The story of Formella Gourmet begins more than 100 years ago, when Sicilian Enrico Formella immigrated to the U.S. from Sicily. While on the voyage across the Atlantic, he married his wife Rosina and unknowingly clinched his position as a global distributor of fine Italian food. It began with the couple’s giardiniera recipe, which ascended to stardom in the South Side of Chicago. That's where the couple put down roots. Since the fateful day in 1909 when Formella decided to make his family’s cooking his business, ownership of the empire has passed to three grandsons. Together since the first half of the 20th century, they’ve preserved the family’s recipes for pasta sauce, stuffed olives, bruschetta spreads, and escaping Chicago's intense Model-T traffic jams.
