Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from author Adriana A. Davies’ new book, From Sojourners to Citizens: Alberta’s Italian History. You can purchase this book, along with her first memoir, My Theatre of Memory: A Life in Words, at Guernicaeditions.com.
Written by: Adriana A. Davies
Restaurateurs and Chefs
At the beginning of the twentieth century, Italian food was considered alien in Alberta. While local pasta manufacturers and grocers helped to introduce Italian products to the general public, it would be pioneer restaurateurs who would build the popularity of Italian cuisine. While individuals worked as cooks in commercial kitchens likely from the earliest days of immigration, Italian restaurants would not emerge as a culinary force until the post-Second World War wave of immigration.[1] Soldiers who fought in Italy acquired a taste for Italian food and looked for it in Italian neighbourhoods back home. Historian John Gilchrist observed in a 2011 article that new immigrants settle near each other and, “Quickly, entrepreneurs open shops that sell foods and materials from the homeland. And soon, a restaurant or two opens to serve the needs of the community.” He continues:
Adventurous diners from across the city venture into the cultural enclave to sample the wares. They report back to their friends and more ‘outsiders’ arrive, bumping up business. In time, entrepreneurs may move or open a second location in the city’s business centre or ‘outsider’ community, expanding the clientele, and helping connect their community to the broader population…. In Calgary, this pattern applies to the two cultural enclaves – Chinatown and Bridgeland – that date to the early 1900s and to the development of many local Chinese and Italian restaurants.[2]
Gilchrist refers specifically to Gene Cioni whose daughter Mary authored Spaghetti Western: How My Father Brought Italian Food to the West. [3] Her claim that her father brought Italian food to the west might seem extravagant but he certainly appears to have created Calgary’s first Italian restaurant at 111 – 4th Street NE on the edges of the Italian district of Riverside/Bridgeland.
Genesio Ciono was born in Antrodocco, Rieti, Lazio, the son of Sabato Cioni, a shoemaker, and his second wife, Flavia Cardellini. Sabato died in 1908 leaving his widow to care for five children. The connection to Canada occurred when 15-year-old daughter Gisa, from the first marriage, went to Calgary to marry a man she did not know – Ricardo Santopinto. Gisa’s letters painted a glowing picture of Calgary and inspired in the 37-year-old Flavia, who felt trapped in poverty, a desire to immigrate. Relatives arranged a marriage with Annibale Corradetti, a 49-year-old widower who worked for the city as a labourer. According to Mary, he was mean-spirited and stingy, and did not honour his promise to Flavia to give her money to bring her sons (Genesio and Sabatino) to Canada. A resourceful woman, she saved money from her household expenses and sent it to Italy. It was enough for only one fare and, Gene, the elder, came to Calgary in 1923. He turned 16 on shipboard. Flavia wanted Gene to become a barber and he worked at the Calgary Shoe Hospital to save money. Two years later he enrolled at the Hemphill Barber School and graduated in 1925. Tragically, his mother died of a ruptured gall bladder in 1926, and Gene blamed his stepfather for lack of attention to her health. This freed him from a trade that he had not embraced and, through his cousin and best friend Mario Grassi, he obtained a job at the Palliser Hotel as a busboy (Mario was a waiter). Soon after, he became sous-chef and learned the CPR repertoire of largely English and French specialties.
Read more
RETROactive 