A LITTLE BIT ABOUT OURSELVES
It began with the bread. In the spring of 2010 I was asked to help out with a Spaghetti Dinner being held by the Parent Teacher's Fellowship at my daughter's school. It was supposed to be a simple gig: Cook thespaghetti, make the vegetarian sauce (...the meat sauce had already been handled by the school's principal. Apparently it was something really special owing to its billing as "Mrs. Ammentorp's
FAMOUS"...) and cook up some garlic bread.
That was it. Simple. 150 dinners and out. Easy peasy. The sauce and the spaghetti were no-brainers. I have 25 years of background in kitchens from New York City, to Boston, to Ft. Lauderdale, to L.A.
But for the Garlic Bread I wanted to do something...unique. I'd been carrying an idea around in my head forever for a "Loaded Garlic Butter" that, I thought, would be a great starter to a "unique" recipe for Garlic Bread. So, I put it to use at "Bella Notte" and it was a hit.
I will repeat that with different words... The GARLIC BREAD at a spaghetti dinner was noticed.
Ok. Well done. Rest on the laurels. Back to the pasture. Fine job.
The next year, I was asked - no - EXPECTED to repeat as Chef for the event. No problem. Having one year under the belt was a plus. One night only and out. Only this time, people were asking beforehand, "Are you going to do that Garlic Bread again?" It's a spaghetti dinner! The PASTA is supposed to be the star. The Garlic Bread is a bit player, a supporting role at best.
The dinner night came. I "did" the Bread (and spaghetti for about 180 hungry folks) and people talked about the Bread.
Back for a third year, but this time we decided to offer extra, "oven ready" garlic bread to take home and bake. We called it "Papa Spud's The Works Garlic Bread".
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We sold out.
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That's when people started saying we should bottle it up and put it on the market. It's taken us two years to get it together, but the time has come.
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We are now Brother Tommaso's and we are open for business with our first product:
Brother Tommaso's Better Recipe Garlic Butter We are ecstatic to be able to finally make it available to the world.
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We have recently begun joining in craft fairs to "Spread" the word about our delicious product, showing at TOCAPALOOZA 2023 to benefit the Torrance Cultural Arts Center.
And here's a picture of it: