Best Italian Grocery Store Peoria Near Me

4worldlovers: Mamma's story begins with her family migrating from Southern Italy and her many food memories of meals around the family table.

Mamma had 11 children and even though there were difficult times, Mamma always had a delicious meal on the table and most of the time she was serving her wonderful pasta sauce (or as she knew it growing up in New Jersey "gravy").

My memory is of waking up to the aroma of Mamma's spaghetti and meatballs, filling our home with love.

Our sauce is made in small batches in our kitchen located in Phoenix, AZ.

Letitia, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.

We started our business almost eight years ago. My Mamma’s delicious cooking made me a lover of good, flavorful food and instilled in me a love for cooking and baking. I love to see people enjoying the food I so carefully and lovingly prepare.

My Mamma had 11 children and even though there were difficult times she was always in the kitchen creating something delicious to feed all those mouths. My husband and I raised seven children and money was always tight. I was always trying to find a way that I could contribute to the household funds for extras such as Christmas gifts and inexpensive vacations. I babysat for years while the children were young and at home. In addition to that I would make tamales and burritos and sell them.

After the children were in school, I started a part-time job with a friend who did catering. I loved it and thought, “I can do this myself.” At that time, we were attending a church called The Valley Cathedral and they encouraged the congregation to invite people over for a meal and so I did. Little did I know that the couple we invited over, the gentleman was one of the pastors and also the kitchen manager at the church who was in charge of preparing meals for two hundred or more people on Wednesday evenings before church service. A few days after our meal together I received a call from him asking me if I would like to take over his job as kitchen manager. I was shocked! I wondered why he would ask me to do such a thing. I had no experience with doing something as big as that and also having to supervise other employees and volunteers. (later as I thought about it the only reason I could see that he would have offered me the job was because he saw how after we ate supper at our home that evening all the children had their delegated tasks. Clean the table, wash the dishes, sweep the floor, etc.)

I really had to pray about this. I wasn’t sure honestly if I could do all it took to run that operation. I had been a stay at home mom for the past 16 years. (I didn’t realize it then but that was my training ground) To me this was a really big challenge and expectation. Well, I accepted the position and worked in the Church kitchen for three years and at the same time started a catering business. I was able to use the church kitchen to do my catering out of. It was great and it afforded me to help pay for our children to attend a Christian school. This was totally a “God Thing.”

Then the recession hit and almost all the employees were laid off and I had no more job and could not continue catering because I no longer had an “Approved” kitchen to work out of. So, I started thinking and praying about what I could do next. My daughter and I started a house cleaning business which we worked and grew until I was able to save enough money for my next venture. House cleaning was a means to an end. Or should I say a “New Beginning”.