press release
Via Elisa
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
A Dream Born of a Passion for Pasta
For Elisa Gambino, her love of authentic fresh pasta comes so very naturally. During the 15 years she lived in Italy, she savored the best but it was not until she returned to Italy in 2002, after a five year absence, that she learned to make the best from a famed Italian family whose legacy is served in Rome's finest restaurants.
Earlier, as an Emmy Award-winning field producer for CNN, not even working in combat zones or covering revolutions in faraway locales could deter her passion for pasta. "While I was working in the most inhospitable of places, I often cooked for my colleagues," says Gambino, now owner of a unique pasta shop in Atlanta. "I always traveled with a full supply of Italian foods and whenever possible, I cooked pasta in my hotel room on a small hotplate."
"In Amman, Jordan, during the 1991 Gulf War, I took over the hotel kitchen and in one evening, I cooked three different pasta dishes for 45 colleagues. I believe that good food can be a source of comfort and I always tried to make difficult situations less threatening by providing a delicious meal at the end of some very bad days."
Those bad days in Bosnia and Iraq, South Africa, Somalia and Kuwait are a world away now, but the passion for pasta has prompted Gambino to open a one-of-a-kind operation in Atlanta. Called Via Elisa, her pasta production facility began operation in September 2002 at 1750-C Howell Mill Road. Her hand-formed pasta is offered in many of Atlanta's finest restaurants and in all of Atlanta 's Whole Foods Markets.
In 1999 , when Gambino and her husband Neal Broffman - also a CNN news veteran - decided to stop covering the world's danger zones, they chose Atlanta as their new home. Together with her husband and their two daughters, Gambino began a search for the kind of pasta she had loved in Italy . "Italian cities have small pasta shops that specialize in freshly made pasta which are sold to the local restaurants and to residents , " says Gambino, who perfected her pasta-making skills in Italy under the watchful eyes of the Gamberoni family, Rome 's finest fresh pasta makers. "I realized that even a city as international as Atlanta did not have its own authentic pasta shop, and I set out to build one because Atlantans love to eat well, in restaurants and at home."
The effort included several trips back to Rome, where her parents and sister still live, to study pasta making with the Gamberoni family, shop for pasta-making equipment and line up suppliers of authentic Italian ingredients such as ricotta and parmigiano-reggiano cheeses. "Via Elisa pastas are never frozen; they are made to order each morning and delivered to wholesale customers or sold at the Howell Mill shop the same day.
"The pasta is made to be enjoyed at home or in Atlanta's finest restaurants. It can be prepared quickly, but it should be savored slowly. My pasta is the answer for people who like good food but have little time to prepare it and who are tired of eating food that is called "real" Italian but is, in reality, an overdone imitation. In just minutes, with a sauce as simple as melted butter, Atlantans can now enjoy a wonderful, authentic Italian meal."
The pasta is made with the finest domestic and imported ingredients. Via Elisa uses only eggs from organically fed hens, domestic organic flour and imported semolina. Cut pasta include fettuccine, tagliolini, tonnarelli, tagliatelle and pappardelle. The hand-formed tortelloni is unique. Two of the most distinctive are the roasted squash and the ricotta with lemon. Via Elisa also makes traditional ravioli filled with ricotta and spinach.
Her dream of real Italian pasta in Atlanta is far from the wars, demonstrations and riots that she covered as a field producer based in Rome and Moscow for CNN. What that means is that Atlantans are now the beneficiaries of not only the same passion that prompted Gambino to take over a hotel kitchen in Jordan, but also her simple yet eloquent pasta mission: "To give everyone a meal worth remembering."
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