At this time of year, I ask myself “What is one lesson you learned (or relearned) this year?” My lesson learned and relearned is that hope is not a strategy and that we must expect the unexpected by being prepared.  

With all the uncertainty surrounding COVID, 2021 was no ordinary year for Maria’s Italian Kitchen and my fellow restaurant owners. This past year I was privileged and honored to serve as the Chair of the California Restaurant Association. We participated in daily communications to state and local authorities representing all restaurants from small family owned to larger groups. Thanks to the hard-working staff and leadership, the CRA was able to help keep restaurants open by helping modify the alcohol laws allowing off premise sales and permission of sidewalk outdoor dining. We were able to survive another year of the pandemic and all the challenges it continued to bring to businesses; daily changes in safety regulations, supply chain shortages, staffing, wage inflation and daily increase in cost of goods. 

I am grateful to our loyal customers who understood when we faced challenges and showed appreciation by their continued support.

I am proud and grateful to work with people who truly define hospitality. Our continued goal is for customers and communities to enjoy nostalgic Italian food, with the first ingredient being love, served with a smile and a genuine “Thank you.” This was possible because of our amazing team whom I consider members of the Maria’s Italian Kitchen family. 

We are fortunate to work closely with our vendors, who were also facing challenges, and consider them partners in Maria’s Italian Kitchen.  With an emphasis on mutual respect, and empathy we share to improve the customer and staff experience.  I believe that kindness is not a sign of weakness it is a sign of strength. Kindness was a key part of the solution. 

In our spirit to give back to our local community we made donations to some of our favorite organizations: Concern Foundation, Inclusion Matters, She Angels, Village for Vets, Piece by Piece, Girl Scouts Greater Los Angeles, Villa Esperanza, LA Food Bank, Restaurant Cares, California Parks, National Park Foundation, LACMA, Library Foundation, Downtown Woman Center, Carousel Ranch, Children’s Hospital, LA Mission, my Alma Maters, University High School, UCLA and the many local grade schools who held fundraisers at our restaurants.  

I can’t believe all that we have accomplished in 2021. I am excited and motivated about the future for 2022.

We are blessed to be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first Maria’s Italian Kitchen, built my parents, Maria and Donald Alfano, out of the tiny one car garage adjacent to the Village Mart Grocery Store in Brentwood Village 1972.  

I wish for you and your loved ones a Happy and Healthy New Year.

And remember,  Food and Love… Same Thing

Maddy Alfano

My mother Maria would tell us to eat lentils on New Years Eve. Why you ask? The answer is very simple, because her mother Luisa said that it is an Italian tradition in Naples. Just as Food and Love is the same thing, so are Lentils and good luck.

Each year my mother Maria would make a big pot of lentils on New Year’s eve. She would take out a big stock pot and start simmering lots of chopped onions, carrots and Celery (mirepoix) with either pancetta (Italian bacon) or Italian sausage for flavor. Once the sausage was

 browned and the onions translucent, she would remove the sausage and serve it later on the side. Then she would add homemade chicken broth, cleaned lentils (she would stand over a colander cleaning the lentils to make sure there were no little pebbles mixed in), strips of canned pomodoro tomatoes, and cubes of cleaned potatoes. I am not sure what made her lentil soup taste so delicious, 

Was it was her singing over the simmering stock pot? Or the shared memories of her mother making this special traditional dish? 

Today we want to share this family tradition with you. With a vegetarian twist on her original recipe… no sausage or pancetta.

We make it purely vegetarian, using freshly make vegetable stock, and only fresh local vegetables with cleaned lentils. 

Being the inquisitive kid that I am, I researched in many of my mothers cookbooks (pre internet) why Italians eat lentils on New Years.

The lentils, with their coinlike shape, represent luck and prosperity.

We all need a big yummy bowl of lentils to warm our tummies and our hearts with hope of a better year to come. Food and Love, Same Thing.

Wishing you and your families a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.

Hopeful for 2022

Maddy Alfano