class - Regis College

photo: Kathleen Dooher
years into Figaro’s came from her
parents. Martone agreed that her
techniques could improve and
necessary for a venture like the
Revere restaurant. It was rough
going. “I’d leave work, drive to
school and stay there until 11 at
night, come home wired and not
be able to get to sleep until 2,
then get up four hours later,” says
Martone. Her chef instructors
delighted in presenting Martone
with different proteins and letting
her go wild. “Let me tell you, when
you get a big raw turkey breast it
does not inspire in the least, and
people were making tetrazzini
and roulade and I said, I’m gonna
make a sandwich. I made my own
bread, made a curry-fried turkey
cutlet, added some nice spices and
cilantro, served it with a pickled
rémoulade with slices of Gruyère
and tomato.” The result is now a
Figaro’s staple, The Bollywood.
“She is really outspoken, ambitious,
and passionate but also
humble,” says Ying Wei, a Cordon
Bleu pastry instructor who came
to be Martone’s friend and mentor.
“She wasn’t embarrassed when
she made a mistake, she’d be
laughing and joking, yet she’d
say, you tell me how to make it
better. She’s a hard worker. A
few times she had food sent from
Figaro’s for faculty meetings, and
I said, ‘This is unbelievable. You
have much more experience than
I thought you had.’ I have a lot of
respect for her as a person, not
just as a student.”
But if Le Cordon Bleu was
responsible for making Martone
a better chef, then Regis College
was “monumental” in helping her
become the person she is today,
she says. “Regis gave me the self-
the knowledge of the logistics of
running a business, the persever-
and the faith to believe it was
all possible,” says Martone, who
stays in touch with her college
friends. “It is still very much
a part of who I am.”
A woman of lesser energies
could never sustain an existence
like Martone’s, and even she,
for a brief time after she graduated
Cordon Bleu, was so burned
out she almost gave up Figaro’s
to move to Europe. She’d been
going nonstop for 10 years and
longed to see more of the world.
But the kitchen beckoned. Some
of Martone’s happiest moments
happen, she says, at some ungodly
hour of a weekend morning, making
desserts. “I’m really at peace
when I’m in the kitchen,” says
Martone. People in her life have
on occasion accused her of “choosing
the kitchen over everything.”
She doesn’t deny it. “I’m still
single, I don’t have kids, but I’m
really content with what I have.
When I talk about opening the
second place I say, it’s time to add
to the family. Figaro’s is a toddler.
Figaro’s is walking. It’s time to
have a little brother.”
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SPRING 13