How business, doctors and journalists prey on your food anxieties I

Uncle Tobia, who cooked for a pope,
taught Richard Gussoni that people eat
with their eyes as well as with their mouths,
The family <strong>business</strong>
By R Lee Sullivan
Cu ~slre Internationa' founder R&ard Gussoni at tis restaurant Nicola's
Bringing culinary art to institutional dining .
? IN TxE THia1'tas Richard Gussoni's
~ Uncle Tobia worked at the Vatican as
a chef for Pope Pius XI, <strong>and</strong> shorth•
before the war moved to Nenr York .
where he cooked for aNIafia familv
headed by syndicate boss Mllie Moretti
. Sometimes Uncle Tobia visited
his niece (Richard Gussoni's mother)
in Tenanv, N .J ., where he made
young Richard his sous chef. "Uncle
Tobia never let anvone else in che
kitchen when he was cooking except
me," Gussoni recalls . "He preached
to me about cooking <strong>and</strong> the mystfque
of food ."
Gussoni, now 40, has turned diese
sermons into a thriving catering <strong>and</strong>
restaurant management <strong>business</strong> : His
Dallas-based Culinaire International
operates the Texas state capitol building's
cafeteria, three corporate cafeterias
for the Texas branches of companies
like Apple Computer as well as
dining rooms at two local Embassy
Suites hotels . He also caters about
300 conventions a vear .
What did Uncle Tobia teach him?
That people taste with their eves as
uell as nith their tongues . "Presentation
is merch<strong>and</strong>ising, <strong>and</strong> merch<strong>and</strong>ising
is criticai," is the wa .v Gussoni
puts it. His stafl-s'cn•es stirordfish, for
instance, tiered on a bed of threecolor
pasta, with asparagus laid oaer
the 5sh toward the front ofthe plate in
a cascading effect, adding depth <strong>and</strong>
contrast .
Applying these principles, Cullnaire
feeds 42,000 salespeople who
attend !N-tan• Kav Cosmetics' annual
comention-that's 160,000 meals
o.-er a 12-dav period . That conrract is
worth $1 .5 million . Culinaire International
is privately owned by Gussoni,
who expects the company to
earn $1-I million this rear on revenues
of $22 million .
At the snack bar he runs at Dallas'
140 Forbes 2 Augusr 14, 1995
2046673398
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/agf97d00/pdf