MEET GIOVANNI

For over 50 years, Giovanni Papandrea has been passionate to teach people about Old World Italian Food. He was born and grew up in southern Italy's Calabria, one of 10 children born to Rosa and Pasquale Papandrea. Raised on the family farm in southern Italy, his love for food began at an early age. After school, there were chores to be done; they picked olives, squashed grapes with their feet to make wine, raised pigs, chickens and sheep. As a young boy, Giovanni watched his father make ricotta over the fireplace and watched his mother stew tomato sauce. In 1967 he came to America with his family and settled in Brooklyn, NY where he started working in the food industry to help support his family. He opened his first Italian Salumeria in Bensonhurst at age 17 and hasn’t stopped cooking and sharing his love for Italian food and heritage since. In 1987, he relocated his family to Orange County and the Famous Deli-licious Pork Store opened its doors for business.

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As the owner of his beloved business for over 30 years, he and his Famous Deli-licious family served prepared foods that used family recipes handed down through generations. They were dedicated to providing only the finest products and service to their customers and as many know - they loved to have you sample their products when you visited the store! Two favorites were Giovanni’s famous Reduced Balsamic and his Reserve Extra Virgin Olive Oil from his hometown in Calabria. We are very excited to now be able to offer these two artisinal products to our customers in our new online store.