Family of Bakers

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Sing Out Aunt Theresa 0

Theresa at our Booth New York Fancy Food Show 1999

My father's family brought twelve children into the world and started a family business that has, at this point, outlived all but one. Sadly, on November 25, 2018 we lost a member who, to me, embodied the spirit of that magical household most perfectly. Theresa Di Camillo Hargrave--known affectionately in our family as “Aunt Tre”-- drew her final breath surrounded by her son and daughter and grandchildren.

  • Michael DiCamillo

“AND THE WINNER IS…” 0

The SOFI AWARDS

The Specialty Food Association has announced the winners for this year’s SOFI awards (The “Academy Awards” of the specialty food world)! The Di Camillo family would like to congratulate all of the winners. http://videos.specialtyfood.com/ Unfortunately, we ourselves did not win anything this year, but we certainly have had our share of awards in previous years and they are always a great honor and a wonderful acknowledgment of all the hard work and countless hours and courage that go into creating a winner in this truly
international arena.

  • Michael DiCamillo

Thanksgiving & The DiCamillo Family 0

My father’s family embraced Thanksgiving Day as if they themselves had invented it and our family certainly gave it a personal interpretation. The significance for our family of this holiday was established by our grandfather and our bakery’s founder, Tomaso Di Camillo.
  • Michael DiCamillo

A Mother's Day Biscotti Story: From Niagara Falls to Wichita Falls 0

“Miss Dvorken, circa 1936 in a dress she designed and sewed herself for her violin recital at Texas Women’s University in Denton, Texas”

 In the near-century of our existence we have served, literally, generations of families, but Margaret Dvorken holds a place of honor at the Di Camillo family table.           

In the early 1980s, Margaret Dvorken, a Texan, was introduced to Di Camillo Bakery’s biscotti by her friend Carol, a Niagara Falls native who had relocated to Mrs. Dvorken’s town of Wichita Falls, Texas.

“Everyone in our office knows Margaret Dvorken—she’s ordered so much so often we thought she had a retail store in Texas!” recalls my uncle Michael Di Camillo.

  • Michael DiCamillo

Thanks for the Memories 0

Di Camillo Bakery Loses Last of Its Second-Generation Owners
Joseph J. Di Camillo, the last of the Second-Generation owners of Di Camillo Bakery, died on February 22: he was 99 years old. He remained close to his surviving sisters Angelica Di Camillo and Theresa Hargrave Di Camillo, who—now both in the 90s-- still work at Di Camillo Bakery part-time.

Born in Niagara Falls to Tomaso and Addoloratta Di Camillo, Joseph was the seventh of twelve children, and the youngest of five brothers who comprised the nucleus of the DiCamillo Bakery.
  • Michael DiCamillo

Pandoro 0

Pandoro

“Nothing looks more dramatic on a Christmas table than a Pandoro.”

Some words are lost in translation: our Pandoro isn’t one of those. Literally

“golden bread” (due to both its color and amount of egg used in baking), Pandoro is a star-shaped crown of a cake-bread and is dusted with powdered sugar before serving. The sight of this cake brings to mind a snow-capped mountain in the Alps or the Apennine Mountains that kept Italy a kingdom of regions, each with its own specialty in the baker’s art.

  • Michael DiCamillo

Biscotti and Me 0

Fancy Food Show 1983, Michael & Theresa Di Camillo.

There is always a moment, or a product that sets loose an entirely new trend in the marketplace. Invariably, it is on the shoulders of what came before, but there is that moment when something explodes on the scene with all the newness of new life. I was fortunate to have been there at such a moment. 

  • Michael DiCamillo

The Library as a Factory 0

One of my favorite books of 2015 was Alex Johnson’s "Improbable Libraries:  A Visual Journey to the World’s Most Unusual Libraries."
  • Michael DiCamillo

Saint Joseph's Day Table 0

Saint Joseph’s Day, March 19th, is, in Italy, also Father’s Day. The feast and festival—which always falls in the midst of Lent—is especially commemorated and celebrated in Sicily. 

  • Michael DiCamillo

Thanksgiving For The Bread On Our Table 0

I have been assured by my Aunt Theresa that it is not just family lore that her father (my grandfather) Tomaso Di Camillo arrived in Niagara Fal...
  • Michael DiCamillo

Matthew Di Camillo's Story 0

Getting involved in baking might, at first, seem like an odd transition from someone trained as an opera singer who spent five years as a voice p...

Aunt Gorgeous's Ninetieth Birthday 0

Betty Di Camillo King

My father's family always loved a party, and with eleven children they never had to wonder whom to invite! 
  • Michael DiCamillo