IN Search of...Women and Food

_{Elisa Gambino
Owner of Via Elisa Fresh Pasta
1750-C Howell Mill Road, (404) 605-0668.
www.viaelisa.com}

_{Food was always a central theme in Elisa’s childhood: She fondly remembers her mother cooking elaborate dinners every Sunday and drying fettuccine on her parents’ bed. When Elisa was 16, her father, an attachÈ for the U.S. Embassy, moved the family to Rome, where her passion for food really blossomed. Elisa eventually found herself traveling the world as an assignment manager for the National Bureau at CNN (she won an Emmy as a producer for the Somalia coverage in 1992) where she met her husband, Neal. She left her job in 2001, she said, “to take control of my destiny and do something that belonged to me.” She took business courses and went to Italy to learn the art of pasta making. When she returned to Atlanta, she opened up Via Elisa Fresh Pasta, offering fresh pasta made from free-range chicken eggs, organic flour and imported semolina. Via Elisa quickly gained favor among professional chefs and currently sells to 15 restaurants, two country clubs, Whole Foods Market and discerning home cooks. “I like to think of myself as an extension of what they are doing,” said Elisa. She also sells fresh pasta every Thursday night in front of her Collier Hills home to her neighbors. The retail store sells various fresh pastas, cheeses, and other assorted Italian goodies to the general public. Stop in and pick up some porcini mushroom and mascarpone raviolis or sweet potato gnocchi for a special treat.}

_{It is easy to overlook this tiny storefront on Roswell Road, but this is one worth finding. January Hodgson takes great pains to source the most exquisite artisan products from around the world cheeses, olive oils, pastas, mustards and condiments and particularly likes to educate her customers. Her love of food began while growing up in Kentucky, where her family relied heavily on their garden, and the dinner table was always full with platters of farm-fresh vegetables, corn bread, pan-fried pork chops and soup beans. Her culinary landscape changed when she went to school in Ireland. When she returned to the States, she went to work in a small food shop in Lexington and became committed to artisan food. “So many people are into restaurants,” said January. “I am into ingredients... finding the building blocks for meals.” After marrying, January and her husband, Ren, went to Paris, where they ate well, went to markets and discussed opening a small specialty foods shop in Atlanta. They opened Savor when they returned and have developed a loyal following. “There is a whole lot lost by not sitting down and eating together,” January said. “Knowing where your ingredients come from is a powerful thing.”}

_{Laurie Moore
Farmer co-owner of Moore Farm Friends
Woodland, Ala.
www.moorefarms.locallygrown.net}

_{You probably don’t know her name, but Laurie Moore is an important fixture on the Atlanta restaurant scene. Many chefs rely on her farm for the produce you find on your dinner plates. Her love and respect for food started a young age, nurtured by her mother and grandmother both adventurous cooks. Laurie says she would watch Julia Child and got a sense of “what a wonderful joy food is in life.” While working in the healthcare industry, Laurie met her husband, Will Moore, who won her heart by bringing over a home-cooked dinner. “He had me at roast beef,” she said. Will and Laurie eventually took over Will’s family farm in Alabama they call themselves AlaGeorgians and started growing vegetables to sell at local farmers’ markets. Moore also started to sell to local chefs, and word spread quickly. After a while, both quit their healthcare jobs to farm full-time. Laurie and Will were among the founding members of a small farming cooperative, which Laurie quickly became the face of. Ask any good chef where they got those lovely greens and they are likely to say Laurie Moore. The next logical step for the couple was to start their own cooperative, Moore Farm and Friends, which operates under the slow-food mantra of good, clean and fair food. Laurie is also actively involved in building gardens for local schools like Trinity and E. Rivers Elementary. Laurie and Will still cook for each other in their converted farmhouse. “Food is one of the most sensual, wonderful enjoyments in life,” she says. “You only live once.”}

_{With three restaurants, a gourmet retail operation and a farm, Anne Quatrano has achieved the success most chefs just dream about. Cooking and food were a large part of her childhood. She had a lot of Italian relatives, and family events involved an abundance of food. Her grandmother was a completely organic cook before it was hip to be one. She was constantly sourcing fresh and local products clearly the inspiration for Quatrano’s cooking philosophy of using local and seasonal food. Anne started working in restaurants when she was 17, but started working in the kitchen shortly after she went to California Culinary Academy in San Francisco, where she met her husband, Clifford Harrison, also a student. The couple eventually found themselves in Atlanta, where they opened up Bacchanalia originally on Piedmont Avenue. Anne and Cliff opened Floataway Cafe, Star Provisions and Quinones to similar acclaim. Quatrano says: “To evoke a memory or touch someone is the most ultimate compliment. [California chef and cookbook author] Judy Rodgers once told me to ‘cook with my heart.’” Anyone who has tasted Quatrano’s soulful food knows she is following that advice. Anne and her husband spend their time away from the restaurants at Summerland, their 60-acre farm in Cartersville. Among their numerous accolades, they were both awarded the coveted James Beard Award for 2003’s Best Chef in the Southeast. For women considering a culinary career, Anne has this to say: “Women exclude themselves the business does not exclude them. On the line everyone is a person.”}