It All Began with Viarda
We are three sisters, the daughters of Viarda, preserving her recipe legacy and life lessons by sharing her cooking and wisdom that brought us from a chair at her kitchen table to a seat in the boardroom.
Our Mom was the best. She loved being a Mom more than anything. She nearly always referred to us as “Gioia di Mamma,” Italian for “Mom’s joy.”
Mom whipped those meals up with ease, gliding around the kitchen in her skirt, sweater, apron, and high heel slippers. She was happiest when she was cooking for her friends and family. When she passed away, we lost her winning smile, infectious personality, warmth, and the joy that came from the thousands of dinners, big and small, that she hosted. This website is our way of keeping that joy alive, for us and for anyone who cooks from one of her recipes.
She lit up when we walked into a room. What a great gift it was to grow up, always knowing how loved we were. Mom spoiled us with three-course meals every night. Pasta, risotto, or soup followed by one or two meats or fish and two or three vegetables. Dad preferred eating at home because there was nothing as good as Mom’s cooking. Meanwhile, Mom appreciated the cooking of others as much as we appreciated hers. Elaborate dinner parties were a regular occurrence, with our large dining room filled with up to twenty-five people for a sit-down multi-course meal.
