May 1, 2021 • 15 mins
🍽️ Join the Culinary Love Story: Welcome to the first part of our three-part series, "La Spiga's Culinary Love Story." In this episode, we embark on a heartfelt journey with Pietro Borghesi, the General Manager and Co-Owner of La Spiga in Seattle, WA.
🌍 From Congo to Italy: Pietro unfolds his remarkable life story, from being born in The Congo to being raised in the enchanting culinary landscape of Italy. Discover the influences and experiences that laid the foundation for his culinary passion.
💑 A Love Story Across Borders: Prepare to be captivated by a love story that knows no borders. Pietro shares the enchanting tale of how he met and fell in love with the talented Executive Chef Sabrina in Salzburg, Austria. It's a romance that transcended cultures and ignited a culinary dream.
🍝 The Birth of La Spiga: Follow Pietro and Sabrina's journey as they create a life together, culminating in the realization of their dream restaurant, "La Spiga." This charming eatery in Seattle, WA, is a testament to their love for authentic Italian cuisine and their dedication to bringing the flavors of Italy to the Pacific Northwest.
🔥 Stay Tuned for More: This three-part series promises to immerse you in their incredible story of romance, food, and their unwavering passion for sharing authentic Italian cuisine with the people of Seattle.
Visit La Spiga here: https://www.laspiga.com/
Season2
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Michael Dugan (00:11):
Welcome to part one of adventures with the
speaker today, we will meetPietro Bourghesi, passionate,
Italian and general manager, andthe co-owner of the La Spiga. He
partnered with his wife SabrinaTinsley executive chef and
co-owner. Together they havebrought the flavors and culture
(00:32):
of Italy to Seattle, Washington.
Today on part one, you willlearn about Pietro, how he came
to meet Sabrina and what ledthem to choosing the path to own
this cultural icon in Seattle,Washington.
Ciao Pietro,
Pietro Borghesi (00:50):
Ciao Michael
Michael Dugan (00:51):
Welcome to the show. Thank you for having me,
Pietro, tell us what it was likegrowing up in the Congo.
Pietro Borghesi (00:58):
Well, I mean it was very interesting. Those were
times where Mobuto, started thefight against the Belgium, and
my father was a doctor there sohe kind of lived it through. But
my mom would just go back andforth because it was at times
very dangerous. So I ended upstaying there only for two
(01:19):
years. I hardly remember besidesall the, stuff that my, my
father brought home after youknow after my mum gave him the
ultimatum, you got to come backbecause with five children we
can't do this anymore. And, andso I am very very vague memories
(01:41):
of that, a lot of pictures, butI was the only sibling in my
family that was born out there,maybe it did leave, you know,
kind of an interesting aspect tomy personality because I've
always considered myself atraveler. Because it brought
(02:01):
internationality to my family,let's put it that way. But then,
you know, I did the regular lifeof an Italian boy in the 70s and
80s. And it really shaped me, Iwas, I think very lucky, besides
the fact that my father diedwhen I was nine years old, he
(02:22):
got sick out there so I'm sorry.
Well, it's part of life. Right.
And, but we were lucky becauseit was a economic boom, you
know, right after the war, youknow, but I grew up, basically,
I lived. Besides that I lived aregular life. You know the old
Italian person, it was. I grewup in, in part of Italy this
(02:45):
called Romania. Part of theEmilia Romagna region. The
capital is Bolonia, but theRomagna region is the eastern
side of the region on theAdriatic very calm and pretty
rich place, so I was able to,you know, attend school. I went
through high school, I did acouple of years of economics at
(03:06):
the University of Parma, andthen I had to stop because my
mom couldn't support me. So Ipicked up a job at the beginning
the intention was to work andstudy but the job was to
demanding. So, I was workinglike 60 hours a week, it was
really difficult, but it gave methe start, on the food
(03:28):
business, because I was workingfor a company that was the food
distribution company. Prettymuch like Cash & Carry here, so
they, they would, they had, youknow, we'll see like in market
of clients that were from thegrocery stores to restaurants to
(03:51):
hotels. My area is there's a lotof Tourism, so there was a
wealth of of customers orclients to be to be tended to.
So, I started off as a sales repfirst, and I was in charge of
about 50-60 grocery stores thatwent by almost entirely from us.
(04:14):
So, I would supply, it wasalmost like a franchise, you
know section. And I had thepassion for the classics of the
region. So, I would spend timesometimes with my bosses to go
and buy wheels of Parmigiano.
Then decide the prices for like100- 200 at a time, and I
(04:39):
learned how to how to choosethem to check for quality.
Michael Dugan (04:46):
So tell us, Tell us how do you check for quality
for Parmigiano.
Pietro Borghesi (04:50):
Now is everything is automized right.
So again, they have these, theserobots that go there these isles
of Parm.
Michael Dugan (05:00):
But I want to live the fantasy our, our
listeners want to live thefantasy of, You know, visiting
and checking the parmesan andlearning about the foods.
Unknown (05:10):
Yeah, what did I miss out to check it, is that there
are special hammers that youthat you kind of look we are
looking for sounds, you know,because, Parmigiano that doesn't
work is because it creates somebubbles of air inside. That's
what we call in Italian Falatowhen it, when a Parmigiano is
(05:32):
not whole inside. Then it's itloses in value, basically. Yeah,
but the quality of theParmigiano was that there's a
consortium right, so thequality, once it's branded as
Parmigiano Reggiano or GranaPadano the quality check has
(05:53):
been done already. So you wantto make sure when you buy you
don't get some that developethese bubbles inside basically.
Okay, but the funny story thereis that at one time because he
started working there 30 yearsago, basically, so that the
(06:14):
robotic section of the House ofParmigiano is called Caseificio
was not existing yet and are nowthey have these machines that go
grab the optimizer they grabthat wheel of Parmigiano off of
the shelf, then they turn itaround because it needs to be
turned around so that It doesn'tdevelop this is bubbles and back
(06:38):
then, they were this reallystocky man that would just pick
it up, this is, it's a 30 kilos,you know, cheese. Okay, it's
very oily outside so it'sslippery. And you should see
these guys we had arms thatlooked like legs and they would
flip the cheese. Ha Ha Ha ... Itwas pretty interesting.
Michael Dugan (07:02):
That's the fantasy I'm thinking about.
Pietro Borghesi (07:04):
Yeah, yeah it's it's beautiful but also seeing
the production, even there likeevery Caseificio every House of
Parmigiano has one person andonly one that decides when you,
when you stop the caveat,basically, you have this, the
milk comes in, they put him inin this vats. And then, little
(07:27):
by little they started warmingit up, you know, they put, they
put the cargo inside, and thenit start creating these, these
curds, we call them curds alittle bit, but it's the
temperature that decide thatdecides when you stop the
(07:48):
Calyatta, and you pull out thereare usually two wheels of
Parmigiano every vat. There isonly, on person that can stop.
There's only one person thatdecides when you can do when you
can stop there, and it's theCasaro, and it does it with no
instrument just for this, thepalm of his hand is good. Yeah,
it's interesting. So Casaroworks, 365 days a year, because
(08:11):
he's the only one that will dothat pretty incredible. And then
I would do the same for theproscuitto. In fact, we are I
don't know if you knew that, butwe've been voted last year as
the Consulate of prosciutto diParma, so that they consortium
of the prosciutto di Parma gaveus that title for last year. In
(08:36):
Seattle, I don't know how manyuse that very few restaurant use
the proscuitto with the bone in.
Oh, okay. So we buy the bone inproscuitto. I debone it
actually, the reason why we alot of my colleagues ask why
(08:58):
would you go through all thatand you can already buy bone in
proscuitto, right, but thereason is that the proscuitto,
until it has the bone in itkeeps aging and keeps curing.
Michael Dugan (09:45):
When we talk about moving forward in your
life. Was there a point whereyou came across a decision and
you knew that you wanted tochoose the path or the fork in
the road to own a restaurant.
Pietro Borghesi (10:04):
I have to blame my wife. That was the fork.
Yeah,
Michael Dugan (10:10):
She would be smiling right now,
Pietro Borghesi (10:13):
Well she knows.
Yeah, she, you know, we met inSalzburg, my wife and I,
Salzburg, Austria, she'sAmerican. And she was teaching
in international school andstuff, and you know it was
basically love at first sight,and we, we went back and forth,
(10:34):
you know, like a long distancedating for about a year and then
she moved down to Italy, but Ithink what really sparked
everything was because she is annatural chef, you know she's a
Creole from out of the family'sfrom Louisiana, they all
natural, of course, it'samazing. Okay. The moment that
(10:55):
we started hanging out togetherin Italy. At the beginning she
couldn't work legally. So, if Ihad to go somewhere, I was
traveling all over Italy for,for work. And so tell us, why
don't you come with me. I haveto go to Naples tomorrow. Come
with me and then we go, we goeat somewhere there and so you
(11:16):
experience that food. And shejust fell in love with, the
quality of ingredients in Italywith the culture of cooking and
oh yeah, and from that moment,she made me fat because then she
would experiment there all thedishes and trying all these
ingredients and at the end, shestarted after that she started
(11:41):
like taking some, some classesand cook with my mom, too, and
before we knew we startedopening some shops already in
Italy. So we had some frozenyogurt shop, because it was
working for a period of time fora company in Italy that was a
company that produces ouringredients for pastry shops for
(12:01):
bakeries for ice cream shops. Ohwow. And even when I was in
charge of a franchise. Basicallywe would give our potential
investors like a turn of the keybusiness. With all the products
and the frozen yogurt Enzostarted in Italy it was very
(12:21):
successful. We had a couple ofplaces with where we were making
piadina, is some piadina, shops,piadina is our flatbread, that
we typically from my region. Andpiadina shops all across my
reason are incrediblysuccessful. So, we made the
flatbread itself and then makeit into sandwiches, and, even
(12:44):
that was very successful, andSabrina started blooming for
cooking.
Michael Dugan (12:52):
I can imagine just this conversation is making
me so hungry.
Pietro Borghesi (12:59):
At one point we had this shopping Matera was in
the market with the marketregion, and we have the small
shop right in the middle of theuniversity buildings where all
of the classroom full ofstudents there were 16,000
students. All around us we weresuper busy and she started
coming up with the with thistime which is using fresh
ingredients, we would alwayscook at home and bring it to the
(13:21):
shop and fill these, theseincredible sandwiches. It was
very successful,
Michael Dugan (13:26):
We're gonna explore more with La Spiga. In
part two, but I want to makesure that our listeners know
right now, how do people findyou if they're a tourist or if
they're a local, how would theyget to your restaurant.
Pietro Borghesi (13:40):
We are on Fourth Avenue and Pike. So,
pretty famous is especiallyafter last summer, place and we
are in a, in a historicalbuilding called Piston & Rin
building on S
Michael Dugan (13:51):
Your website.
Pietro Borghesi (13:52):
My website is www.laspiga.com.
Michael Dugan (13:57):
Pietro, I just want to thank you on behalf of
Voice4Chefs, for being our guesttoday, it's a pleasure, and do
you have any parting words forus in Italian.
Pietro Borghesi (14:06):
He speaks Italian and says.
Michael Dugan (14:13):
Wow. And what does that mean?
Pietro Borghesi (14:15):
That I wanted to think besides you, all the
customers that show theirsupport in the past 22 years of
our life.
Michael Dugan (14:22):
Part two, we'll learn how Pietro wooed his wife
Sabrina and moved from Italy,all the way to Seattle, and
together with his wife Sabrinaco-owner and executive chef,
they started La Spiga in CapitolHill, a famous Italian
restaurant, and cultural icon.
Welcome to part one of adventures with the
speaker today, we will meetPietro Bourghesi, passionate,
Italian and general manager, andthe co-owner of the La Spiga. He
partnered with his wife SabrinaTinsley executive chef and
co-owner. Together they havebrought the flavors and culture
(00:32):
of Italy to Seattle, Washington.
Today on part one, you willlearn about Pietro, how he came
to meet Sabrina and what ledthem to choosing the path to own
this cultural icon in Seattle,Washington.
Ciao Pietro,
Pietro Borghesi (00:50):
Ciao Michael
Michael Dugan (00:51):
Welcome to the show. Thank you for having me,
Pietro, tell us what it was likegrowing up in the Congo.
Pietro Borghesi (00:58):
Well, I mean it was very interesting. Those were
times where Mobuto, started thefight against the Belgium, and
my father was a doctor there sohe kind of lived it through. But
my mom would just go back andforth because it was at times
very dangerous. So I ended upstaying there only for two
(01:19):
years. I hardly remember besidesall the, stuff that my, my
father brought home after youknow after my mum gave him the
ultimatum, you got to come backbecause with five children we
can't do this anymore. And, andso I am very very vague memories
(01:41):
of that, a lot of pictures, butI was the only sibling in my
family that was born out there,maybe it did leave, you know,
kind of an interesting aspect tomy personality because I've
always considered myself atraveler. Because it brought
(02:01):
internationality to my family,let's put it that way. But then,
you know, I did the regular lifeof an Italian boy in the 70s and
80s. And it really shaped me, Iwas, I think very lucky, besides
the fact that my father diedwhen I was nine years old, he
(02:22):
got sick out there so I'm sorry.
Well, it's part of life. Right.
And, but we were lucky becauseit was a economic boom, you
know, right after the war, youknow, but I grew up, basically,
I lived. Besides that I lived aregular life. You know the old
Italian person, it was. I grewup in, in part of Italy this
(02:45):
called Romania. Part of theEmilia Romagna region. The
capital is Bolonia, but theRomagna region is the eastern
side of the region on theAdriatic very calm and pretty
rich place, so I was able to,you know, attend school. I went
through high school, I did acouple of years of economics at
(03:06):
the University of Parma, andthen I had to stop because my
mom couldn't support me. So Ipicked up a job at the beginning
the intention was to work andstudy but the job was to
demanding. So, I was workinglike 60 hours a week, it was
really difficult, but it gave methe start, on the food
(03:28):
business, because I was workingfor a company that was the food
distribution company. Prettymuch like Cash & Carry here, so
they, they would, they had, youknow, we'll see like in market
of clients that were from thegrocery stores to restaurants to
(03:51):
hotels. My area is there's a lotof Tourism, so there was a
wealth of of customers orclients to be to be tended to.
So, I started off as a sales repfirst, and I was in charge of
about 50-60 grocery stores thatwent by almost entirely from us.
(04:14):
So, I would supply, it wasalmost like a franchise, you
know section. And I had thepassion for the classics of the
region. So, I would spend timesometimes with my bosses to go
and buy wheels of Parmigiano.
Then decide the prices for like100- 200 at a time, and I
(04:39):
learned how to how to choosethem to check for quality.
Michael Dugan (04:46):
So tell us, Tell us how do you check for quality
for Parmigiano.
Pietro Borghesi (04:50):
Now is everything is automized right.
So again, they have these, theserobots that go there these isles
of Parm.
Michael Dugan (05:00):
But I want to live the fantasy our, our
listeners want to live thefantasy of, You know, visiting
and checking the parmesan andlearning about the foods.
Unknown (05:10):
Yeah, what did I miss out to check it, is that there
are special hammers that youthat you kind of look we are
looking for sounds, you know,because, Parmigiano that doesn't
work is because it creates somebubbles of air inside. That's
what we call in Italian Falatowhen it, when a Parmigiano is
(05:32):
not whole inside. Then it's itloses in value, basically. Yeah,
but the quality of theParmigiano was that there's a
consortium right, so thequality, once it's branded as
Parmigiano Reggiano or GranaPadano the quality check has
(05:53):
been done already. So you wantto make sure when you buy you
don't get some that developethese bubbles inside basically.
Okay, but the funny story thereis that at one time because he
started working there 30 yearsago, basically, so that the
(06:14):
robotic section of the House ofParmigiano is called Caseificio
was not existing yet and are nowthey have these machines that go
grab the optimizer they grabthat wheel of Parmigiano off of
the shelf, then they turn itaround because it needs to be
turned around so that It doesn'tdevelop this is bubbles and back
(06:38):
then, they were this reallystocky man that would just pick
it up, this is, it's a 30 kilos,you know, cheese. Okay, it's
very oily outside so it'sslippery. And you should see
these guys we had arms thatlooked like legs and they would
flip the cheese. Ha Ha Ha ... Itwas pretty interesting.
Michael Dugan (07:02):
That's the fantasy I'm thinking about.
Pietro Borghesi (07:04):
Yeah, yeah it's it's beautiful but also seeing
the production, even there likeevery Caseificio every House of
Parmigiano has one person andonly one that decides when you,
when you stop the caveat,basically, you have this, the
milk comes in, they put him inin this vats. And then, little
(07:27):
by little they started warmingit up, you know, they put, they
put the cargo inside, and thenit start creating these, these
curds, we call them curds alittle bit, but it's the
temperature that decide thatdecides when you stop the
(07:48):
Calyatta, and you pull out thereare usually two wheels of
Parmigiano every vat. There isonly, on person that can stop.
There's only one person thatdecides when you can do when you
can stop there, and it's theCasaro, and it does it with no
instrument just for this, thepalm of his hand is good. Yeah,
it's interesting. So Casaroworks, 365 days a year, because
(08:11):
he's the only one that will dothat pretty incredible. And then
I would do the same for theproscuitto. In fact, we are I
don't know if you knew that, butwe've been voted last year as
the Consulate of prosciutto diParma, so that they consortium
of the prosciutto di Parma gaveus that title for last year. In
(08:36):
Seattle, I don't know how manyuse that very few restaurant use
the proscuitto with the bone in.
Oh, okay. So we buy the bone inproscuitto. I debone it
actually, the reason why we alot of my colleagues ask why
(08:58):
would you go through all thatand you can already buy bone in
proscuitto, right, but thereason is that the proscuitto,
until it has the bone in itkeeps aging and keeps curing.
Michael Dugan (09:45):
When we talk about moving forward in your
life. Was there a point whereyou came across a decision and
you knew that you wanted tochoose the path or the fork in
the road to own a restaurant.
Pietro Borghesi (10:04):
I have to blame my wife. That was the fork.
Yeah,
Michael Dugan (10:10):
She would be smiling right now,
Pietro Borghesi (10:13):
Well she knows.
Yeah, she, you know, we met inSalzburg, my wife and I,
Salzburg, Austria, she'sAmerican. And she was teaching
in international school andstuff, and you know it was
basically love at first sight,and we, we went back and forth,
(10:34):
you know, like a long distancedating for about a year and then
she moved down to Italy, but Ithink what really sparked
everything was because she is annatural chef, you know she's a
Creole from out of the family'sfrom Louisiana, they all
natural, of course, it'samazing. Okay. The moment that
(10:55):
we started hanging out togetherin Italy. At the beginning she
couldn't work legally. So, if Ihad to go somewhere, I was
traveling all over Italy for,for work. And so tell us, why
don't you come with me. I haveto go to Naples tomorrow. Come
with me and then we go, we goeat somewhere there and so you
(11:16):
experience that food. And shejust fell in love with, the
quality of ingredients in Italywith the culture of cooking and
oh yeah, and from that moment,she made me fat because then she
would experiment there all thedishes and trying all these
ingredients and at the end, shestarted after that she started
(11:41):
like taking some, some classesand cook with my mom, too, and
before we knew we startedopening some shops already in
Italy. So we had some frozenyogurt shop, because it was
working for a period of time fora company in Italy that was a
company that produces ouringredients for pastry shops for
(12:01):
bakeries for ice cream shops. Ohwow. And even when I was in
charge of a franchise. Basicallywe would give our potential
investors like a turn of the keybusiness. With all the products
and the frozen yogurt Enzostarted in Italy it was very
(12:21):
successful. We had a couple ofplaces with where we were making
piadina, is some piadina, shops,piadina is our flatbread, that
we typically from my region. Andpiadina shops all across my
reason are incrediblysuccessful. So, we made the
flatbread itself and then makeit into sandwiches, and, even
(12:44):
that was very successful, andSabrina started blooming for
cooking.
Michael Dugan (12:52):
I can imagine just this conversation is making
me so hungry.
Pietro Borghesi (12:59):
At one point we had this shopping Matera was in
the market with the marketregion, and we have the small
shop right in the middle of theuniversity buildings where all
of the classroom full ofstudents there were 16,000
students. All around us we weresuper busy and she started
coming up with the with thistime which is using fresh
ingredients, we would alwayscook at home and bring it to the
(13:21):
shop and fill these, theseincredible sandwiches. It was
very successful,
Michael Dugan (13:26):
We're gonna explore more with La Spiga. In
part two, but I want to makesure that our listeners know
right now, how do people findyou if they're a tourist or if
they're a local, how would theyget to your restaurant.
Pietro Borghesi (13:40):
We are on Fourth Avenue and Pike. So,
pretty famous is especiallyafter last summer, place and we
are in a, in a historicalbuilding called Piston & Rin
building on S
Michael Dugan (13:51):
Your website.
Pietro Borghesi (13:52):
My website is www.laspiga.com.
Michael Dugan (13:57):
Pietro, I just want to thank you on behalf of
Voice4Chefs, for being our guesttoday, it's a pleasure, and do
you have any parting words forus in Italian.
Pietro Borghesi (14:06):
He speaks Italian and says.
Michael Dugan (14:13):
Wow. And what does that mean?
Pietro Borghesi (14:15):
That I wanted to think besides you, all the
customers that show theirsupport in the past 22 years of
our life.
Michael Dugan (14:22):
Part two, we'll learn how Pietro wooed his wife
Sabrina and moved from Italy,all the way to Seattle, and
together with his wife Sabrinaco-owner and executive chef,
they started La Spiga in CapitolHill, a famous Italian
restaurant, and cultural icon.
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