L'Italo-Americano

www.italoamericano.org 18 L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2019 T he true American dream is made of a thousand stories about hard-working, com- mitted, honest immi- grants who came to the United States for different reasons and with the most diverse backgrounds, but eventually they all ended up being successful entrepreneurs who actually created something magic and wonderful out of nothing. This story in particular began in Padova, in Northern Italy, where chef Paola Da Re, her older sisters Luisa and Patrizia, and her brother Carlo used to spend their after- noons helping their mother Maria Giovanna in the kitchen: the kids were all hypnotized, watching her making pasta dough, her move- ments being so precise that it al- most looked like she was dancing. Since those poetical beginnings, Paola and her siblings walked a long path that led them to the City of Angels, where they started a brand new business thanks to their incredible passion for cooking. The Pasta Sisters project has been an instant success: with important top- notch magazines such as Zagat, LA Times, Eater LA and Forbes writing astonishing reviews about the great, impeccable quality of its food. Now Pasta Sisters is a firmly established, very important and ex- tremely renowned brand, synony- mous with delicious, traditional Italian food. Following one the best and oldest Italian habits, the enter- prise is 100% family owned, with Paola and her sisters Luisa and Pa- trizia in command, together with her brother Carlo and Paola's sons Francesco, Giorgia and Francesca. The family currently runs a company whose income has been growing exponentially day after day. Everything was born, a few years ago, out of a true passion for the best food: that's the secret recipe of Pasta Sisters. After their first, original location on Pico Boulevard, they opened a year ago a new beautiful place in Culver City and… they're already plan- ning to expand their empire further. In fact, the next ambitious project is to take over a new building to cover an entire new area and offer a wider service to Los Angeles. The great, successful impact of their business was possible also thanks to the unique skills and knowledge of Carlo: Paola's brother, and great international ex- pert of pasta. His culture in the cooking field, and his undeniable experience, helped the Pasta Sisters project to take off the ground and MAURIZIO RAMI Da Re: the inspiring, successful story of an Italian family of chefs in Los Angeles tribute when it came to deal with the quality and the ingredients of our recipes.I do really love the art of making pasta and I believe that my technical and my chemical knowledge allowed our restaurants to gain the amazing reputation now they can claim. What is your current involve- ment with the restaurants? Now I live in Italy, but I am constantly helping Paola and my family with important information about the kind of flour and all the raw materials we are importing to use in our menus. I am doing this mainly because of my passion and love for our family. I already have a strong reputa- tion in Europe, as a restaurant and cooking expert, and thanks to my unique knowledge I also won pres- tigious prizes and awards all around our country. A few years ago I also wrote a popular book about the various recipes with pasta. After this great success, what are the Da Re's new plans? We are keeping the utmost se- crecy about our future plans be- cause… we are Italians, therefore very superstitious! We don't want to risk to jinx our next projects! But we're confident some wonders will happen again soon, thanks to the power a strong family can pro- vide. It's only the support of the ones we love that can help us move forward in our lives: with new am- bitions, new horizons and a new hope everyday. become an outstanding and popu- lar phenomenon. L'Italo-Ameri- cano had the pleasure to have a chat with the Carlo to discuss his family's passion for good food and the story behind their business. When did you officially start the Pasta Sisters project? Everything started about five years ago, when Paola organized some private dinners for her friends and then – due to the over- whelming request – she began sell- ing her handmade gnocchi to a very famous restaurant in West Hollywood. As it often happens, the thing grew so much that she needed the help of Francesco, Giorgia and Francesca (her chil- dren). Francesco gave the initial spark to open her first little restau- rant, thanks to his former experi- ence in the field, and Giorgia im- mediately took care of the social media and the marketing side of business. Francesca, the younger one, discovered to be an extremely efficient accountant and… the rest is history! Did you have an instant posi- tive feedback from your cus- tomers? Even before the actual grand opening of our first place, people were asking about it! They wanted to know everything about our menu and, even without any classic form of advertisement, there was a long line out of our restaurant. In a couple of months a critic from Eater LA and Buzzfeed's crew vis- ited us and – thanks to their posi- tive reviews – our business literally blew, and it never stopped. Who were the original founders? As a matter of fact Paola started everything, immediately followed by her sister Luisa and a dear fam- ily friend. At the beginning, there was not a clear and precise idea about how to proceed. But then Giorgia, Paola's daughter, put her in touch with a restaurant owner: the first investors kicked in and I immediately took advantage of my professional cooking expertise and my entrepreneurial skills to help the business grow to the magnitude it is today. What started the project? The original spark was not about the business, but about our sincere passion for culinary art. Our desire to let the Americans know and appreciate traditional Venetian recipes. Now Pasta Sis- ters has two restaurants and can claim an international notoriety thanks to its unmistakable trade- mark of genuine, homemade meals served to a very affordable price. That's our concept and – we be- lieve – our winning point. So that all the families can have access to our quality, regardless to their so- cial status. What makes Pasta Sisters so unique and what is the secret of your huge success? The foundation of our success is the family. We all grew up to- gether, we shared our failures and our victories, we helped one an- other, we understood and highly valued each individual member's skills. We are very tight together and we tried to create the sense, the vibe and this feeling, of being part of a big family also with all our employees, business partners and investors. Those are the people who always believed in us. We al- ways helped each other rise up again after a fall. In Italy, I always gave them a hand when it came to chose the right flours, the right grains, the right raw materials. The amazing results of our family-ori- ented work ethic are also demon- strated by Paola winning an im- portant prize called Padovana Eccellente and a tribute by the Veneto Region: it's a very big honor, reserved only to the extra- ordinary Italians who were able to successfully bring their traditions around the world. I've always be- lieved in Paola's project, and I wanted her to take advantage of my cooking knowledge and my longtime business background. How big are the numbers we're talking about, in terms of pure business. The numbers we're hitting with our business are very important and significant ones: we serve over three hundred thousand plates of pasta every year. How did you actually help the culinary business project? I always wanted to be a profes- sional partner in order to let our business grow, using my valuable experience and giving my con- LOS ANGELES ITALIAN COMMUNITY Carlo DaRe at work @ Pasta Sisters Fresh pasta is the heart of the Pasta Sisters' business @ Pasta Sisters

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