They introduced Italian cuisine to thousands of people, as if they had invited Quebec into their home. Stefano Faita and his mother, Elena, brewed tomato sauce together as much as business before the son decided to pursue his own niche.
Will he go back to basics now that Elena is thinking of retirement, at the height of her 75 years?
“I’m the only one in the family who could take over Quincaillerie Dante, so my mother and my uncle better make me a good offer!” said Stefano jokingly. But, I don’t know…”, he confides, while thinking that the stories can have an end, especially when they lasted 66 years.
We imagine all the same that the decision promises to be difficult: there are many Montrealers attached to this small institution.
A story of passion
“It all starts with passion! This is the secret of success,” says Elena.
She was a teenager when she started working at Quincaillerie Dante with her older brothers and she continued with her sister, then her younger brother, and then with her daughter Cristina and her son Stefano.
Over the years, nails and paint have been replaced by pasta-making machines and utensils. But there are still shotguns left in this quaint business, which renowned New York chef Anthony Bourdain once said was the only place in the world where rabbits could be hunted, cooked and eaten! Because this is where cooking classes began to enliven the evenings from 1993.
“We saw a lot of neighborhood hardware stores closing when the big box stores arrived. That’s when my daughter had the idea to remove the hardware and focus on the kitchen tools, ”says Elena.
Saturday pasta classes and demos propelled the business to great success.
“It was a stroke of genius! While cooking, people would see the food processors, the mixers, the pasta machines and afterwards they would come back to buy them,” Stefano recalls.
Stars of Italian cuisine
The son and mother have been invited to cooking shows, at Clémence DesRochers, Daniel Pinard, Josée di Stasio and many others.
“I was 25 when I went to Josée’s show and it changed my life! Stefano recalls. It aired before the Super Bowl and I became the pizza guy on TV: I lost my first name! »
Opening of a first restaurant
For the next eight years, he featured recipes in The Journal of Montreal. And he took off by opening his first restaurant, Impasto, ten years ago with his partner Michele. After that, there was Gema, then Chez Tousignant.
“Elena and I weren’t working anymore. I wanted to develop the web, I needed more space and I decided to leave Quincaillerie to realize my restaurant dream,” he says.
At the same time, Stefano became a known face in grocery stores when his avatar became one of IGA’s standard bearers.
Afterwards, the idea of selling her sauces and pasta was inspired by Elena’s experience. Every summer, they were invited to the Jean-Talon market to show how to make preserves. Many people wanted to leave with the sauce rather than with pots and hours of work. Stefano and his accomplice Michele have adapted their mothers’ recipes to offer them ready to eat.
There are now 62 products, they are sold in more than 1500 points of sale and in the next few years Stefano would like to see them cross the American border.
Passion for cooking, yes, always. But also that of business.
Faita Forgione Foods
- Year of foundation: 2013
- Founders: Stefano Faita and Michele Forgione
- Activity area : Montreal
- Activity area: Food, catering
- Number of employees: 64 (including those of the four restaurants)
Profile of Stefano Faita
- Job : President of Faita Forgione Foods
- Age : 47 years
- Education: Humanities, graphic design