Vegan Sicilian Almond Cookies: Pizzicotti alle Mandorle
Have you gotten your hands on good-quality almonds? Try making some Sicilian almond cookies!
One to try: pizzicotti alle mandorle. Made with freshly blanched almonds, these holiday-perfect cookies are named for the way they are pinched using the thumb, forefinger, and middle finger before they are set in the oven.
I recently stumbled on a plant-based pizzicotti recipe on veganhotstuff.com. Many of the recipes Switzerland-based blogger Deborah Bolton has published are vegan versions of Italian dishes. She shared with me more about her version of this classic cookie and her zero-waste way of using chickpea liquid, aquafaba, as a binding.
Tell us about this almond cookie recipe and what inspired you to make it.
This almond cookie recipe originates from Southern Italy, particularly Sicily, where almonds grow abundantly in the warm Mediterranean climate. These cookies are called pizzicotti alle mandorle in Italian, where pizzicotti means pinches and mandorle is the word for almonds.
Pizzicotti alle mandorle are irresistibly crunchy on the outside with a soft, chewy center that melts in your mouth. I was inspired to make this recipe because I wanted to make a plant-based version that no one would be able to distinguish from the original. This recipe can be enjoyed by omnivores, vegans, and people with egg allergies alike.
What is the significance of this cookie recipe?
Almonds have always been significant in Italian culture, symbolizing good luck and prosperity. Pizzicotti alle mandorle embody this tradition and often appear during festive occasions and special gatherings. In Sicily, they are a cherished part of feast day celebrations and weddings, symbolizing good fortune and the sweetness of life. These traditional almond biscuits are often made using family recipes that have been handed down through the centuries. Skilled artisans and home bakers alike take pride in their meticulous preparation.
If you love almonds, you’ll adore pizzicotti alle mandorle. Photo by Deborah Bolton.
How is your recipe different from the traditional cookie?
As always, I like to keep traditional recipes as authentic as possible but without the use of animal products. The only difference between my recipe and the traditional cookie is the absence of egg white, which I substituted with aquafaba. Aquafaba is the cooking liquid in a jar or can of chickpeas. It has similar emulsifying, foaming, binding, gelatinizing, and thickening properties to egg whites, and the taste is absolutely undetectable. This recipe turned out perfect, and no one could tell that they were vegan.
Another thing I like about using aquafaba is the fact it aligns with my zero-waste philosophy. Chickpea water normally gets thrown away. Using it in our recipes instead of eggs is far better than exploiting hens and costs nothing.
Are there any specific types of ingredients that work best for this recipe?
Yes. While it’s possible to use either blanched or non-blanched almonds, I recommend using blanched (peeled) almonds because they yield an attractive-looking white cookie. In contrast, the brown skin on unpeeled almonds would result in a slightly darker cookie with brown flecks, which would be ideal for amaretti, for example, but not so much for pizzicotti. It’s best to use ground almonds, also known as almond meal, rather than almond flour to ensure you get the right texture. If you can’t find ready-ground almonds, just buy whole ones. It’s very easy to grind your own. This recipe calls for lemon zest, so make sure you use lemons with an edible peel.
Last but not least—sugar. Not all sugar is vegan because bone char is often used in the refining process, so check labels. I use white vegan caster sugar. Caster sugar is finer than granulated sugar, which is ideal for this recipe.
What are the most critical steps in the preparation process?
This recipe is actually super easy to make. The most critical step is probably weighing the ingredients precisely. If you’re approximate, it will definitely affect the texture of the cookies. Use a good kitchen scale because even slight variations in the amount of moisture will cause the cookies to either spread in the oven and lose their characteristic shape or be harder than they should be. The only other critical step is understanding when the cookies are done. They should be soft and pale when they come out of the oven and firm up as they cool.
Crunchy on the outside and chewy inside. Photo by Deborah Bolton.
What do you hope readers will take away from this recipe?
I hope readers will not only fall in love with the taste of these almond cookies but also appreciate the simplicity and authenticity of the recipe. With their crunchy exterior and soft, chewy center, they remain true to the traditional Sicilian cookie, even with the vegan twist. What’s even better is the satisfaction of making a cruelty-free version that’s just as good as the original, if not better. I also hope it inspires people to be creative with their plant-based cooking and consider the environmental and ethical benefits of using ingredients like aquafaba. And since they make such great edible gifts, especially around Christmas, I hope readers feel encouraged to share them with loved ones, knowing they’re spreading a little piece of sweet, homemade joy!
>>Get Deborah’spizzicotti delle mandorlerecipe here!<<
One of my favorite Sicilian treats as a child was torrone, a nut-filled nougat candy my Sicilian grandmother always had on hand, especially for the holidays.
I recently encountered a recipe for torrone in the pages of Giovanna Bellia La Marca’s Sicilian Feast, recently reissued as an expanded edition of her 2004 book.
“Torrone is such a part of Sicilian cuisine that no holiday goes by without it,” says Giovanna. “It’s delicious. Children love it; adults love it. So it’s just part of our culture and kind of a symbol of Sicily.”
Giovanna La Marca, who came to the U.S. from Sicily when she was 10 years old, also runs the Kitchen on the Cliff YouTube channel. The name is a nod to the fact that her kitchen is actually on a cliff overlooking Manhattan.
Giovanna shared with me the history of torrone, how the Sicilian recipe differs from that of mainland Italy, and how this nougat treat has become a Sicilian symbol.
What istorrone?
Torrone is a nougat candy, and in Sicily, we make it with almonds and sugar or almonds and a combination of sugar and honey.
It is very much tied to our history. Since antiquity, many people have invaded Sicily. There were the Greeks who made settlements all over Sicily, and they, of course, brought the trees.
The myth is that a boat carrying almond trees and grapevines was going to Puglia, the heel of Italy, which is very close to Greece. And the wind blew it to Sicily.
But the sweets! Sicily is quite famous for its sweets. One of the great sweets is torrone, and another one is marzipan, which are little sculptures of fruits that are so lifelike that when you see them in the window of the pasticceria, it is just amazing to see the likeness and the artistry with which they are made.
To achieve that, Sicilians already had almonds, but the sugar was brought by the Arabs around 700, and they planted sugarcane in Sicily.
An interesting side note of that is that the sugar industry in Sicily was dominated by the resident Jews. There was quite a large Jewish colony in Sicily, and they developed the sugar industry.
Now unfortunately, in 1492, when Spain expelled the Jews, they expelled them not only from their own country but from all the places that they controlled as well, which included Sicily. The Sicilians had no quarrel with the Jews. In fact, the Jewish people really ran the sugar industry. So they waited six months. They didn’t want to expel them. But Spain prevailed. And that ended the sugar industry in Sicily, which is a little-known fact but a very interesting one, I think.
How does Siciliantorronediffer fromtorronefound elsewhere in Italy?
Well, the typical torrone of Italy is white, and it’s made with a meringue of sugar and almonds and sometimes other nuts and sometimes bits of citron and so on. It is poured on edible rice paper, and that’s how it’s served and cut.
In Sicily, it is really almonds surrounded by crunchy caramel. It’s very, very crunchy. It’s actually a brittle. You can cut it with a knife, and you get all the cross sections of the almonds, which is very pretty. But you can also break it. It breaks in odd shapes, and that’s another way that we usually serve it.
As a child, I had trouble with it because I didn’t have the patience to let it melt in my mouth. I wanted to chew it, and chewing it was a job because it was really quite hard.
I’m not talking about the soft caramel we all know. I’m talking about true caramel, which, if you pour into a greased bowl and turn the bowl upside down, you end up with a bowl made of caramel.
It’s used that way for very high cuisine. In Sicily, we have two cuisines. We have home cooking, which is extremely rich and wonderful because it’s influenced by all the invasions. Our invaders did contribute a great deal; they didn’t just invade. They contributed to the language. They contributed to music, and they contributed to the food.
What developed in Sicily in the Renaissance was a cuisine for the aristocrats. The cooks were generally trained in France, then came back to Sicily and became the monzu. These professional chefs worked for two entities: the church and the aristocracy. And that was an extraordinary cuisine.
What doestorronesymbolize for Sicily?
Well, it’s something delicious, and sweets are generally the food that you get at festivals. They’re always served at Christmas and for all of the feasts. Every Sicilian town has a patron saint and a feast for the patron saint.
It really represents Sicily in its products because of the almonds of Sicily, particularly the city of Avola. Avola produces almonds that are called pizzuta, which means pointy almonds. They are very, very fragrant and very flavorful. That, of course, is due to the climate and the soil. In Sicily, the volcanic soil produces fruits and nuts with flavors you don’t get otherwise.
Almonds are part of a very important festival in Agrigento. The almonds fruit in February. So, in February, Agrigento is filled with almond trees in bloom. The almond trees in bloom have such a heady perfume that you almost feel enveloped by the scent of the almonds and the almond trees. So there’s a lot of folklore around it.
What was your goal with your cookbook, and what do you hope readers will take away?
I think I had very specific reasons for writing a book. I am a cook. I am a passionate cook. I have always loved to cook. I started when I was 10 years old.
My mother cooked well, but she wasn’t passionate about it. She had to have a perfectly orderly house and a floor that you could eat off of. My father did a lot of cooking, and he was very good, and I was his assistant. So if he made, say, risotto, I was the one who chopped the mushrooms. And the mushrooms for the risotto had to be about the same size as the grains of rice. So, I had a very good beginning.
I met Italian Americans and Sicilian Americans, and they always said, “I remember my grandmother’s cooking. It was so delicious. It was so wonderful. But she didn’t leave any recipes, and I was too young to ask for recipes.”
I heard this over and over again, so I thought, “I would like to write a cookbook that gives them Nonna’s recipes.”
My aim was to give typical and original recipes—not versions of, but the original recipes, the recipes that we all came up with and that our grandmothers cooked.
Roasted Chestnuts for the Holidays: A Sicilian Street Food Tradition
It’s the quintessentially Christmas image: chestnuts roasting on an open fire or, for most modern cooks, in the oven. Just visualizing it calls to mind the earthy aroma, something commonly encountered on the streets of Palermo this time of year. There, le caldarroste are served as street food dusted in snowy white salt in paper-wrapped cones.
Pennsylvania-based blogger Anna Maria Lucchese has fond memories of Sicily’s roasted chestnuts and shared her experience in a post on her blog, Solo Dolce.
Born and raised in Sicily, Anna Maria studied biology at university and earned her doctorate in genetics and oncology in Italy. For study-related reasons, she and her husband moved to the United States. They intended to stay for a short time, but that didn’t happen. Today, both work in Philadelphia in the field of research, and in Anna Maria’s free time, she dedicates herself to her blog, where she explores Italian cuisine in depth.
Anna Maria recently shared her experience with roasted chestnuts and tips for recreating the flavor at home.
What makes roasted chestnuts a popular street food in Sicily?
Chestnuts are a seasonal delight because they are harvested in the fall. They are available throughout the cooler months, so they are ideal, especially during Christmas. Roasted chestnuts are a common treat at family get-togethers and regional celebrations, bringing back fond memories of childhood for many Sicilians.
How are roasted chestnuts traditionally prepared and served by vendors in Palermo?
The roasted chestnut vendors in Palermo are truly unique. They create a captivating scene, surrounded by fragrant smoke rising from a metal cylinder. Inside, glowing embers rest at the bottom, with chestnuts placed on top. As the chestnuts roast, they’re often sprinkled with salt, which interacts with the heat to create a fine, white powder that resembles powdered sugar. This visual and sensory experience draws in passersby, inviting them to indulge in this traditional winter snack. The vendors’ lively presence and the warm aroma of roasting chestnuts evoke a sense of nostalgia and community, making them a beloved part of Palermo’s winter streets.
What memories do you associate with roasted chestnuts during the Christmas season in Sicily?
My memories take me back to my time in Sicily, in my hometown, during the winter holidays. I remember walking along the Corso, the main street of the town, with friends. We would stop by the vendors to buy warm, roasted chestnuts, which became our delicious snacks as we strolled. The warmth of the chestnuts in our hands and the comforting aroma filled the air, creating a sense of joy and togetherness. Each bite was a reminder of the simple pleasures of winter, and those moments spent with friends made the season truly special.
What are some tips for preparing roasted chestnuts at home?
Buy chestnuts (Look for fresh, shiny chestnuts that are firm to the touch. Avoid any with blemishes or holes) in the supermarket, cut them, sprinkle them with salt, and bake them at 450 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 to 40 minutes. Or if you have a chestnut pan (or a heavy skillet with holes), you can roast them on the stovetop over medium heat, shaking occasionally, for about 15 to 20 minutes.
What do you hope readers will take away from this recipe and your blog?
I hope readers will take away a deeper appreciation for the simple pleasures of cooking and enjoying traditional foods like roasted chestnuts. My blog aims to celebrate the rich culinary heritage of Italy, sharing not just recipes but also the stories and memories associated with them.
Savoring Tradition: Our Italian Table Brings Sicily’s Beloved Sfincione to Life
A thick and spongy savory tomato pie, sfincione is the grandmother of what Americans call Sicilian pizza. As is typical in Western Sicily, my nonna would top hers with anchovies, onions, breadcrumbs, and cheese. We looked forward to enjoying it with our Christmas Eve feast, always saving some room for her cookies.
Nonna rarely wrote her recipes; when she did, there were never any measurements. Luckily, folks like Italian-American siblings Michele and Joe Becci of Our Italian Table are doing their part to preserve food traditions. Their recipe for sfincione is approachable, and the result resembles what Nonna would have prepared.
I recently corresponded with Michele and Joe, who shared their background and connection to this recipe, how sfincione differs from pizza, favorite side dishes, and more.
Tell us about your background.
We are two siblings who grew up as second-generation Italian Americans in the small town of Phillipsburg, New Jersey—a place that welcomed a large influx of Italian immigrants in the early 20th century. Our love of cooking began in our childhood, helping our mother in the kitchen. Standing on chairs, we would roll pasta dough, shape gnocchi, or (gently) stir the simmering pot of passatelli. Together, we rolled meatballs, kneaded dough, helped make the sauce, and fried eggplant. Our mother was forever sharing her specialties with family and neighbors, near and far. Thankfully, she passed on her passion for cooking to us.
Our grandparents emigrated from Sicily, Naples, and Marche in Italy. Their arduous journey across the sea to a new life only deepened their desire to continue the traditions and rhythms of their former lives in a new land and build a life surrounded by the love of family. Growing up, large family gatherings were the norm, and good food was the foundation for a lifetime of memories filled with laughter and love.
This celebration of family, tradition, and Italian culture is at the heart of everything we do, which is why we first launched Our Italian Table, our food blog, over 15 years ago. Working from opposite coasts—Joey in California and Michele in Pennsylvania—our blog has brought us great joy, allowing us to share our passion with our readers. Today, Our Italian Table has grown to include our annual magazines (our most recent issue, “From Sicily, With Love,” is over 100 pages dedicated to the land of our maternal grandparents, Sicily) and our recently launched podcast, A Tavola, along with an online shop that features carefully curated Italian products from artisans we know and love—items we proudly use in our own homes and kitchens here in the U.S.
What is your connection to this recipe?
Our mother’s family is from Santo Stefano di Camastra in Sicily. Many from her village immigrated to the town in the U.S. where we grew up, Phillipsburg. There was a bakery called the New York Italian Bakery, an institution that had been around for over 40 years. We can still remember how excited we would be when we would jump in our Dad’s station wagon for a trip to the bakery. The aromas in the bakery were magical—the smell of the piles and piles of breads and Italian cookies gleaming behind the glass display cases—but our favorite display case was the one that held the trays of Sicilian pizza, oily and thick and tomatoey. Whenever our parents allowed us to have a slice of pizza, they would scoop a slice out of the pan and hand it over to us, oily against the parchment paper. We were made to wait until we were back in the car to eat our prized possession, and we devoured it.
How issfincionedifferent from pizza?
Sfincione, often called “Sicilian pizza,” is quite distinct from the classic pizza most people know. It’s not the thin, crisp-crusted Neapolitan or New York-style varieties. Sfincione has a thick, soft, and fluffy crust, more akin to focaccia. It’s baked in a rectangular pan, which helps create a thick, spongy base that’s both light and substantial. The name “sfincione” itself hints at its texture, derived from the Latin word spongia, meaning “sponge.”
The dough is covered with a mix of onions sautéed with tomatoes, anchovies, and breadcrumbs, which add a bit of savory crunch. Cheese—usually grated caciocavallo or pecorino—is sprinkled over the top. The anchovies, onions, and robust cheese provide a savory punch, while breadcrumbs on top add texture and a rustic finish. Oregano, Sicilian oregano if you can find it, is used in the sauce, giving it a unique Sicilian flavor.
What are some popularsfincioneside dishes?
We love to serve sfincione as part of an antipasti board that includes maybe a simple mix of briny olives, cured meats, and cheeses. When served as a meal, we love to serve a bright, lemony salad, perhaps peppery arugula dressed lightly with lemon juice and shaved Parmigiano. A classic Sicilian fennel and orange salad also works beautifully to add brightness alongside the deep flavors of the sfincione. Occasionally, when we have a larger crowd, we might also serve a platter of seasonal grilled vegetables such as zucchini, eggplant, and peppers drizzled with extra-virgin olive oil and red wine vinegar.
What do you hope readers take away from your recipe?
We want readers to come away with a sense of Sicily’s culinary soul and an appreciation for the simplicity and depth of flavors that define traditional Sicilian dishes. Sfincione isn’t just a “Sicilian pizza”—it’s a rustic, satisfying dish with a story, a connection to Sicilian street food culture, and a distinct personality… a taste of Sicily in its most comforting form, a reminder of the island’s ability to transform humble ingredients into something memorable and delicious. We also hope that our readers will feel inspired to make sfincione at home and to gather and enjoy it like in Sicily, where sfincione is meant to be savored slowly, with friends and family, in the warmth of community.
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 isamaro?
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.
What is the history ofamaro?
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.
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.
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 Sicilianamari?
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.
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!”
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.
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.
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.
Milliner Roberta Cucuzza: From Family Legacy to Award-Winning Hats
You could say that design runs in Sicilian-born milliner Roberta Cucuzza‘s blood. The bespoke hatmaker’s great-grandmother, Maria Bellini, a Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli contemporary, opened a fashion atelier in Catania in the 1920s and passed her passion onto her family.
Roberta has fond memories of sewing with her grandmother, which serve as touchstones on her career path. The London-based designer takes hat commissions as she works toward an HNC in Textiles/Millinery at Morley College in Chelsea, London, the only professional millinery course available in the UK.
I recently had the opportunity to connect with Roberta, who shared more about her background and inspiration, her journey to her first commission in 2019, her award-winning hat, and her plans for the future.
Tell us about your background and what led you to millinery.
My fashion heritage goes about three generations back to my great-grandmother. She had a good life and a really nice marriage. For those days in 1920s Sicily, she was very independent and got a lot of support from her husband to pursue her goal of running a fashion business. Unfortunately, her husband passed away when he was 50 when she was still relatively young, so she found herself raising six kids on her own through her work as a tailor. There’s a story of survival that goes with her craft.
She was a tailor and a fashion designer who attended a professional school in Italy. When she was still with my great-grandfather, they traveled to Paris together, embarking on a 2,000-kilometer journey by steam train! In those days, it wasn’t an easy trip. They went there in the twenties when Schiaparelli and Chanel would probably have been showing their work. She came back excited and brought lots of nice materials back with her. Her business grew because of this trip and gradually attracted clients from the Sicilian nobility. Her business really thrived. She had a 17-room atelier in central Catania.
She was really infectious in terms of passing on her passion to her daughters. I spent my childhood sewing things with my grandmother Isabella, which is where everything started for me. However, it wasn’t until many years later that I encountered millinery. My great-grandmother would not have made hats because they had what we call a modista, a milliner who would do that. But my dad has a big passion for hats, and the two things eventually came together.
My first encounter with hats was in 2015 when I attended a workshop in London. London is more open-minded when it comes to hats, while Italy is quite traditional. I just fell in love with millinery at first sight.
What memories do you have of sewing with your grandmother?
We celebrate Carnevale in Italy, and the family made all of my Carnevale dresses from scratch. My grandmother and aunt made this princess dress from a beautifully embroidered taffeta material that I think came from Morocco. I remember so clearly sitting on a chair for them to do the hem. They even made a matching headband to go with the dress.
Lots of love came with this craft. My early memories involve spending time with my loved ones, holding a needle, and making little purses or projects that my grandmother would give me.
The one thing I’m a bit upset with my grandmother about is that she never wanted to teach me how to use the sewing machine because she was scared I would hurt my fingers. It’s something I had to pick up later on. Only recently have I overcome that deep fear. It would have saved me so much time, though, if I had learned it from her!
In millinery, you do a lot of hand sewing, and it came naturally to me to focus more on invisible stitching and all the things you do by hand. Eventually I wanted to be able to also create pattern-based hats that involve using a sewing machine. I mastered this in college only last year!
A couple of things really stayed with me. One is the quality of the materials my family was able to find in Italy to make clothes, and the other is their attention to detail. There’s an emotion that goes into what you’re making; it’s not just a piece of fabric that goes through a machine.
Describe your journey from training to your first commission.
After some years of playing around just for pleasure, I started training professionally in 2019 through workshops and courses available in London. Then, I was approached by a burlesque performer called Olive TuPartie in New York via Instagram. She trusted me one hundred percent. It was one of those things that just happened, and I couldn’t believe it because she was (and still is) the dream customer.
Because she’s called Olive, she asked me to make something that resembled an olive with a skewer and a pimento. We collaborated online, and it was interesting that I could do my first commission across the ocean, basically without doing a fitting. But I spend a lot of time really understanding the customer and paying attention, putting some thought into what I’m doing at the same time.
My training was not formal, but I attended workshops with renowned milliners. In London, they organized London Hat Week; they invited milliners from abroad to come and teach, and I was lucky to study with people all the way from Australia and Israel. So, the two things coincided.
Tell us about your award-winningRicciohat, its inspiration, and how you created it.
This project was very close to my heart for many reasons. My mom passed away a couple of years ago, and I didn’t realize until later how much of that was part of this project.
It all came about when our teacher took us to a cemetery just to get some inspiration. There were corbezzolo trees there. I picked up this berry, and I was just attracted by the idea of something that’s spiky outside with something precious inside. So, I started developing some mockups and prototypes and let this project take its course.
The sea urchin, riccio in Italian, uses this survival strategy. At the time, I felt a bit like a riccio because I was trying to protect myself and be strong outside.
The other key element of this design is crochet. My mom taught me to crochet when I was little. So when I made the structure of the sea urchin with millinery wire, I then covered it with crocheted felt, a technique I developed entirely on my own. To be honest, I didn’t even know it was possible until I did this.
So lots of things came together: the fact that there’s this kind of relationship that goes back to when I was a child. When I was designing it, it wasn’t clear to me. I was just going with the design process and going from one thing to another. But when it came to writing my artist statement at the end, I realized all these elements from my Sicilian heritage were there. It’s probably the project that is closest to my heart right now.
How do you balance traditional techniques with modern design elements in your work?
I think traditional techniques are there to help you. You have to know the rules to be able to break them. First, you have to learn the craft properly, and then you can go beyond and understand how you can innovate.
In a way, I am quite traditional. I am very curious about traditions, heritage, and old crafts. That’s why crochet is one of the techniques that I’m trying to develop at the moment. I’m thinking of starting to crochet with materials that may not be so traditional—anything from metal and leather to foraged pieces of grass. I am still in that process, but a crucial part of my design language is the juxtaposition of contrasting elements: old and new, feminine and masculine, hard and soft. For example, I recently developed a feminine version of the Sicilian flat cap, made with luxurious materials that contrast with its traditional association with men in the Sicilian countryside.
What are your future plans?
This year, my focus is on finishing my last year in college, when we will present our final collection. I’m hoping that this will be my debut as a millinery designer-maker. I’ve already been gaining work experience with other milliners, and I intend to continue working freelance, producing a mixture of my own designs and creations for other people.
More recently, I’ve also been doing some work in theatrical millinery, a type of work that really appeals to me because it’s more about solving a problem. Although I do like fashion and I like to create my own designs, I see myself l always doing a mixture of fashion and work for the stage.
I think it goes back to my first commission for Olive. That commission will probably be the one that will always stay with me; it sort of set the tone for me from the start. More recently, I have realized that what I like to do is help people realize their creative vision on and off the stage.
What do you hope people will take away from your work?
A smile? Happiness. That’s the thing that hats do for people. You can go anywhere; if you wear a hat, you connect with others. People will probably ask about it. They’ll be intrigued by your personality. What my hats do is create connections and generate happy memories. That’s happened so many times.
Once, a lady came to me and said she had been told she couldn’t wear hats because of her face. I said, “It’s just like a haircut. You’ve just got to find the right one for you.” Then she started wearing this hat that we looked at together, and a few days later, she sent me a thank-you card for helping her feel happy and confident in her own skin. That’s what I’d like people to take away.
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.
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.
Fireworks: Behind the Scenes of a Spectacular Italian Tradition
While pyrotechnics may have Chinese roots, the colorful fireworks we have today came from Italy. Starting in the 1830s, Italians combined metals and explosives to develop vibrant sky spectacles. That led to the birth of Italian family fireworks businesses, such as Zambelli and Fireworks by Grucci, America’s largest and oldest pyrotechnics-production companies.
Arkansas resident Andrew D’Acquisto, who has family in Porticello, Sicily, has worked with fireworks for about 40 years. We sat down to chat about how the pyrotechnician got started and what happens behind the scenes during your typical fireworks show.
How did you get started with fireworks?
I was interested in working with them and just didn’t know how to get a job in particular. And so I asked people who I saw. People I asked had gotten started through their family or friends of their family. I started going to the fireworks convention and asking people, and it was the same; they’d either been through this family or knew someone next door that the family knew.
Then I got a copy of American Fireworks News, a newsletter about fireworks in particular, and they had ads and people buying and selling stuff in the back pages. There was an ad from the Grucci family looking for some help, which was surprising. A well-known name. It would be like if you were a guitar player and saw Bob Dylan advertising for “Extra Musician” or something. But they had gotten a contract one year and had a lot of little shows to do. So they were hiring extra people. At that time, I was in Arizona and drove up to see them in the springtime. They had a training session and a little show we did at a church for practicing, followed by some classes.
They started calling me, maybe once or twice a year, on the 4th of July. Sometimes, they started on New Year’s. The first job I did was in Florence, Alabama.
But then I did a job down in Little Rock. It was near Memorial Day, and it happened to be their grandfather’s 80th birthday, so a lot of the family came down for that. We had a cake and a small get-together after the show.
I just started working for them, and I’ve traveled to different parts of the country and world with them, including Dubai and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, a couple of times.
What have you learned about Italian fireworks?
What you see normally are shells that are more round, which shoot out the mortars. Italian fireworks are long and layered. They call them salamis. Each section will go off, and then the bottom shot will go off. It’s just a different style of making, hand-wrapping, and putting them together.
What goes on behind the scenes for a fireworks show?
The main thing is driving there because they’re strict; you must have a commercial driver’s license for whatever size truck you have. But then, when hauling the load of fireworks, the truck needs to have special placards on it, and then it needs to stop and get weighed and inspected.
We’ll get to wherever we’re going, and the first thing we’ll do is unload most of the truck that’s set up. There are racks of mortars, which are the pipes or tubes that shoot the fireworks out.
You unload those and then nail any racks together, set them up, and put legs on them to make sure they’re at the right angle, going up and down, so they’re not going to fall over and go towards an audience. So they’re going to the sky.
Most jobs are electrical now. So first, you’d set up all the motors and then unload the individual boxes, and they’re choreographed. We’d have a diagram of where we’d unload the boxes or troughs, put them where they needed to go, and load the shells into the mortars.
We attach a wire from each fuse with the leader, which would set it off because it is set off electronically. Those get wired into smaller boards, and the smaller boards get hooked into the cables. Then, the cables, depending on the size of the show, all get hooked into a box, and they’re selected at the proper cue time. So the wires would run the distance to that main control box and then be wired into the proper sequence or the order they’re supposed to go off.
Now, a lot of fireworks are set off and choreographed to music, so that number one will set off one or two or three that are supposed to go off at that time in time with the music. There are different tracks, but we lay those down and connect them all. That may take a day or two or even weeks for extra world-size performance, and then we run a test on everything to make sure everything was hooked up properly, that there are no missed cues, and that they’re ready to go when we start the display.
That would often be tied to a computer or someone with headphones, so it would be a matter of laying everything out and connecting it.
It’s a long time for, say, a half-hour show. It might take two or three days to set everything up like that, depending on the size. Now, some shows are set up on barges, so you’d have to load everything from the truck onto the barge and set that up the same way. Then, you have to set up communications, which include headphones or walkie-talkies, to keep in touch with everyone. And then get their orders to shoot in sequence.
So basically, we just set up the mortar stands, load them, and then ensure the igniters are hanging out. Then, we wire them to where they go to the control box, lay out all the cables, and connect all the cables.
How have fireworks shows changed?
Years ago, it used to be all hand-loaded. The first job I did was by hand. I worked with an older gentleman, and he was hard to keep up with!
Can you speak to the Italian tradition of fireworks?
They get together to celebrate religious holidays and those named after the church, such as St. Joseph’s Day or St. John’s Day, and then have their special feast. And they would mostly be hand-manufactured.
I met some Maltese people who would get together, and their church group had a little band. They’d practice their different instruments and be playing. Another group would get together, making and setting off the fireworks for the church’s feast days. The whole town would come out because they’re all from a single church in each town. They would celebrate the entire town, and people would come from all around to enjoy it. They did a lot of things, like hand-rolling paper tubes and wrapping them up with more paper and string.
What do you most enjoy about fireworks?
It’s like hearing the song that makes you feel better. It lifts you up and makes your life easier. You appreciate it and share it with your neighbors.
With fireworks, it doesn’t matter if your neighbors may not all be of the same tradition or speak the same language; they all share the same ooh and ahh or enjoyment of it. There’s a spiritual uplifting when you can just look up to the sky and say, “Oh, we’re in this all together.”
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.
School children are being served Hidden Foods muffins.
Where can we find Hidden Foods?
We’re on Amazon and sell through our website. We’re in a lot of stores in San Diego, like Seaside Market and Frazier Farms. We’re also in some Sprouts down here. We just launched in Lazy Acres up in Los Angeles, and it’s kind of a test. Then, we’ll branch out to their other stores, just slowly growing that way.
We also have a line that we’re working on with the school districts. Again, my goal is really to feed kids better. A lot of their nutrition—in California, especially—comes from the school. So they go in, they have breakfast, and they have lunch. There are also a lot of rules coming down from Sacramento about what these kids can eat—reducing added sugar products and no fake dyes.
We’re slotted as a perfect match for the schools. So, right now, we’re working with them to make sure we can create some long-lasting, pre-made, and prepackaged products. We just launched some muffins, and so the kids are getting those at school for breakfast.
You’ve mentioned sauce and muffins. Tell us about your pancakes.
We have four flavors for pancakes. We have homestyle, chocolate chip, cinnamon churro, and gluten-free. All of those include our vegetable blend, so it’s essentially your greens for the day, as well as high protein and oat flour, flaxseed, and no added sugar. Those are sweetened with monk fruit and banana powder. You just add water. Again, we’re just trying to make it easy for families.
What is your goal with your products?
I’m on a mission to make sure that people are fed better. And how this kind of started was just being so sick of kids having cancer and being sick. The lack of nutrition is so much more than even being physically sick: There are attention deficits and behavior problems and patterns. A lot of that comes from that lack of nutrition. So, my goal was really to feed these kids better. It also needs to be easy because I think parents are saying, “Yeah, I want to feed my kid better, but I’m going for the easier one. I’m going for what’s in a jar.”
My goal is to partner with moms and say, “We’ve got your back. Here’s some really good stuff, and let’s branch out.”
I would like this to be everywhere. I want parents to rely on us, trust our brand, and say, “If it’s Hidden Foods, it’s got to be good. ” I know I’m going to give them the nutrition that they need.
So obviously, to get in stores everywhere would be my goal, but also to really break through school districts because I feel that is also something that when it’s in front of a kid, they’ll eat, and then they move on. And I don’t need this to be, “Oh my gosh, this is the best thing I’ve ever tasted.” I mean, I would hope that it is, and I think so. But really, I want them to just eat it and move on. If they don’t stop and say, “Oh, what is this? Why is it different?” and they eat it, that is a huge win because of all the nutritional benefits in it.
