Columbia chef aims to 'feed the whole community' with Italian market Pasta La Fata

Michelle "Shelly" La Fata wanted a new avenue to express her creativity.

About five years ago, this desire is what led the Columbia kitchen professional to hold pop-up events at local bars and concert venues.

At that time, La Fata was using the kitchen at Cafe Berlin as a commissary to prepare her fresh pasta, sauces, lasagna and other products. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, which had an opposite effect on La Fata's business compared to many others.

"My business grew and I started taking up more space" at Cafe Berlin, La Fata said.

While La Fata had an established business with five employees who worked daily, it still was very much a start-up. When she outgrew Cafe Berlin, La Fata turned to CoMo Cooks, the shared kitchen space at Mizzou North that then moved to a temporary location on Walnut Street in January.

"Shelly really became the kitchen mom," said Carrie Gartner, The Loop Community Improvement District executive director. The Loop oversees CoMo Cooks.

The CoMo Cooks shared kitchen is in the process of building out its permanent space on the Loop, about 1,000 feet from its original location at Mizzou North.

More: The Loop starts construction on 'super usable' permanent CoMo Cooks shared kitchen

"CoMo Cooks was the perfect scenario for me because I wasn't ready (at that time) to get a bank loan or do construction," La Fata said. "There were not any little kitchens I could rent."

The CoMo Cooks kitchens are a perfect opportunity for those with or without La Fata's experience, she said.

"I met really hard-working food service entrepreneurs," she said. "It is fun seeing others hit the ground running. We needed (a shared kitchen space) badly. I am pumped and proud it is available in the community."

Continued growth

Pasta La Fata's continued growth led to the opening of a brick-and-mortar Italian market about two months ago at 1207 Rogers St.

La Fata went from just herself, to five employees, to now 15 and is in the process of training managers so that she can have some time away from the store to decompress.

"(CoMo Cooks) was an incubator for us. It gave us time to spread out and plan this (store)," La Fata said. "It was the perfect amount of time we needed for me to hit the ground running."

Building the market space was out of La Fata's wheelhouse, she said. She relied on help from Missouri Women's Business Center on a business plan, securing a bank loan and selecting contractors.

"I thought the space was too nice for us. I went from renting a U-Haul truck once a week, filling it with food and then selling it every Saturday at the Columbia Farmers Market (to this space)," La Fata said. After a temporary hiatus from the farmers market, she plans to continue selling products there in addition to her storefront.

"Her new space is just fantastic," Gartner said of La Fata's market.

La Fata pumped to bring Italian market to Columbia

When La Fata was growing up, the only places her family would shop for food were Italian markets. This led her to believe everyone shopped at such places.

"When I got to Columbia, there wasn't an Italian market here," La Fata said. "People have told me for years the city needed one. I'm trying to be true to myself and give (the community) what I think an Italian market is.

"There is so much potential. We have pastries; hot, ready-to-eat food; frozen and refrigerated food; and dry food."

La Fata is excited by what the market could grow into and is honored by the people she works with, she said.

The available hot food menu updates weekly. This recent week featured rigatoni and ragu genovese; bucatini and cream spinach and parmesan; linguine and basil pesto; and mafaldine and vegan golden zucchini cream, among much more.

"I feel lucky to be in such a fertile place in the world that has all this beautiful fresh flowers, meat, milk, cheese, eggs and produce," La Fata said.

Ingredients and products for La Fata's market mostly are sourced within a 50-mile radius.

"Most of my vendors are through the Columbia Farmers Market," she said. "I've been a vendor there for four years."

La Fata isn't just sourcing from other producers. She also is growing her own.

"We have 320 tomato plants, so it is a full-time job," she said. "One of my employees is harvesting them, washing them, sorting them and processing them into tomato sauce. And we are freezing them so we'll be able to use them through the fall and winter."

Feeding the whole community

La Fata from an early age was around cooking and food. She is descended from four Sicilian immigrants.

"My grandparents had a farm and grew tomatoes," La Fata said. "I managed the Peace Nook and did all their grocery buying. I think that is when I first got into placing orders for food."

She would go on to working at the Root Cellar where she made connections with regional farmers who would pay her in produce.

"From there, the owners of the Root Cellar opened Broadway Brewery," La Fata said, adding this was where she received her first restaurant kitchen experience.

"I helped open that restaurant and learned a lot. Then I went to culinary school in Texas," La Fata said.

She also had experience working with Ozark Mountain Biscuit Co., managing its festival operations as its biscuit truck traveled to events in many locales across the U.S.

"We were packing trailers full of equipment, placing orders on the go, building outdoor kitchens and making all this food from scratch," La Fata said. "That made me dynamic and resilient."

Ozark Mountain owner Bryan Maness "is a great mentor and now we're neighbors," La Fata said.

After working at festivals and going to culinary school, La Fata realized she "wanted to work for (herself) and came back to Columbia to start a business doing in-home culinary lessons and private chef work."

While this taught La Fata much about being a business owner, it was lonely.

"I just kept thinking, 'How can I feed the whole community?' I really didn't know how I was going to do it, but I definitely feel like I am doing it now," La Fata said.

Charles Dunlap covers local government, community stories and other general subjects for the Tribune. You can reach him at cdunlap@columbiatribune.com or @CD_CDT on Twitter. Please consider subscribing to support vital local journalism.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Pasta La Fata marks two months with brick-and-mortar storefront