The Many Faces of Food and Beverage

Article by CH2 Magazine | Sept 2018

Amanda Russ Cifaldi
Pomodori Italian Eatery
Years in F&B: 6.5

Describe one of your earliest food memories.
I remember very distinctly walking through my mother’s garden and picking green beans with her for that night’s dinner. My mother was a business executive with a master’s degree, and still she found time to grow our food and prepare it fresh. It still amazes me to this day, probably even more so now that I have a family and business of my own when I think of the time and dedication that took. She really is remarkable.

What would your autobiography be called?
She Loved to Sing.

What magazines and books have you read recently?
My incredible artist friend Brucie Holler turned me on to The Sun magazine. It’s ad-free, published in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and focuses on what I would consider the American Experience through unlikely or underrepresented eyes. It is an incredible array of poetry, short stories, interviews and photography that depict the month’s topic in myriad ways, and I have thoroughly enjoyed every issue I’ve read. Books I’ve recently enjoyed include A Gentleman in Moscow, A Paris Wife, and One in A Million Boy. All fabulous and all unique.

What do you do in your spare time?
I love being with my wife Robin, whether we’re doing nothing or doing something; everything is better when she’s around.

A restaurant I’d love to visit:
I would love to go to Atelier Crenn in San Francisco. Dominique Crenn is the first woman in America to earn two Michelin stars, a feat that is all but impossible. But beyond that, she writes her menu every night in the form of a poem, and that speaks to the very core of me, since written word is one of my greatest joys.

One thing you definitely don’t know about me is…
I was a puppeteer in college. On break when I would head back to Michigan from UGA, I would take out a hand-carved wooden puppet show in the summers and tour the public libraries in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, and Wisconsin. I was the only woman they hired, since the work was incredibly physical. I had to build a whole stage with a curtain rod and light bar, sometimes two times a day and drive anywhere from three to seven hours to set up these shows. My dad printed out all of the maps, and we calculated that I drove 26,000 miles in three months when I was just 22 years old. Still the coolest job ever!