Only some 100 establishments in NYC are Snail of Approval worthy, and of course, Gustiamo, is one of them.
If you open this link, you'll see us sandwidched between the Greenmarkets (53 in the five boroughs) and Hearth, Marco Canora's restaurant in the East Village. Good company, eh?
What is the Snail of Approval? It is a reward that Slow Food gives to food establishments "because of their contributions to the quality, authenticity and sustainability of the food supply of the City of New York".
Best candidate has a passion for true foods, speaks Italian, can drive.
We offer: office/warehouse in the South Bronx, Italy's best food for breakfast, lunch and dinner, fun + $s. Added benefit: admin assistant will work with an amazing team of people... priceless! Pls write to GetHelp@gustiamo.com
These are our good friends of many many years! These are the people who keep telling us Gustiamo needs a new website. Fantastic photos of our fantastic products, more enjoyable experience from touch screen devices, integrated communication of Italian style and culture, easier shopping experience on gustiamo.com, better shopping cart.
What else? Any suggestions are welcome!
From left: Luca Pelini, expert in online marketing; Pippo Onorati, the graphic designer and project director; Adriano Cosi, the official photographer.
They, of course, know perfectly and love all our foods and the heros behind them, the artisans. Grazie a tutti!
What do they say about Gustiamo? This is Gale writing: "It has been many years since I first heard about your company from Arthur Schwartz's wonderful radio show. I have given your products as gifts to friends and family and annually buy all my olive oil from you when the new harvest arrives. I honestly believe you carry the best and most authentic products on the market and like to make my purchases from a small family run business such as yours. When I had a problem with a shipment one year, I was able to call you and the matter was resolved immediately. Much nicer than dealing with a large mail order catalog."
We deliver to New York's best restaurants and stores. This is outside Eataly, delivering the Terra Amore e Fantasia tomatoes. We are the ones with the Prius, lean and clean all the way!!! We try our best to limit our foot print to a minimum. We have several discussions with our friends, the fundamentalist locavores. Yes, we import from Italy, but it's by boat (99% of our inventory); yes, we pollute... but how much less polluting is trucking from California? We all want to support the artisans, lost traditions and endangered plants and fruits; if the Italian artisans do not sell outside their small villages, they will die. We don't want that.
This is the best gift Gustiamo received! It's a post by our young friend Lilly at Gustiamo's tasting last week at Il Cantuccio. You must read it! We tasted the new harvest EV Olive Oils. Not only does Lilly write beautifully, with that young edge only a 20 year old girl can have (who would ever think of a better title than "Hanging out with Raja, Tonda and Gentile di Larino"), SHE GETS IT! She says it all and very clearly: what Gustiamo's tastings are; the new harvest of olive oils; the New York Times Calendar mentions our next one where you can win a free bottle; how to taste the oil; the olives that make the oils and where they come from. And all with fun and curiosity to learn more! Very impressive, isn't it? This is what we, at Gustiamo, do! We want you to get it!!! Grazie Lilly, this is a precious gift!
Twenty young women from Bari flew to NY to learn about exporting food and fashion to America. Where is their first appointment? Gustiamo's warehouse. Why? We have the best coffee and cookies! We spent a wonderful morning with our new friends. As you can see, the weather, helped, too.
This is a program organized by a company called AIM and financed by the European Community, the Provincia di Bari and the Regione Puglia. The best public money ever spent! The workshop was created by Franca Foligatti, a longtime friend and fan of Gustiamo's. She LOVES pasta Latini.
It was a very active session. The girls' desire to learn was inspiring; their questions were all clever and interesting. We think they loved our business and how we do it. Anna Maria said she was impressed by Gustiamo's philosophy and mission; Maria Cristina by the quality of the products we represent in America; Mirella by our attention to detail. The young women were escorted by Rosa Maria Todaro, the CEO of AIM and by Giovanna Damolin, Professor at the University of Bari. We loved to meet them all! Thank you all for coming to Gustiamo.
Good food helps grow beautiful body and minds: the School for Wildlife Conservation (WLC), Slow Food and Gustiamo come together in a partnership to bring good food education in a Bronx public school. A year long program of hands-on fun in the kitchen for teams of budding chefs who will prepare, cook, taste-test, discover foods and bring their new skills home.
From left: Beatrice, Alex Rodriguez, Martina and Lily Ng. Alex and Lily are from the School for Wildlife Conservation (WLC), in the Bronx, which falls under the umbrella of Urban Assembly, a group of 20 small public schools in the NY metropolitan area which are financed by the Melinda and Bill Gates and other foundations.
Lily is one of the administrators and the partnership coordinator of the school. Thanks to her dedication, this program saw the light. It is called Harvest Time and will see 12 kids from WLC learn and play with foods. It's a partnership among the school, Slow Food and Gustiamo.
Alex is a Science teacher at WLC, specialized in climate change issues. Alex loves dancing (techno music) and martial arts (he told us that anything that moves is martial art, including tai chi); he is vegetarian and wants to start his own bee hive on his terrace in the Bronx. He is excited to be the leader of the Harvest Time program which will also include the Teen Iron Chef competition. Alex can't wait for Harvest Time to start. Neither can we! Thank you all! Let's the fun begin!!!
We were kind of proud of our "women-owned business" certification but in fact, recently all we gained from it was an unhappy customer. This is what he just wrote to us:
"Could you image anything more brutta figura than, as a woman, your receiving a business solicitation from a firm that advertised itself as a "certified men-owned business?"
"Basta with this nonsense. It's discriminatory, unwelcoming, and just plain foolish."
"Senta, scusi, but why don't you just tell all of your male customers, "Va fa in culo"?".
"My Italian is obviously poor, but I surely get your message. Your amico, XXX"
Lovely message! What do you think? Is XXX right and the message unwelcoming?
