7 minute read
Pasta Prodigy
Angelo Durante, ’06, draws on his Southern business degree to grow the family business. The results are delicious.
By Beth Levine
Life is a combination of magic and pasta.
— FEDERICO FELLINI
ANGELO DURANTE, 40, CHESHIRE, CONN., KNOWS FROM PASTA. He started out helping in his family’s market at the advanced age of 4. “My brother Lorenzo and I helped pack, move, and label boxes when we weren’t making trouble. We literally used to sleep on the flour bags during the busy holidays. I loved getting on the truck with my father to make deliveries; everyone knew who we were and were so happy to see us,” he says.
The business is unquestionably a family affair, tracing its roots to 1967, when Angelo’s father, Amedeo, immigrated to the United States from the small Italian town of Ruviano. After working in different Italian-import stores, Amedeo opened Durante’s Market in Derby, Conn., in 1977. His wife, Carmelina, followed a year later to help run the business.
It started as an Italian imported-foods store. Then, the couple hit their sweet spot: handmaking artisan pasta using an old-country recipe they perfected with Amedeo’s mother. Demand for their pasta grew, so they opened Durante’s Pasta in West Haven in spring 1985, serving wholesale and retail customers.
The family business was a magical setting for Angelo’s childhood. Holidays called for all-hands-on-deck staffing, and his grandmother and aunt would join in. “They would sing these old folk songs from the farm back in Italy. Being together, hearing those old songs, it was a happy time,” he says. “There was such a wonderful atmosphere within our facility. The smell of sauce bubbling and being with my grandma, parents, brother, and aunt. We worked long hours, but it just flew by because I was enjoying every minute of it.”
Still, when it was time to go to college, Durante had no intention of staying in the family business. He started off as a soccer player, thinking the sport would be his life. But when an injury sidelined him, he had to rethink his future. His Southern soccer coach (the recently retired) Thomas Lang proved to be a big help. Durante pursued a degree in business administration with a focus on management, but he still wasn’t thinking about the family business.
Those years at Southern prepared Durante for the business world in many ways. “Without a doubt, a lot of the business classes I took helped me with organizing, communicating, and multitasking,” he says. Durante also gives a nod to the communication course he took with Lawrence Fitzgerald, ’63, M.S. ’67, a sports commentator and professor emeritus of communication. “I learned so much in that class,” he says.
Durante’s education continued outside of the classroom. Robert DeMezzo, ’99, M.B.A. ’07, then assistant director of residence life, (now senior director of conferences, events, and student affairs auxiliaries), took him under his wing and hired him as a resident adviser (RA). “He showed me what it’s like to be responsible,” Durante says. “Guiding students on our floor in the residence hall was a very quick way to learn how to work with people. I still use those skills today as I’m coaching my employees.”
His RA stint also taught him the importance of networking. “Certainly, owning a successful business is all about networking. And when I was an RA, I had to create programs and get student residents to express who they were and what they did and didn’t like. Now that’s a huge part of my business. Going out into the community to share our products is very important,” he says.
Upon graduation in 2006, Durante took a job in pharmaceutical sales, which was quite lucrative. “I thought that might be my road: putting on a suit and tie, the whole corporate life,” he says. But at his core, Durante was (and is) a big foodie. After he married Brienna in 2009, he realized the family passion was also his passion. He decided to rejoin his parents at Durante’s Pasta in 2010. His parents have since retired, and he has been running the show for the last 15 years.
Angelo has carried on his parents’ tradition, offering a wide assortment of homemade pasta. There are dry pastas (from capellini to tomato fettuccine); 16-plus varieties of frozen pasta (think lasagna sheets, porcini mushroom ravioli, potato gnocchi); and specialty pasta in countless shapes and sizes. Specialty items include an assortment of Durante’s sauces (marinara, vodka cream, etc.) and more.
The storefront on 78 Fenwick Street remains a customer draw, but Durante’s Pasta also is sold at other retailers, including Big Y and Sorrento Importing, and is served at more than 20 local restaurants. Additionally, you’ll find Durante’s products on the New Haven Direct Connect online shop; The company is featured alongside regional institutions Foxon Park, Hummel Bros., Liuzzi Cheese, Lucibello’s Italian Pastry Shop, Apicella’s Bakery, and more. If you know, you know.
Durante has jiggered the original recipe a bit, but at heart it remains the same. “I always doctor recipes to try to make them better or more user friendly. I do a lot of research and development,” he says. “But there’s no doubt: the key products that we’ve had for many years sell the most. At the heart, we remain traditionalists. We’re very passionate about what we do, and we put a lot of love in our products.”
Customers come from throughout the state for that special Durante je ne sais quoi. “It’s an experience when you come here. You get something that you really can’t find anywhere else,” he says. “There’s no comparison when something’s made either by hand or partially by hand from good ingredients.”
Durante often shares his love of all things pasta through cooking demonstrations and classes. (As the saying goes: in Italy, if you’re not eating, you’re probably talking about eating.)
“I think when people meet me and see our products, they understand why I’m so passionate about Durante’s. I believe in family-owned, small local businesses. They are the building blocks of our community,” he says.
Speaking of which, Durante has held tight to his Southern roots, even catering campus events. “There is a family there. It is great to cook my type of food for the students as well as faculty and staff.”
And sometimes, Southern comes to him. Ellen Durnin, dean emeritus of the School of Business, has visited. Durante was proud to show how he has put his education to use.
Life has come full circle for Durante. His children, Marco, 10, and Avianna, 8, are growing up in the business much like he and his brother: running errands and helping at the store. And sometimes, they even break into song. What’s not to love? ■
