Windsor, Canada is just one hour from us so I would have thought I would have been more aware of what is going on in the food scene in a country so close. That’s why I was shocked to not have Stefano Faita on my radar screen. Afterall,  this guy is BIG! Chef/Cookbook Author/Restaurant Owner/TV Celebrity/Brand Promoter and SUPER NICE GUY.

Here’s how it all started. With Michel, the owner of Favuzzi who is our distributor in Montreal, our first stop was a really cool cookware store called Dante. Believe it or not, it’s also a sporting store where they sell guns in the back of the store! The owner of Dante, Elena Faita-Vendittelli, is the mother of Stefano and opened her store in 1956, the year I was born!

 

 

This is me with Elena and Stefano, who just happened to be in the store that morning. At this point, I don’t yet know just how BIG he is, but I did have the foresight to get a picture with him and his mom.

 Had to snap a photo of this dish I spotted in Elena’s store. I offered Elena a bag of our pasta and she traded me the dish! Now I use it in all of our photo shoots as it is just too perfect!

As I visit food stores in Montreal, I see Stefano everywhere. I begin understanding what a big deal he is. Here he is endorsing Planeta Olive Oil

Promoting good food with some of his fellow food personalities.

Little did I know that I was going to get treated, with other food producers represented by Favuzzi, to an amazing meal in Stefano’s cooking school space.

I am happy to have done my part to introduce friends in the United States to Stefano Faita, the multi-talented chef who deserves all the success in the world!