Chef Lisa was born in Brooklyn, NY to a young, single, Italian mother. When she was 2, her mother married an Italian restaurant owner, who owned 2 restaurants.Her mother was a waitress in one of those restaurants and that’s how they met. Through this new marriage, Lisa gained a father and a 4 year old step-brother. 5 years later, she would gain a half-brother.
Lisa’s mother cooked regularly for the family. What she cooked is what you ate. No exceptions! Lisa was happy to help her mother prepare the meals. She was her mother’s “Sous Chef” and didn’t even know it yet! Lisa would be in charge of things like chopping and drying parsley, chopping garlic cloves, dicing celery, onions, etc, preparing meatballs, cleaning whole artichokes and so many other things.
At the age of 25, Lisa decided to take the NY Firefighter tests. It was the first time the city of NY was allowing women to be “smoke eaters”. Because of this, only women with outstanding test results would be called. Although Lisa passed both written and physical tests, she was never called. Although, not being called was devastating at the time, Lisa can’t help but wonder what would have happened on 9/11, if she was.
So, the following year, at the age of 26, she took out a student loan and enrolled in NY Restaurant School. The curriculum was 12 months of Culinary Arts, Pastry Arts & Restaurant Management. She interned at The Ballroom in Manhattan under famous Tapas chef, Chef Felipe Rojas Lombardi. Her experience at The Ballroom was extremely rewarding. Lisa learned techniques the school didn’t even teach her. Because The Ballroom was a Theatre & Cabaret, Lisa was able to cook for and meet several celebrities. Some of the celebrities included Peggy Lee, Rita Moreno, Tony Bennett, Diana Ross and Jack Klugman
