Who or what is your inspiration in business?

I have always been a huge supporter of local vendors and the local economy. My inspiration and love for food rides back into my Italian heritage and my upbringing always being surrounded by real food being prepared from scratch. It’s just such a rare offering in this day and age and I am so inspired by being able to share that extra step with people and to generate that memory and experience with excellent service.

How do you stay motivated?

I have young kids, I work out a lot, I find that running or real aerobics realigns me with my goals and helps to set good intentions every single day. I am always trying something new in the kitchen at home weather it’s a different recipe or different method, I hardly fall into a rut in the kitchen at home and involve the family in the whole experience by maintaining a garden and preserving food for fun in my downtime.

What would you do with the $25,000?

I am in the middle of a cafe start up. I am really excited about bringing this business model to our community. The 25000 would almost cover the cost of the mosaic tile pizza oven I imported from Italy to do our wood fired sandwiches in.