Danielle’s Gustiamo People series: Stefano.
I’m just going to say it, Stefano is a Genovese-Brooklyn-Hipster. Stefano’s story of how he ended up in the food biz is a bit incongruous, but that only adds to his hipster style.
After Stefano graduated from Law School in Genova, he took off to push artisanal Italian foods throughout Brooklyn, New York and the entire USA.
Every day Stefano takes the 2 train, or the 5 train, or some combination of the two as he traverses three boroughs to get to work.
He uses the differences between Brooklyn and Manhattan as a metaphor for things in his daily life. For example, if you were to ask Stefano, “How would you describe the difference between the Palermitan resturants Zia Pina and Osteria del Vespri?” he might say, “Well, the difference is much like the distinction between Brooklyn and Manhattan” (Zia Pina being Brooklyn, of course).
Another part of Stefano’s hipster image is defiantly his new fancy olive oil tasting glasses. One of the highlight moments from my 3 weeks in the Gustiamo warehouse was tasting EV Olive Oil out of these glasses with Stefano. We compared an EV Olive Oil that I had brought with me from Sicily to Gustiamo’s Sicilian Pianogrillo. No comparison. I was amazed that last seasons EV Olive Oil could be so flavorful.