Creator Spotlight: Elisabetta Callegaro & Massimo Tundo of Dal Plin

POLITAN ROW MIAMI, MIAMI, FL —On a cloudy, humid day in New Orleans, I called up Elisabetta Callegaro in Miami, where it was similarly misty and gray. She laughed at herself for complaining about the clouds and joked that she’s been spoiled by blue skies most of her life. Hailing from Italy, she and her husband Massimo Tundo are the co-owners of Dal Plin, the handmade Italian pasta concept at Politan Row Miami. Despite having met her briefly, only once, and well over a year ago, Elisabetta spoke with me as if an old friend: quick to laughter, sharing fond memories, and speaking with endless passion and love in her voice. Of course, she was cooking, too: a batch of amatriciana sauce to be picked up by a friend later that day.

After immigrating in 2004, the duo found a perfect niche in Miami for their first self-owned business: fresh pasta. Within a year, they were supplying the best restaurants in Miami with the stuff, all made by hand with love. Elisabetta and I chatted about Dal Plin’s origins, leaving home behind for the United States, and why she really, truly believes that food is love.

Hometown: Milan, Italy
Current residence: Miami, close to the Design District. We picked that spot so we can walk to the market. I can go there any time of day in, like, two seconds.
Childhood nickname: Eli
Favorite childhood meal: Polpette e risotto, vegetarian meatballs and rice. My mom used to make them with spinach and cheese – like a meatless meatball.
Favorite sandwich: Bresaola caprino and arugula on focaccia. Nice and salty. Focaccia is my favorite bread. I even eat it for breakfast, dipped in my cappuccino.
Favorite drink: wine. White wine, Arneis, from Piedmont.
How do you take your coffee/tea?: A little milk, no sugar.
Preferred mode of transportation: When I was younger, I used to have a motorbike and I loved it. We decided not to have it here because it’s too dangerous. Vespa or scooter, that would be the best.

Hi Elisabetta! Thanks for taking the time to chat with me. Will Massimo be joining us?

He’s here with me, but he’s busy cooking. He’s waving at me and running away.

That’s okay. I’m excited to hear from you! So tell me the basics. How long have you been at Politan Row Miami?

We opened with Politan Row Miami, which was St. Roch Market Miami at the time, so we’ve been here since the beginning.  The doors opened on February 24, 2018, so we’re almost two years old!. It was really exciting to see the place being built because we were there with Kirstin [Politan Row’s Culinary Director] when it was still under construction. She showed us what would eventually become our spot. We saw the little nook in the back, and we could see how we would create the kitchen. So, we saw the place come to life, and we’ve been through everything together. There hasn’t been much turnover in the management, so you’re able to connect with the people who are working with you. The same goes for the vendors: all of the vendors from the beginning are still here except one. We know each other enough that we know how to get on each others’ nerves. Like a marriage! Sometimes we’re good, and sometimes we fight, but it’s normal. Especially for us Italians, it’s normal.

That’s beautiful. That means you’ve witnessed all the growth of that market, from the very beginning!

We experience the growth month after month. When we first opened, it was the very end of the high season in Miami– we felt the season, but not much because we were already at the end of February. But the next year, we got the entire high season, and it was amazing. The market was fairly new, and a lot of people were coming in, especially because we were in the hottest place of Miami – the Design District. There weren’t that many restaurants here at the time, so we got hit like a truck.

Generally speaking, we are all professionals here. We not only put out the best food, but also the best food when we’re super busy. Back when we were opening, I remember when we were all waiting to for the green light to begin prepping, and we thought we’d have two weeks to get everything ready for the big day, but we didn’t get the green light until three days out from open.  Three days to receive all the ingredients and prep all the food from scratch, and everyone did it all.

Do you remember how you first heard of the food hall? What do you remember thinking at the time?

Massimo and I opened a pasta manufacturer in 2004. We were supplying fresh, handmade pasta to the best restaurants from Miami to Palm Beach, and we had a little storefront where we would sell retail pasta. Will [Politan Row CEO] and Kirstin discovered us at our little pasta boutique and wanted to have a tasting. When they offered us the opportunity to join the market, we thought it was the perfect opportunity for our next step in our American business venture. We were both chefs in Italy, but we never had a restaurant there; we were working as private chefs, mainly on sailboats.

Wow, that sounds incredible. Do you ever miss that?

Well, the ocean is still here, and the food – our passion is still the same. And here, Massimo and I get to make food together. It’s been an adventure since the beginning, so I’m happy.

Do you ever go back to Italy?

We try to go one or two times a year to visit family and friends, because that’s what we miss the most. We normally go to the South, which is where Massimo’s dad’s side of the family is from – Puglia, Lecce. Puglia is beautiful in the summer; the weather is perfect, and they have beautiful purple shrimps that are a specialty there. I have to stop myself from eating too many or I’ll get sick. We like to go in June. June is perfect in Italy. You can go anywhere, North or South. My family from my mom’s side are from Piedmont, and that’s where I was born. My mother’s mother is the one that taught me how to make dal plin, which is a regional filled pasta special to Piedmont. So when we opened here, we thought it was nice to use a name that is so dear. And it brought us good luck! I believe that our grandmother is watching over us.

Did you always want to come to the US? Did you always want to own a restaurant?

I came to the U.S. because I met Massimo, and he was already planning to move to the U.S. I say that I followed him here! We met at an event, and we must have been in our thirties, so not super young. When we met, we knew that we were perfect for each other.

Massimo and Elisabetta, co-founders and husband-wife duo behind Dal Plin

Oh wow, really? That’s so sweet!

Well, you’re not in your 20s, so you don’t have those insecurities. You know that when you find someone that’s right for you, you fall in love and that’s it. We met in November, and we got married in August in Fort Lauderdale. Massimo was already on his way here with all his visa and everything – he was going back and forth for paperwork, so we would see each other often. He had seen a wedding on the beach, so he called me and he asked me to marry him. And I said yes!

Up and down, whatever life is, that’s normal. I’m really blessed, and I feel really lucky for everything that I was able to do, to experience, the people that I know. It keeps going on because St. Roch Market, now Politan Row, was something new that we didn’t plan at all. We’ve met people that I never thought I’d meet in my life, and we’re friends. It’s really unexpected and beautiful, the path that we’re taking in the US. I don’t know what it will be like in the future, but we are open to it, whatever is coming.

That’s so nice to hear. Sometimes, I don’t always remember or realize just how much luck and work goes into everything. Work, not just by you, but by everyone around you, too.

You have to run your race. There’s no comparison with others. Each life is different. As long as you’re happy? And your experiences make you feel full? That’s the important thing. Us? We like to cook. Our concept is about sharing our love for food. It’s very homey. We don’t go fancy. We make pasta in front of people, we cook in front of people. It’s kind of like we’re having people over in our house, and we are cooking in our kitchen. It’s not sophisticated. It’s about the warmth that Italian food can give you. And it’s simple. It makes everyone happy – when anyone is eating Italian food, they are smiling! Have you ever checked? It makes you feel good. The love that we put in it is contagious. Food is to put people together: you’re eating at the same table, you’re trying something that I made for you. It goes in your belly, but it passes through your heart.

You’re so right. Food is love. Wow, you’re so eloquent that you’re going to make me cry! I cry a lot, though.

I’m a major weeper! When my husband and I put a movie that is very sentimental, he looks at me and says, ‘Don’t start! Don’t start!’ And five minutes later, we’re both weeping.

So, you two met in Italy, you had both been private cheffing and working in restaurants, and Massimo was already heading to the U.S. Why did you choose to start your own business? Why not continue working in kitchens or as private chefs on sailboats in Miami?

Since we met, it was our dream to come here together and do something together here. That motivation – maybe it’s just for foreigners – it’s really the American Dream. You come here, you work hard, and you get the satisfaction of doing something yourself. We didn’t think about getting jobs to work for someone else. When we came here, we wanted to create something for us, by us. It was a big step to leave Italy, so we weren’t just going to keep doing what we had done in Italy. We didn’t want to do a restaurant because we didn’t have much saved – we didn’t ask for help from anyone, not even our family. When we got here, the only thing we couldn’t find was good pasta. You can get steak, you can get whatever, everything! But no fresh pasta. Now, it’s everywhere, but in 2004? Nothing. That’s why we started our pasta manufacturing company. And it’s not just a business – I mean, it is a business: we make money to have a life – but it’s not just that. You have to have a higher purpose, and the money is going to come any way.  

Looking back on all of this, who is one person you’re grateful to have worked with or learned from? You can say Massimo, but I’m going to make you say somebody else, too!

Of course I’m going to say Massimo because it’s true. I cannot do it without him, and he cannot do it without me. We’re so totally different and so perfectly matched. We complement each other perfectly. The other person? My dad, and my mom. My dad taught me how to be open and courageous: to live my life without regret. My mom is also wonderful. After losing my dad and meeting Massimo, I decided to move to the U.S., and she would have been alone in Italy – no brothers or sisters or other family. She was strong enough and selfless enough to say go, go live your life, I’ll be okay. I have to say thank you to her for that.

I don’t have children but that sounds like the hardest thing about being a parent: supporting your children and their lives, no matter where it takes them.

Can I say one more thing? I say thanks to all of the other vendors for making us all better. When the competition is strong and fair, we all push each other to do better, to be the best. When you’re in a traditional brick and mortar, it’s just you. When you’re in the food hall, you’re also learning from the others around you, and learning from others makes you do better things.

Even with all of the food halls out there now, I think ours are still special because of just that: you as vendors are collaborating and teaching and sharing. You’re not growing next to each other but rather with each other.

I agree, completely.

I’m sure you spend almost all of your time at the market, but what is one thing you do outside of Dal Plin that you’re passionate about?

Massimo and I both like to travel. We can’t travel a lot, of course, but we both love it. We don’t have any babies, but we have one dog that we love like crazy, so we try to bring him on our trips as much as we can.

Dal Plin’s bucatini pomodoro e burrata proves that nothing simple is easy.

The other thing that we love is food, of course! When we’re not at the market, we’re at home or we’re going out to find the new places with friends. Stubborn Seed is our favorite place right now – it’s sort of like… creative American? To me, it’s very, very, very nice. We both really like it.

What’s one thing on your menu that people think is easy to make but it’s actually quite difficult? Or vice versa: people think it’s difficult, but it’s not that hard at all.

One thing on our menu that people think is really easy is the pomodoro sauce (tomato sauce). They think it’s easy to make, but it’s not. The difficulty in putting up a homey menu is that there aren’t that many ingredients – there’s nowhere to hide. If it’s good, it’s amazing. If it’s done wrong or the ingredients aren’t good, then you hate it.

People usually think the risotto is very difficult to make, but it’s not. It’s just some work. People think you have to boil the rice or all these things, but no: you just have to stay at the pot, 25-30 minutes, adding the broth and stirring it. And then, of course, you have to give it good flavor and put best ingredients in it.

Are you doing risotto for the NuDeco Orchestra event at South Beach Wine and Food Festival?

No, but big news! We’re doing pepperoni pizza! Everybody keeps telling us they want pepperoni pizza, so we’re going to do it. It’s like a Sicilian pie, it’s a thick crust – you might call it deep dish, but it’s Sicilian style. We’ll do pepperoni, and we’ll do one with olives and capers a la Romana.

We’re also going to do Parma Tortelloni. The right name is Capeletti Bolognesi, but people hear that and think noodles, so we call it tortelloni – like a tortellini, but bigger. It’s a filled pasta, and we cure our own pork, which takes three or four days. It’s a long process, but it’s very good.

That sounds incredible and I am so happy that I will be in Miami so soon. Half the time, I do these interviews, and you all talk about your incredible food, but I’m so far away and I can’t eat it!

Yes, we will make sure you get plenty!

What’s your ultimate, moonshot, dream goal? As in, it may not ever happen, but you’d absolutely love if it could be your life.

Don’t laugh at me, okay?

Why would I laugh!

Massimo thinks I’m ridiculous when I tell him this but, okay… You know what I would love to do? I would love to have a beautiful house with a very big kitchen and do like a star chef, cooking and eating and sharing with my friends.

Okay, to be clear: I’m not laughing at you; I’m laughing because you would be so good on TV! I’m thinking like Martha Stewart or Ina Garten?

My favorite is Ina Garten! I love the flowers, she always goes to Paris – I love Paris, too! That would be my dream. She never really has that many people over, so that would be a little different in my show. I would love to do that when I grow up. Maybe it’s corny, but I want to live my life in corny.