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It is so heartwarming for me to see how American home cooks have embraced the regional delicacies that my family’s business has scoured the Italian countryside to find since 1974. The Lapiana family is from Trento, Italy, where I grew up with my parents, my brother, Emanuele, and my sister, Francesca. I have so many wonderful memories of us sitting around the table enjoying meals with traditional foods from our region. We also were very fortunate because our father, Giancarlo, traveled the Italian countryside to find the finest regional Italian products for his food distribution business. Therefore, not only were we immersed in the traditional cooking of the Trentino-Alto Adige region, we were exposed to other regional food products and cuisines throughout Italy. Today, all three children are in the family business. I currently am in Trento helping my family with the European side of the business, and I also am general manager of our North American company, Italian Foods Corporation, which I established in Oakland, Calif., in 2001. So much has changed in that time! I started by working out of my house and soon grew out of that as specialty food stores and distributors began carrying our products. Kirk Newcross joined us as operations manager, and Francesca moved here in 2006 to handle sales. With Francesca and Kirk here, I moved back to Italy in 2007 to continue our family tradition of discovering delicious regional delicacies for our European and North American customers. On a personal note, we were all so happy for Francesca who fell in love, got married and, in 2009, led our move into new offices in Raleigh, N.C., along with Kirk. While California was a great place to live, they are having fun discovering the joys of the Triangle region. Wherever we are, we always enjoy the celebration of family and food, and it is our goal to bring our delicious, traditional Italian foods to you and your family. Elena Lapiana |