Charley Belcher from Charley’s World stopped by our kitchen to chat with the Alessi family June 12. His show runs weekday mornings on Fox during Good Morning Tampa Bay in the Tampa Bay Area. Belcher spent a few hours with our Alessi family, learning about our company and our new corporate kitchen.
He started the morning talking to our general manager, Sam Ciccarello about our vast product line- over 600 products between the Vigo and Alessi lines! Ciccarello highlighted our bestselling items and talked about the Alessi patent on White Balsamic Vinegar, as production film rolled.
Belcher was then treated to a live interview with owners, Fred and Tony Alessi. Together, they talked about their father’s dream for the company and shared stories of their childhood growing up with the company. They even touched on their father’s devotion to the company and new product development.
Belcher followed up the Alessi brothers by talking to the next generation of Alessi- Alessandra Alessi, Fred’s daughter. As community relations director, Alessandra has had a first-hand role in all of the events surrounding La Cucina Alessi. She told Belcher about the Alessi Pursuit of the Palate contest, (click here to read more about the student culinary contest) where we host winners in our kitchen. She also shared some details about our upcoming grand opening of La Cucina and our partnership with Chef Eric LeVine. Chef Eric is the winner of Food Network’s “Chopped” and owns a restaurant, Morris Tap and Grill, in New Jersey. Chef Eric will be making the trip to Tampa next week to host our grand opening event.
Charley Belcher rounded out his trip to La Cucina by reminding everyone that there is more than one Alessi family in Tampa. See below to check out the rest of the clips!