Health & Happiness Hacks Free 5 Day Challenge<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nDario:<\/span> This is the best thing about a live interview. You improvise things, things start just happening.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAnita:<\/span> How do you guys know each other? Where did you meet? Let’s hear a little bit of history because that’s always exciting.<\/p>\n\n\n\nMario:<\/span> One man who had a vision, his name is Ferruccio Della Valle.<\/p>\n\n\n\nDario:<\/span> No, that’s right. Yeah. So there was Ferruccio Della Valle, this gentleman, then he actually opened a restaurant in Niagara-on-the-Lake called Il Giardino. And so both myself and Mario worked there 20 or more years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\nDario:<\/span> And I met this incredible and full-of-energy young man named Mario at the time. We were both young, Mario, then, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\nMario:<\/span> Still young.<\/p>\n\n\n\nDario:<\/span> Yeah, we’re still young. Yeah. Such energy and we became good friends. I mean, it was a group of people\u2026 I always say my time in Niagara was probably the most memorable time because I really spent time enjoying good quality with good friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\nMario:<\/span> Yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\nDario:<\/span> One of the most inspiring people that actually started Niagara Food Specialties is Mario Pingue Senior, which is Mario’s dad. We used to go late at night, two, three o’clock in the morning, maybe four o’clock, I don’t remember and go into the cantina of Mario’s dad and basically have a buffet until early, early in the morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\nMario:<\/span> Yeah, yeah. good snacks. Well, just a little background on that, my father, when I was in high school, for late-night we’d do a drive-through. And so I’d say, “Guys, let’s do drive-through, go back to my house and eat it. At least my dad will get some rest,” right? One day he comes in, he looks at that hamburger, he tears it apart with his big mitts. “How can you eat this junk?” he says. Sorry, I know. Okay, corporate America, I apologize right now. But he just tore it apart. He goes, “I don’t know what kind of fibre this is. Don’t bring it back in my house.” I said, “Okay.” So that was implicitly saying, “Go to the cantina and go enjoy that.” And I think he regretted it maybe after that.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAnita:<\/span> Your dad started the business, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\nMario:<\/span> Yeah, he’s always been doing it. My dad got into catering and restaurants. So there wasn’t a lot of\u2026 he did it out of necessity. Back in the ’70s, prosciutto from Parma and San Daniele wasn’t permitted in North America and so there wasn’t a great selection of quality products. So he just did what he knew how to do, growing up from the old country. And he made it for his own restaurant and catering. Then my brother and I sort of, reluctantly, followed the footsteps, that’s the way the food business is. And we got reinspired, working out the Gatehouse with guys like Chef Dario and we started making changes to our menu and how we did things. We continued making charcuterie. It was very simple, never easy, but it’s always simple. Sea salts, and a piece of pork with our secret recipe.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAnita:<\/span> And doing it the right way.<\/p>\n\n\n\nMario:<\/span> Yeah, and let time take over and let it do its thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAnita:<\/span> I love that story about, there wasn’t much product at the time, because my parents emigrated from Holland in 1958. And they came in through Halifax, Pier 21. Dario and I actually went back there and we went to the museum, and they were talking about Italian immigrants who had come there and a lot of Dutch immigrants. We actually saw the boat my parents came in on and, it was really interesting.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAnita:<\/span> But as he went through, they were talking about the Italians and how hard it was when they came with their suitcase and their container of items to come and immigrate to Canada, and they took all the food away from them. They didn’t care about anything else, “Don’t take my food away.” So they would take away the meats, they were taking away the breads, and they were saying that the Italian people, everybody, they were giving them cans of Spam. Crazy<\/p>\n\n\n\nDario:<\/span> Can you imagine that?<\/p>\n\n\n\nAnita:<\/span> And what horror it was to get this is meat in a can that they were having available. It was really an interesting story.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAnita:<\/span> Yeah, yeah. But it was such an interesting story. And I know when my parents when I was younger, we would always go to the Italian grocery store because it was the closest at the time to European that my parents knew. So it’s kind of interesting that you say that.<\/p>\n\n\n\nDario:<\/span> It’s amazing because inspiration, you get it from people like Mario and Mario Senior. I get inspired every time I see his dad because to me is still a very iconic person-<\/p>\n\n\n\nDario:<\/span> When I ran Oro Restaurant is where we really started, and this product comes out. And I remember Mario Sr, Mario’s dad, and we kind of connected. We have some products that we are developing. I said, “Oh my god. If the Pingue is doing the product, the product, it’s going to be top-notch.” And sure enough, we started using only and exclusively Niagara Food Specialties product from all the charcuterie, every single piece.<\/p>\n\n\n\nDario:<\/span> And the difference was shown, and I’m going to let Mario explain why this part is so special. But I want to finish with one thing. I brought a friend of mine, very well known in the region, Parma region. And I said, “Listen, while you’re here and visit, I would like to take you to a personal friend of mine. And he has probably one of his best products for charcuterie. board.” And he says, “Better than Parma?” I said, “Well, you judge it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\nDario:<\/span> So, I don’t know if you remember Mario, we drove down. And Mario was kind enough to create almost like a little display in front of his store in the kind of the style in Niagara. And I remember my friend Giovanni tasting the product, looking at me and impactfully said to me, “Oh my God, Dario. This is almost better than Parma. If not better.” And that’s it. So, I really want you to kind of explain to us first, why so special. Kind of the all-around of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\nNiagara Food Specialties<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nMario:<\/span> Yeah. So for us the name Niagara Food Specialties is important. I mean, we didn’t want to be Italia, Salamis, or Abruzzo, or what have you. Because that’s not where I’m from, and it’s not where the product is being made. And in Europe, the nomenclature is very important. I mean, chianti means that the grape, the wine in that bottle is going to have Sangiovese, 80, 90%, and maybe 10% something else. Something very specific.<\/p>\n\n\n\nMario: And when someone says, “Hey, are you like Parma?” No, we’re not like Parma, and I can never ever be like Parma because I’m an eight-hour flight away. And so in North America, we have excellent pork available to us. And then we have the Italian tradition, no doubt, I mean, what my father taught us and what I went back to learn, doing it in San Daniele and in Bologna, you learn and you take that tradition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mario:<\/span> So I think the important part for us is that we are very much rooted in the Italian tradition, using local, and I say “local” in parentheses because local has to be good. If it’s not good, you open up your circle. And I always tell customers when I want a sales pitch, “Don’t buy me because I’m local. Buy me because it’s good.” And if I’m good, then I hope I can be sold in California, in Montreal, as well as in Niagara. And if it’s not good, and isn\u2019t going to sell, period. So we really want to separate ourselves by quality ingredients, and sticking to traditional practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\nDario:<\/span> So obviously, there’s a history behind the product, right Mario? And I want to kind of\u2026 So I don’t know if you want to show a little bit of maybe the PowerPoint, so we can kind of see where the product comes from. But also Mario, after the PowerPoint, or maybe during the PowerPoint, you can tell us a little bit of where the story of the product comes from. So from the animal, who grows it, what it gets fed, and the whole process. Because people don’t really understand it. There is a lot of work behind it. A lot of hard work, but there is a lot of passion, a lot of caring, and there is a huge investment into this enterprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\nMario:<\/span> And Dario, you hit an important point. You said, “Tell us about the pork.” When my dad was doing it on his farm in the cantina, he had a lady who would raise pigs for him, a German lady. And she would raise goats and she would continue milking the goats. She would make cheese for her family and that, and the whey et cetera, she’d feed to our pigs. And you could taste the difference from the pigs we bought from her versus a pig from another small farmer. And they were raising pigs, they had an open barn and my dad would ask, “Can you raise 10 pigs for me?” or whatever, and they’d agree on a price and they would take care of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\nMario:<\/span> So when my brother and I decided to take it out of the cottage and make it into a viable business, we didn’t realize\u2026 We thought everybody was raising pigs like the farmers that were working with my father. We thought everyone did it naturally. So we called the local abattoir and we started getting meat, we started producing it like we always did. <\/p>\n\n\n\nMario:<\/span> And then two, three, four months into it, we start tasting. And I’m going, “It doesn’t taste like Dad’s. What’s going on here?” We’re doing\u2026 I call the guys in Italy that taught me, “Mario, are you doing this? Mario, are you doing that? Are you covering everything we’ve covered?” I say, “Yeah, I’m doing everything.” And what happens? “Well, tell us about the pig.” What do you mean, tell you about the pig? Pork is pork, right? And, “No, no, you better find out what you’re getting in. Something’s up because we’ve had your dad’s product. It was excellent. So there should be no reason, yours should be good, too.”<\/p>\n\n\n\nMario:<\/span> And sure enough, as we looked into it, we finally realized\u2026 The movement of being certified organic or naturally raised started happening as we were starting our business, thankfully. And we were able to hook up with a cooperative out of Quebec and later they branched into Ontario farms. We were able to buy from the cooperative, and everything that’s third-party certified, naturally raised without antibiotics and growth hormones, access to pasture, and humanely treated from farm to finish. On the US side, we’re up the same level, if not even higher now.<\/p>\n\n\n\nMario:<\/span> So the pork is important, the initial ingredients. No doubt.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAnita:<\/span> Yeah. no, I agree. And when you say organic, where does that come into play?<\/p>\n\n\n\nMario:<\/span> Well, organic is a very, very high standard. And it’s almost tough to get because it’s such a small production. Organic goes right back to the feeds as well. So everything has to be non-GMO, or certified organic feed. And then the pigs have to be raised organically, access to pasture. It’s a pretty high standard. Like I said, it’s almost tough to deal with, it’s almost tough to get a constant supply. Our next level is where the animals are. They could be in barns and they have access to pasture, they get to go in and out.<\/p>\n\n\n\nMario:<\/span> And some of the farms, they grow organically, but because they have neighbouring farms that may not be organic growers, there’s going to be crosswinds, there’s going to be cross-emanation of non-GMO feed with GMO feed. So they could technically be 90% organic, and it might have, unfortunately, some GMO in there. And so because they can’t make that 100% certification, they go to this next level. That’s where we buy predominantly most of our pork. And then and there are other farms that are geared strictly to be, it’s called GAP, it’s called the Global Alliance Partnership for Animal Welfare. And we get Step Three as a minimum standard. If you visit our website, they’ll have everything delineated. There we go. That was a mouthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\nDario:<\/span> It’s incredible. I mean, what goes into this stuff? I mean, if people don’t understand it, in order to have a high-standard product, you need to have a high-standard resource.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAnita:<\/span> And it’s also for the quality of the taste, and what you’re dealing with, but it’s also what you’re putting into your body. It’s really, really important to have the high quality that goes into your body.<\/p>\n\n\n\nMario:<\/span> And Anita, you bring up a good point too. I mean, if it isn’t healthy, what’s the point of it? Right there, you’re looking at prosciutto that came from, that’s a certified organic Berkshire ham that came out of Ontario. And those were, we’re pretty much done on those characters. But those were used for a minimum of 24 months. And people would say, “Well, sell it to me younger and I don’t pay as much.” Why would I\u2026 It’s not about price. It’s about, at 18 months, that ham was a big ham. It wasn’t ready for the marketplace. There’s no cheaper because it’s younger, for our business.<\/p>\n\n\n\nMario:<\/span> You go to a lot of prosciutto feed shows, they’ll have the different ages, based on price. “We’ll sell it to you at 12 months, we’ll sell that at 14, 16, 18, 24.” No, we release our prosciutto when it’s ready. If it\u2026 Usually, we find it’s a minimum of 18 months for Ontario hogs that we get, but if it’s a bigger ham, it stays longer. We’re not going to take it down, de-bone it, package it, and then send out a product that doesn’t meet the expectation of the customer.<\/p>\n\n\n\nProsciutto <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n