Italian Women who took Their Love of Food & Turned it Into A Career. Plus a Recipe!

Us Italians are known for being amazing cooks ;) and having big families. It's no wonder why many of us work in food service or nutrition. Quantity food production must be in our genes. How else were we able to feed a house full of relatives and keep everybody happy?

Schools, restaurants, hospitals, and other food service establishments have to cook enough food to serve 50 or 100. Scaling up a recipe so it feeds that many people is tough. We're not talking 10 cups of pasta. We're talkin' 10 pounds of pasta.

As a dietetic intern working at a school district, one of my main roles is coming up with and testing nutritious recipes (like these Yamadillas) to serve to the students. It must abide by the National School Lunch Program standards and absolutely must taste good to the kids.

Today I tested a Chicken, Broccoli, & Penne Recipe. It was scaled up from my own recipe to make 50 servings. The students loved it. We sold every portion. I'll have to triple it- or maybe quadruple it- to serve it for lunch in a few weeks.

So while this italiana is making school lunches for students in Saratoga, a long-time friend of mine (and fellow italiana) is working on starting up her restaurant in Queensbury. Kelly's Roots Cafe & Market place will feature both light, tasty meals and good old-fashioned comfort food. Here are 2 reasons why I KNOW it will be a success:

#1 She's got skills: Kelly has formal training from the International Culinary Center in California.

#2 She's got passion: Kelly has been a foodie for as long as I've known her which she probobly got passed onto her from her mama and grandmother.

This nutritionist has only 1 request for the chef: Please serve us in the 518 your famous pizza bread-maybe with some veggies :)