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PRESS RELEASE
Address: 1515 Sheridan Road, Wilmette, IL 60091 "THE LITTLE SHOP THAT COULD"
& STILL DOES
1980 - 2005 and still counting
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 Clockwise from left: Candace Warner, Current General Manager; Edmund Beberdick, Current Chef; Colleen Houlahan, Former Partner & General Manager; Violet Caldarelli, Current Assistant Chef & Salesperson; Nancy Brussat Barocci, Founder & Owner. |
A TALE OF ONE OF CONVITO’S MOST ENDURING CHARACTERS
When Convito Italiano opened its doors in September, 1980, Nancy Brussat Barocci and partner Colleen Houlahan cooked the food, opened and closed the store, did the banking, washed the floors and just about everything else in their sparkling new Italian gourmet food and wine shop. After four months they decided it was time to hire a cook or die.
Little did they know the dynamo that was to become Convito’s official “First Chef” would make such an indelible mark not only on Convito but on their lives as well. Friend and mentor, Leslee Reis, owner of Café Provencal introduced Violet Caldarelli to Brussat Barocci and Houlahan and described her as one of the “best cooks I’ve ever known”.
Violet, the mother of one of Leslee’s good friends, had worked with Leslee in the early seventies when Leslee owned a catering company. However, Violet’s culinary experience began long before. When she was only twelve she spent many hours helping her mother and grandmother prep for her father’s restaurant on Chicago’s west side. “There was never a time I remember not being connected with food”, says Violet. “I took every cooking class you can imagine starting at age sixteen.”
Talented, sassy and strong-willed, Violet is a born, instinctual cook. Her culinary history follows the early culinary history of Chicago. Her food stories are ripe with humor and filled with the names of many of Chicago’s cooking luminaries. Violet recalls being asked by Antoinette Pope to help her with many of her experiments. She especially remembers the daunting task of cooking five turkeys in different ways at different temperatures to determine which method produced the optimum tender turkey.
During her lessons with John Snowden at Dumont Per in Old Town she was asked to help prep for a dinner he was preparing for the French Consulate. She recalls working with a huge round of Brie for the first time. Thinking she was doing the correct thing, she cut the rind off the whole round. “He was outraged,” she laughs. “I had never seen a brie. How was I to know? But I always sassed him right back and he’d take it too. We had a great relationship.”
When Violet’s husband Dave retired in the early sixties, they opened a school store in the Senn High School district. For thirteen years Violet fed hungry high school students delicious lunches – hamburgers, BLT’s and what was to become Violet’s famous tuna salad sandwich still served at Convito to this day. People come from miles around to buy a container of “Vi’s Tuna”.
After selling her store Violet happily settled into retirement. One day she received a call from Leslee Reis asking her to come help a friend who had just opened a gourmet shop. Violet and owner Brussat Barocci met shortly thereafter. In typical Violet fashion she couldn’t do things half way (or part time) and found herself arriving at Convito at 4:30 a.m. to begin boiling pots of water for all the pasta salads they would make for the day or sautéing onions for the daily scheduled sauces – all on the little four burner electric – non-commercial – cooktop in back of the deli. “My god!” she remembers, “the amount of food we produced on that poor over-used stove was ridiculous. We never stopped. We’d serve the customers then turn around and continue stirring the onions. It’s a miracle we didn’t burn everything we made!”
“Forceful, funny and never lacking an opinion,” says owner Nancy Brussat Barocci, “ I loved and still love working with her. She and my former Italian partner, Wanda Bottino, helped me to establish the hearty and flavorful Convito Italiano taste. Developing new food items with Violet was always an incredible experience – creative and filled with much laughter.”
Current Chef Nancy Barocci who came to Convito in 1984, remembers his first introduction to Violet clearly. “She was a strong presence in the kitchen. She knew exactly the taste she wanted and had no problem telling you when it didn’t please her. I learned a lot from Violet and still do. When Violet speaks, the whole kitchen (and store) listens.”
“Pervasive in Violet’s personality” says Colleen Houlahan, former partner, “is an extraordinary energy. Her zest for work, life and play is like few others I know. When she became catering director in 1982, not one container of food left the shop without her thorough inspection and always had the word Enjoy! written in black marker on the top.”
“When my mom opened Convito I was just 10,” says Candace Barocci Warner, current General Manager. “When I worked at Convito after school or on weekends, I always loved working with Violet. I felt an immediate connection to her and admired her work ethic. I have never seen anyone with such great customer service skills. We still laugh a lot – especially about the fact that I am now her boss! However, no one is really ever Violet’s boss – even my mom!”
Convito is lucky to have Violet still working one day a week in the store and on special food development projects with Brussat Barocci and Chef Beberdick. Many of her Convito fans and many from the Senn High School store come in to see her when she’s working. They want to reminisce with the master.
“ I have loved working at Convito - especially the first shop – the little one we opened in 1980,” says Violet. “I cooked so much caponata that I used to joke that when they buried me in the ground, eggplant, tomatoes and onions would pop right out of the earth and surround my gravestone. It has really been a trip!”
Violet continues to be a “trip” for everyone who has the good fortune to work with her or know her. “They don’t make them like that anymore,” says Brussat Barocci, “is a saying that has never been more relevant when
describing Violet Caldarelli!”.
