with wine—farmer wines.

 

What advice would you give someone looking to start a career in the wine industry, especially around less-represented regions?

This might be advice for anybody regardless of what they will do. Again, as I said, things are about money, and we live in a world that constantly shows us that. Especially as we get older, we need to weigh the finances, but there has to be a why greater than just trying to get in something niche, being a figure, and being reputable. There has to be something that connects you and grounds you to what you do beyond that, or else it will get really hard, really fast. And even when it does ground you, you're constantly thinking about the way out, or should I just give this up? You hit those really hard moments. And so what is your purpose beyond money, reputation, whatever? How are you connected to what you're doing in a more fundamental way? Ultimately, what's going to keep you showing up for it?


You are definitely going to have to do things you don't like in anything. At some point, a job is a job, so being able to reconcile a bit of that is not always just going to be fun and creative. The hustle shows up everywhere. So, for me, it's been important, and it changes sometimes, but it's just getting more profound as to why I am even doing this. Would I still do this? If the possibility of making money on it was zero, what parts would I give up, and what parts would I keep? In the wine industry, it feels very glamorous, especially to the outside, and people want to get into it because there are a lot of cool perks to it, but there are a lot of things that are hard as well. And yeah, making sure you're at least along for the journey. That might also be my advice for anybody just starting a business.

 

For underrepresented regions, you're going to have less support. You're going to be doing a lot on your own. Things just come up that you can never anticipate. There's a lot of confrontation of the self for me, especially being alone. I speak Italian, and I am Italian. Still, it's not my native language, and still, every time I go, there's this jolt of getting acclimated again and being in an unfamiliar area culturally, too. It's very clear to me that I'm American when I'm in southern Italy, even if I'm hanging out speaking Italian and speaking wine language and getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. Especially in the places where they are unknown, and you're trying to be a pioneer in them, there's a lot of shooting in the dark and figuring out what your support system is when you go off and do those things alone.

 

What experience do you hope to offer people through your wine education?

I want to open doors for people, and people are traveling a lot now, and wine helps as kind of opening a door. So curiosity, definitely passion, and vigor. If I am just thinking about doing an event, it's getting people energetic again about what they do. And it's not just about listing facts on things; it's bringing in this more rounded human experience. I want people to take away the human experience from whatever it is I do. And if I can transmit that experience just by sending you a bottle, cool. If it's with an event with me, if you're in the wine club, or whatever, it's about trying to create some connectedness between all of us. That would be the best takeaway if somebody felt more curious about what they're purchasing.

 

For me, learning about wine and being with these farmers has totally bled into me. It's now a lifestyle of "I want to go to the farmers market in my local area. I want to meet that person. I want to be curious about what they do and how they do it because that's the closest I'm going to get to my consumption." And we're really missing that in pretty much everything else that we consume or purchase. So, hopefully, they'll have that curiosity and want to connect more.

 

 

 

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Tracing Italian Roots: Genealogist Stephanie Merlino Connects Families to Their Heritage

Every family has a story. Sometimes, it starts with a name; other times, it begins with an ancestral home. Harder-to-reach family histories require a detective of sorts, someone who can comb through archives and map out complex lineages. 


Genealogist Stephanie Merlino has helped clients uncover Italian familial roots for more than three decades. It all started with her own quest to better understand her Sicilian heritage. This emotional journey led Stephanie to discover her gift for finding connections and decide she could help others.

 

"I'm almost like a savant when it comes to this," Stephanie says. "I can find any family anywhere. As long as the records are available to me, I will find them."


Stephanie and I recently discussed her path to genealogy, her unique approach, her favorite part of the job, and her goal with every genealogical report she produces.

 


What inspired you to become a genealogist?

About thirty-something-odd years ago, I realized that my family wasn't from the United States. I learned just by interviewing my family that we came from Sicily, from a small town—Valguarnera Caropepe—with a very rare surname—Interlicchia. So, I started to look at that surname and its different variations.

 

Back then, we didn't have email and all of this stuff, so I hand-wrote to each person I could find in the phone book in Argentina, Brazil, and Italy. So it just culminated in a process where I started interviewing my grandparents and their siblings, and all this information started flooding in. When I wrote to different people, more information came in. And I was able to connect them all into this gigantic tree of thousands and thousands and thousands of people. 


Once we got Facebook and everything like that, I started to contact some of these people, and I realized that one of my cousins, Vincenzo, still lived in the town we came from. So I went to visit, and he happened to own a bed and breakfast. I ended up staying there, and I would go back there every year for a long period of time. It just became a huge story, and I decided I wanted to help other people.

 

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Valguarnera Caropepe photo by Stephanie Merlino

 

How do you approach tracing family lineages?

I start by sending my clients what's called a family and ancestor chart, and I will have them fill it out, and then I will start going backward. So I will start with the information that they gave me. Say they know that Giuseppe Conti was born in 1876 in Aci Trezza. I will go to those archives and pull that record out, and then I am like, "Aha! Now I've got the parents." And I do estimations. I'm saying, "I don't know if this is their first child, second child, or third child, but I'm going to estimate now. We've got their ages. We've got their occupations." So I estimate when they got married.

 

I start going in that direction but backward until I get to the end of the records. I don't just use the direct line. I'll pull out aunts, uncles, kids, everything. It gives you a broader picture than just your straight lineage. I'll even go so far as to find information on the boat your family came over on—where it was built, who built it, how long the journey took, and when your family landed. It all starts with getting as much information from the client as possible. And if they don't have a lot of information, I will go in and try to fill in the gaps. 

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Valguarnera Caropepe photo by Stephanie Merlino

What's your favorite part of doing this work?

There's just something about the records; it's like they talk to me. Then there's the satisfaction of seeing the faces of the clients or when they email me, "I didn't realize you were going to go this deep or you were going to get this information."

 

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Photo by Stephanie Merlino

What is your goal with the work you do?

The overall goal is just to connect people with where they're from. When the people in Italy and Sicily came here, they kept some traditions, but as the generations keep getting watered down, they forget about them. They forget about where they're from, and they forget about why they might act a certain way, why they have this certain tradition in their family that they've kept going, and why those things are so important to their father, their mother, or their grandparent. 


I'm trying to bring more awareness to the younger generations about where they're from because this is a wide world. And America is so far away from Europe and so separated from other places that people really forget. They don't understand the sacrifices their families made to come here and make a better life for them.


As you dive into the records and get into the crux of it all, it's almost like the records start talking to you. They're screaming, "Find me, remember me; I was here once before."

 

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Family photo courtesy of Stephanie Merlino


 

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KePalle Arancine d'Autore: Revolutionizing Sicilian Street Food

Named for their shape and often color resembling oranges, arancini (or arancine) are a classic Sicilian street food with origins dating back to 10th-century Arab rule. These deep-fried rice balls are typically coated with bread crumbs and filled with ragù, mozzarella, and peas, but the components vary regionally. The shape also varies: Whereas in Western Sicily, arancine appear as spheres, they are shaped conically to resemble Mount Etna in places like Catania and Messina. Even the name differs by locale. Eastern Sicilians refer to the individual balls as arancino (masculine), while arancina (feminine) is preferred in the West.


But one Palermo-based company, KePalle Arancine d'Autore, is mixing things up even further, offering menu items such as sweet arancine with Nutella, squid-ink risotto arancine stuffed with salmon, chicken curry arancine, and two vegan arancine options. 


I reached out to co-founder and co-owner Danilo Li Muli, the Palermo-based son of internationally renowned artist Gianni Li Muli and former art director at the advertising agency Gomez & Mortisia. Danilo, who started KePalle Arancine d'Autore with his wife, Eva Polanska, shared with me their inspiration, the process for creating new arancine, the arancina's role in culture, customer favorites, and what he hopes people will take away from experiencing their unique rice balls.

 

What prompted you to create KePalle and focus on reinterpreting traditional Sicilian street food?

Creativity and the desire to innovate. I am a creative by profession: I founded and managed an advertising agency for many years. Then, with my wife, we had this revolutionary idea: dedicating an entire restaurant to the Palermo arancina and offering new flavors (even for those who were previously excluded from tradition), expanding the menu with new gourmet, vegan and vegetarian recipes, and at the same time raising the quality of the product that was generally neglected commercially.

 

How do you develop new arancine flavors and recipes?

Quality is our secret. We choose only the best ingredients: Carnaroli rice, real saffron, Fior di Latte mozzarella, ham from the thigh, Sicilian meat, and seasonal vegetables. And to this, we provide a lot of attention, care, and passion in their preparation. Our arancine are prepared in the kitchen at the back of the shop throughout the day. In our shop, they are fried and served hot and crispy at any time of the day.

 

What role do arancine play in Sicilian cuisine and culture?

Arancina is the queen of Palermo street food. It is a popular and noble product. You can eat it every day as street food for a quick lunch or dinner, but in Palermo, it is also a great tradition to eat arancine for the Feast of Santa Lucia on December 13. December 13 is also KePalle's birthday. Double party for us! 

 

Which arancine flavors are favorites among your customers?

Our customers love all our arancini, probably because they are good! But the real plus is the quality. It is not for nothing that we have called them Arancine d'Autore. Our customers feel the difference and appreciate it.

 

If I really had to rank them, I would certainly put the Eat Parade, the traditional arancine with meat and butter, in first place. They would be followed by the arancine with mushrooms and vegetables loved by vegans and vegetarians and the gourmet ones: Rosalia, the arancine with squid-ink risotto and stuffed with salmon, and the Arancina stuffed with mortadella, buffalo mozzarella, and pistachio grains.

 

Tell us about your vegan arancine and how they compare to traditional ones.

It is important to us to be able to meet the needs of all our customers. Vegans and vegetarians are a very important category for us. We respect their ethics, and that is why we want the tradition of arancine to accommodate their tastes as well. We have several dedicated flavors on our menu, interpreting traditional and new recipes. The most popular are the arancina with mushrooms and porcini mushrooms (also loved by those who are not vegan because it is a real "walking" risotto) and the arancina with a vegetable sauce that interprets the classic meat arancina in a vegan way.

 

Can you share a memorable experience or story related to arancine?

The best memory I have of KePalle is certainly linked to the day of our tenth birthday, last December 13. On this occasion, we wanted the gift not to be destined for us but also for our city. For this reason, we organized a charity initiative, donating all proceeds of St. Lucia's Day (the most conspicuous of the year) to the pediatric hospital of Palermo to purchase important medical equipment for the rare diseases department. Doing good for others makes us feel good, and KePalle is always good for us.

 

How does KePalle preserve and promote Sicilian culinary heritage?

KePalle has revolutionized the tradition of arancini—not in a negative sense, but in a positive sense because we have contributed to enriching and carrying it forward. We have added new recipes that are now part of the city's culinary heritage, but above all, we have enhanced the authentic recipe of arancine.

 

KePalle offers a product of the highest level commercially, equal to what grandmothers and mothers prepare at home and comparable to that of a gourmet restaurant. We use authentic and high-quality products that other competitors did not use before and still do not use today: Carnaroli rice, real saffron, Fior di Latte mozzarella... We have revolutionized the arancini precisely because we have rediscovered it, bringing it to its maximum splendor.

 

What do you hope people experience with your arancine?

Those who come to the store to eat our arancine experience a unique, immersive experience that involves all 5 senses. The authentic location, the visual impact of the counter with the arancine, the scents that are released, the story of the product, and, finally, the wide variety of flavors and recipes. It is a feeling that cannot be described and that can only be experienced. All our customers know this, and you can feel it in their expressions when eating, as well as the satisfaction you can feel in their words and in the thousands and thousands of reviews they leave us.

 

 

 

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Threading Traditions: How Sicilian Heritage Shapes Giuseppe Ribaudo's Modern Quilts

Quilting is not a traditional Sicilian craft, yet it's part of Sicilian American quilter Giuseppe Ribaudo's heritage. Threads tie him to Casteldaccia, Sicily, where both sets of his grandparents came from, and West Babylon, New York, where he grew up downstairs from his seamstress maternal grandmother. At the side of her machine, he was first exposed to needlework. He'd watch her sew and mend clothing while his parents worked at his father's restaurant. But he never saw garment sewing as his thing. It wasn't until college that Giuseppe again picked up the needle and embraced another type of sewing: quiltwork.


In all good quilts, each piece of fabric tells a story. But the stories have been a little different for Giuseppe (aka Giucy Giuce), with some tapping into the fantastic like his sci-fi series and others more lurid like his true-crime collection. And then there's his Nonna series, inspired by the decor of his grandmother's home, where he enjoys Sunday suppers to this day.

 

I recently spoke with Giuseppe, who shared more about his grandmother, influences, and unique spin on the craft. 


 

Tell us about your grandmother.

I always say my grandmother was the first feminist I ever knew, and I don't think she even realizes that she is one or was one. She worked at a clothing factory in Long Island. She was by far the most proficient of everybody who was there. 


How have your Sicilian roots influenced you?

My culture has taught me to be really creatively free. I learned a lot from my father, who is a chef. I learned how to cook from him. I've been cooking with him my whole life. I model a lot of how I approach my craft on how my father approaches cuisine. A love of food, a love of presentation, and a love of detail really influenced my work ethic. My father taught me at a really early age to think outside the box. I don't know where that really came from, but it's something that I feel was ingrained in me at a really young age. I could look at things through an American lens and a Sicilian lens at the same time, so I looked at things differently when I thought about how my family looked at them. 

 

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Quantum by Giuseppe Ribaudo

 

Describe your first collection, Quantum.

It's a little weird, but it was like a math professor or science teacher who always longed to be an artist. The collection was what that professor would draw and doodle in his journal or sketchbook between grading papers and things like that. And it was like that for me, too. I had wanted to design for a while.

 

My relationship with the fabric company I was working for at the time began with me pitching a fabric collection to them, and then they hired me. I took the opportunity to soak in as much as I could, but I always had this thing in the back of my mind of what I wanted to be doing. And so that collection really began to mold what my aesthetic would end up being, what I liked, and what I was drawn to literally and figuratively in my designs.  

 

There was stuff inspired by DNA strands, and there's this one print called "Petri" that was supposed to be a graphic visual of different samples and Petri dishes and things like that. It was just very mathematical and geometric. I wanted to do line-drawing versions of these scientific ideas I had heard about and learned about throughout my life. 


It's very geometric, and the colors are very tonal. That's still very much part of my work and what I do. My fabrics are designed as tools for the quilts that I create. I'm always thinking of my color palette and adding colors to the broader palette of all of my fabrics.

 

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Quantum fabrics by Giuseppe Ribaudo


How has your process evolved?

It's evolved quite a lot. I don't have any formal design training at all, so I'm constantly thinking of an idea and how to translate that. The thing that's been really fun for me as a designer is no two collections have ever been created in the same way because it's always just trying to come up with a creative way to be able to translate the image that I have in my head—whether it be a file on the computer or something hand drawn. I'm always trying to figure out creative ways of making it happen. I have a true-crime collection that I did a couple of years ago. It consists of all these random little elements that I drew and scanned. 


That's why it's continued to be an exciting job for me. I never go into a collection theme without any idea how I will create the end of the artwork. I daydream a lot. I don't sketch much; I write in a journal and list my ideas. So I'll have a theme for a collection, and if I have an image, I'll just write down a word that's descriptive of that image. And if every time I look at that word, that image comes back, then I feel like I'm onto something with it. I'm very cerebral about it, and then it's like, "The artwork is due in two weeks; it's time to actually get to work on the collection!"  And then I'll sit down and actually start working all out. Sometimes, it'll be half done by hand or half on the computer—whatever way gets the work done. But it's always different, which is really fun as a creative person because it always feels fresh. 

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Declassified by Giuseppe Ribaudo


Some of your fabrics display text. Can you speak to that?

I do a lot of writing, and I love words and text. People love text prints, so I do a lot of those. I have a collection called Declassified, which is about the government conspiracy to cover up the existence of extraterrestrials. That collection has documents and written testimonials that I synthesized from lots of reading about alien encounters. I wrote them all out, turned them into my own versions of their stories, and then redacted a bunch of information.    

 

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Giuseppe Ribaudo's true-crime series, The Gnarls Hollow Trilogy

You enjoy taking people along on your explorations and research.

For sure. I always try to reveal a little bit more about myself as a person outside of the quilting world with each collection. I've done collections before where it was like, "I'm going to do this because it feels like it will be a home run. It feels like people will want it." And those never perform as well as those that really feel like they're authentically something I actually care about and am interested in. For example, the alien one is something I've always been super interested in, and I have stories of encounters. Sci-fi has always been a big inspiration for me, as has true crime. I've always been kind of morbid. I'm a relatively cheerful person, but I've always had this dark bent on what interests me. We have all these different sides to ourselves. 

 

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Giuseppe Ribaudo's Nonna

Tell us about your Nonna collection.

It was my most personal collection, and it's also my most successful collection. Every element was so specific and personal, and every element had a story behind it. From that collection, I learned that if you have the impulse and the instinct to be personal and make it specific, you should go for it because people will be receptive to that. 

 

That collection also hit at the right time—during the pandemic. A lot of people were feeling really nostalgic for better days. I had also moved to Maine (I'm now back in New York), and I hadn't seen my grandmother in seven or eight months. I'm a good Sicilian boy who goes to my grandmother's house every Sunday for dinner. So it was really, really hard to be away from my grandma for that long.


At that time, you had to be careful about who you were exposed to, and you were getting tested before you went to people's houses. We packed up the apartment, and I knew I couldn't move to Maine without saying goodbye to my grandmother. So we got our tests again.

We went to see my grandmother, and we were having dessert. My grandmother had these beautiful dessert plates, and when she pulled them out, you knew that we were having something special for dessert. So she pulled out these plates, and I was looking at them. I've always loved them. They have this beautiful little cluster of flowers.


I was like, "I would just love to have something like this on fabric. I would just sew with this all day long." Then I turned around and looked at my grandmother's couch with its floral design on it. I thought, "I wonder if there's a fabric collection here."


It hit at exactly the right time. It was what I needed to work on when I left New York. It felt like I was still tethered to home in that way, especially during such a hard time. So, I had the print for the main floral, and the dessert plate turned into its own print. There were these little clusters of flowers that turned into their own print. My grandmother has this huge piece of furniture, a big radio record player thing, and the speakers are lined with this beautiful green and yellow tweed. So, the tweed turned into a print from the collection. 


I blended these very personal, specific things from her house. The idea was mashing up my grandmother's aesthetic with my aesthetic. I wanted it to feel very traditional, but I wanted to bring it into the 21st century and make it feel very now. So, I combined my grandmother's florals and very traditional designs with my geometric symmetrical sorts of things. And it's up there in the best work I've done. 


I remember the first time I showed it to her. I had talked to her ad nauseum about this collection, and I didn't realize that the whole time I was talking to her about the collection, she was designing a collection in her mind. I told her, "I used your plate to design this. I used your couch to do this." So, in her head, she was picturing what that fabric looked like. And so I remember when I actually showed her the fabric, she had this look on her face: What the hell is this? Because it was not what she had envisioned. She thought it was going to be the soft pinks in her house and the creams and all this, but it was bright yellow and navy blue. It was my colors. She was really confused. Then I laid it all out and showed her the quilts that went with it, and now, she really gets it.  

 

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Giuseppe Ribaudo's Winding Ways


What do you hope people take from your work?

I try really, really hard to do something different, make it my own, and make stuff for people who may not want to work with a painterly floral all the time. There's space in my industry for the people who are sci-fi geeks and for those who like geometric stuff more than they like flowers and things like that.

 

I'm not breaking new ground. I'm taking the same things that have been there before, but playing with them a different way. So they're text prints, but instead of just being regular text, there's the weird alien sci-fi side to it. They look different than what you're used to. 


I'm very fortunate that I have fabric in shops in Australia, Norway, and all of these places. I take that responsibility really seriously, and I really hope that people see that. I try to push it further. I try to make it so that you're getting something new and different because I'm different.

And so if I was just trying to do more of the same, I don't think I'd still be doing this. Because in the most authentic collections, those are the ones where I've really found the most success. And so I hope that people see that I am trying to do my own thing and that I hope that that inspires other people to do their own thing. We don't have to do everything the way it's always been done.  


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Giuseppe Ribaudo with Basement

 

 


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