Lindsay Marie Morris

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

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

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

What inspired Terved?

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

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

Tell us about your product offerings.

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

What challenges did you face starting your business?

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

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

Terved Co-founders Kasia Bos and Diego Di Giovanni

What is your process for developing products?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Terved brioches on display at a supermarket.

What does Terved's future look like?

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

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

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

What advice do you have for aspiring entrepreneurs?

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

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

What experience do you want for your customers?

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

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

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

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

What are the origins of La Befana?

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

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

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

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

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

What kinds of gifts are given?

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

What can society learn from the story of La Befana?

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

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

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