Ghiotto Ltd

Our family has been in the food business for generations. My paternal grandfather, Alfredo Casci, was a confectioner from Tuscany. He arrived in NZ in 1912 and set up a sweet shop at the top of Pitt St in Auckland. He prospered even during the Depression as people always seemed to be able to find a few coppers to 'shout the kids some sweets'. My father also became a confectioner and they both worked for many of the major confectionery companies in Auckland.

I did not join the hospitality industry until the mid 1980's, when I started training to be a chef at the then Auckland Institute of Technology (now AUT). After working in the industry for a number of years I returned to AUT where I spent the next 27 years teaching the next generation of chefs. When I finally hung up my Chef’s whites, I decided to combine the skills I had developed during my career along with my passion for Italian gastronomy the result being Ghiotto.