A Master Chef’s Memoir Of Survival And Purpose

A chef’s story can be inspiring, but Chef Franco Lania’s story goes far beyond the kitchen. He is an award-winning master chef, culinary educator, and entrepreneur who has cooked at the highest levels, from elite restaurants to luxury cruise lines. He’s also a 9/11 survivor who was evacuated from Tower Two, and he shares what that morning felt like from the inside, including the chaos, the noise, and the long, frightening hours it took to get home to his pregnant wife with no way to contact anyone.

We talk about why he chose to write a memoir, “Cooking Inspired: Design Your Dish, Design Your Life,” instead of a cookbook, and how cooking can become a practical way to care for your mind when stress, anxiety, or depression pulls you off track. Franco takes us back to the unlikely start of his career, when his dad pushed him into a job at a gourmet supermarket after a painful family divorce, and how that early structure led to the discipline and accountability he later learned in Michelin-level kitchens.

From there, we get honest about purpose, legacy, and faith. Franco explains how trauma can shake your beliefs, what helped him find his way back through church community, and how his “Design Your Dish, Design Your Life” mindset connects food to a life built with intention. We also dig into the differences between American and European food culture, ingredients, and portion sizes, plus his boutique Italy culinary travel experiences through Tavola Tours.

If you care about resilience, mindful cooking, culinary storytelling, and finding meaning after hardship, you’ll want this conversation in your ears. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review so more people can find it.

Find Franco: https://www.francolania.com/

Transcript

Copy

Meet Chef Jeff Franco Lanilla

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Today's guest has one of those stories where food is really only part of the story. Jeff Franco Lanilla is an award-winning master chef, author, culinary educator, and entrepreneur whose 30-year career has taken him from kitchens across the United States and Europe to Michelin-starred restaurants and luxury cruise lines. He's also a survivor of the September 11th attacks in New York City, an experience that became part of a much larger journey of healing, purpose, and faith. His memoir is Cooking Inspired, Design Your Dish, Design Your Life. And these days, he's also taking people straight to the source through his boutique travel company, Tavola Tours, offering culinary and cultural experiences in Italy. Let's welcome him to the show.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Well, hello and welcome. Nice to meet you. And as I, you know, read your bio and and got some of your background on everything, I kind of realized pretty quickly we could go in so many directions with this conversation. So I want to keep myself in check here and I and I want to try and like kind of go in some kind of order so that I don't go off the rails because I can and will.

SPEAKER_03 1:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

Um

Why A Memoir Beats A Cookbook

SPEAKER_01 1:15

I want to start with um what feels like the obvious question. You're a chef. Um, you have had this extraordinary culinary career, and yet you wrote uh a memoir instead of a cookbook. Can you tell me a little bit about the why of that?

SPEAKER_02 1:31

Well, that's a really good question. I mean, uh the reason why I decided to write a memoir is uh well, twofold. One was many people who kind of like followed my journey were in my life, were all telling me, one day you should write a book, you should write a book. And you know, people tell people to write a book often, and then I just kind of blew it off. And then um as the years went by, I started to say, well, you know what, maybe I should journal some of this stuff down because some of you know maybe I could pass it on to my family and my daughter and things like that, all these experiences, and I started to journal things down. And uh then after 9-11, which I was a 9-11 survivor, I was uh evacuated out of tower number two on 9-11, and um, unfortunately, and and uh uh that kind of like drove me to say, hey, you know what, you don't really have life short, but all that kind of stuff started to enter my mind like many people, and I said, you know, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna write this book, but I'm not gonna make a cookbook, I'm gonna make a memoir because there's plenty of chefs out there that can tell you how to make a recipe and do a really great job at it and have an awesome result and all that stuff, and I could do the same. But I had a a vision and a and a voice inside me that wanted to come out to show people how food is not only something you can do in your pastime or for like a hobby, it can be something very spiritual and nurturing if looked at in a certain way, in a certain perspective. And that's really what my cooking-inspired design your dish, design your life is all about because there's a lot of invigorating energies as you approach a stove and as you get your mind nourished. And when you hit a problem, we know the first thing to go out the window is we don't eat right. So, how are you gonna get yourself together if you're not getting your brain nourished and all that? So, I'm not saying you have to be a complete, like, you know, health food nut, but you gotta at least approach the stove and cook something for yourself and get yourself out of that funk, and that's a way to start. So that was the book, was the premise of it, and then it turned into this what people are saying is a beautiful memoir.

SPEAKER_01 3:35

Uh, you know, so everything you're saying resonates so much with me because I I was raised, my grandmother was adamant about food and presentation, and that food is an experience, and it it's so much more than just calories, you know, just consuming calories that this food is an experience, and and um I I think our society has such a hard time with their relationship with food. So I I really love your perspective on that and and you know the the shifting of the mindset when we think about foods. Um take me

A Supermarket Job Changes Everything

SPEAKER_01 4:12

back a little bit. So before all the accomplishments, and there are quite a lot of them, and so impressive. Um, the restaurants, Europe, um, all of this. What was it about food that first grabbed you? Was you know, was like cooking something that um you always knew you were meant to do, or did that come later in life?

SPEAKER_02 4:32

Um, I really wasn't brought up in a household where cooking was a big thing, even though I'm an Italian-American guy. I mean, it was just kind of like normal. Uh food was just like a normal thing. It wasn't like the big focal pinnacle moment like a lot of people think in an Italian home. And on Sundays, we had our traditional Sunday gravy or sauce, whatever you want to call it.

SPEAKER_01 4:54

You're not gonna jump into that debate.

SPEAKER_02 4:56

No, that's a whole other uh podcast. But but uh but uh, you know, so like like like that, we had our traditional Christmas dinners and all that. But other than that, regular Monday through Friday during the school year was just like any other American, it wasn't really a really big deal. So uh, but my uh whole thing, how I felt into food was because my parents basically got divorced when I was uh uh going into freshman year and high school, and and um they had a really bad marriage and all that kind of stuff. And and um so when it was over, it was over, and I started to get a little bit of stray with a lot of all the other kids that were having problems in their homes, and you kind of like all huddled together, and we'll just leave it at that, you get in trouble. So, so my dad um he eventually stepped in and he said, Look, buddy, you have to get a job, and you need structure after school, and you can't keep hanging out with these guys, and blah blah blah blah. And he took me to a local gourmet supermarket in New Jersey. They're called it's called Kings. It's like the precursor of Whole Foods. Okay, and so they were hiring. It was summertime, and they were hiring, and I really didn't want to, I mean, I didn't want to work, I definitely didn't want to work in a supermarket of all places. But uh I went and he walks me right in, walks, asked the manager for an application. Those days you had to fill everything out with a pen, and we filled it all out and handed it in, and three days later I'm standing behind a deadly counter calling numbers and cutting baloney, and and and little by little in the book I go very into this. Just working with these people and working with this higher-end clientele that were that were eating uh things I never never even knew existed, like uh you know uh locks and and and uh uh all different kinds of uh uh high-end like salad, like German potato salad and all that. I had no idea. So and they actually made everything there, so so they weren't just opening up bottles and pouring it in. Everything was made. They had chefs from the culminary institute of America and all that stuff, and that's what pulled me into food.

SPEAKER_01 6:59

That'll do it. Yeah, that must have been so um so wild to go into such a diverse um food culture, really. To like you said, locks and and German, but so I'm Cuban and German. So my German, yeah, I do. I do. So it's just I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um but when I tell people about like um sauerbratten and things like that, they're like, what? What is that? So yeah, that had to be a little bit of a culture shock if you were used to uh just one style of food, right?

SPEAKER_02 7:31

Right. And delis were just like normal things, it was just you know, this was like a high upscale deli, was more gourmet and it was like, you know, it just opened up my palate. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:42

What a wonderful introduction to the world of of food, of that experience. My goodness. Uh, I told you before we started, I love food, every ethnicity style, everything. I love all of it. I should be like 800 pounds. I really should be. Yes, thank goodness. That would that would be not fun. Um, but now you've worked in, besides that one, of course, that was the start, but you've worked in some really impressive culinary environments. Um, what does working at that level teach

Kitchen Discipline Beyond The Food

SPEAKER_01 8:15

you that has absolutely nothing to do with cooking?

SPEAKER_02 8:19

Well, I think when you're working at a high level, like if you're working at a uh a three-star restaurant in New York City or Miami, or I was out in uh Milan working at a one one or it was thinking it was a two-mission star back then, it's one mission star now, uh Saddler Restaurante in Milano. Um, when you're working at that level, um it's like very military, it's very disciplined, and everything is very organized and very structured. And for someone like me that was coming from no structure and very wayward and uh uh looking for every excuse to like not be accountable and and all that stuff. I mean, in the kitchen, the minute you make a mistake, all eyes are on you. I mean, it's you. You burned it, you forgot it, you didn't do it, you whatever. And and real fast you have to like start to like get in step, or you're or they step you out of the kitchen.

SPEAKER_04 9:12

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 9:13

Yeah, so so it it and and I and I ate it up. Like I guess I was thinking at one point I was gonna join the Navy because I wanted to see the world, and and and my dad thought that'd be a great idea because he was a Korean War veteran, and and he thought that would be he thought that would be a great idea. And and um I didn't for some reason, and because I got into this job at the uh supermarket, King's, and I just held on and held on and held on, and and I finally got my discipline and my organization by going through these brigades in in uh these kitchens. So that's what it meant to me. It really had nothing to do with the food, it's about the discipline and the camaraderie that you build in those environments. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:58

Wow. So first and foremost, let me just uh sidestep and say uh God bless and thank your dad for his service.

SPEAKER_04 10:04

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 10:05

Absolutely. And um I I gotta, you know, so unlike most people, my only experience with what you're describing is watching television shows and and series uh about so I mean what they portray is not really that far off, right? I mean, the it's pretty intense back there. You have to have a very certain kind of personality to withstand that because it's it's intense. I mean, based on what I've seen and what you're saying, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:34

You have thick skin for sure, yeah. And you can't be soft, you you have to be able to take criticism. It's not always constructive criticism. You know, it's embarrassing sometimes. Uh but I think uh just to go into modern times, back when I was doing it, it would be like the late 80s, all the way through the 90s and all that stuff. I think around in the 2000s, um, things changed. So I don't think head chef and the owners are as uh uh uh what can I say strong on everyone in in the verbal kind of ways that they were back then. So I think it's it's a it's a much more pleasant environment. I don't know if that's good for the actual getting the best out of all your guys, but but um times change, so yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:23

But yeah, we live in a world now where everybody right? We live in the world now where everybody has to be careful of everybody else's feelings. Yes, I sound like I sound like the mean German that I am.

SPEAKER_02 11:34

We're feeling no, but it's very true, it's very, very true. And as my and now that I've moved up in the world and I'm like an executive chef and I'm like running uh you have to be very, very conscious of what you and you, even in a joking way, like because the jokes sometimes come aren't caught as a joke. So like you have to just be very, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:53

Everybody's so sensitive. Ugh. Yes, yes. Um, I let me go back a little

Inside The World Trade Center

SPEAKER_01 12:00

bit. You of course mentioned, you know, an incredibly uh impactful and significant moment in your life, which was September 11th. If you're willing to, if you're comfortable talking about, tell us a little bit more about what happened to you that morning, what that experience was for you.

SPEAKER_02 12:15

Uh yeah, sure. Um 9-11 uh for me was I mean, it might sound weird. Started off, well, like for many people, I guess, not weird. Uh started off as a great day. You know, I I I had recently returned back from studying and getting my master's uh chef certification in Piemonte, Italy. I graduated with my diploma. Um, then I did uh this like uh uh stage in a Michelin star restaurant, which I was mentioning uh in Milano, living and working in this Michelin star, very rigid, very structured. Food was phenomenal and all that stuff. And when my time was up, my visa had expired, my work permit uh for Italy, so I had to come back home, and it was time to come home. I I was married, I I uh uh needed to get back home and get like, you know, uh uh back into the groove with my real life. So I so I I came back to to New York. I was living in New Jersey in a town called Jersey City, which is literally Hoboken is where Frank Sinatra's from, and then Jersey City. And I was living direct on the Hudson River in a 33-story building facing the World Trade Center. So so my whole life was like facing the World Trade Center. Everything you did in my area, going to the store, going to Starbucks, every the whole community was based around facing the Twin Towers. That's people would come and take pictures all the time, and graduation and weddings, and all that stuff was what happened at the bend of the street, and it was just a beautiful location. And and um, so I came back from from uh Italy. I got my resume together and I went all through Manhattan looking for a job. Uh, and I landed like the very first real job, it was like a sous-chef position. This uh restaurant was called Fiamma, it was owned by a big restaurant company called VR Guest Restaurant Groups in Manhattan, and they were bringing in a chef from from Bologna, Italy, and they were gonna open up this cool, wonderful uh the hip Italian restaurant. And I landed, I had to do a cooking demonstration for them, cooking tasting, and I got hired on the spot.

SPEAKER_04 14:24

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 14:24

So I get home, I'm all excited, and those days I didn't have a cell phone. So by the time I got home, there was a message on my machine, the answering machine, and it was them saying, you know, congratulations once again, but your uh health certificate has expired since you were in Italy and studying and all that stuff. You need to redo it. Um, don't worry, we'll pay for everything. Blah blah blah. You have three choices. You can go all the way uptown, midtown, or downtown in the World Trade Center. They give the test. And I'm like, well, it's no brainer. I I live like one train stop from the World Trade Center. So they we go communicate, and but bottom line, fast forward, uh 9-11, I'm supposed to go take this test. Uh my wife's three months pregnant, and um really excited about getting this job and getting things like like like situated with that. So uh 9-11, I'm like a good student, I leave my house early. I I figure I'm gonna go in, take this test, split, and then I'll come back home and go with the wife, and we'll go baby shopping or whatever. Yeah, yeah. So so I I I split, I walk out my building. As soon as you turn from my building, you the World Trade Center was like right there, and I'm putting on my sunglasses, and I'm walking a gorgeous sunny day, and the sun's coming up, and get into the city, and I get into the mezzanine level of World Trade Center number two, and I go all the way up to my my my my uh testing site, and uh it's a big, big uh room, like like with all take with all like like chairs and and desks. And uh it was like every walk of life that works with food is coming. So you have people from high school uh kitchens, uh Michelin star kitchens, hotels, everyone needs to take this test. Uh guys like me that are coming back from Europe and whatever. So so um it was a pretty you know uh uh room full of people, and I find my chair and I sit down. It's about 8:35, and no longer I'll be I'm just getting together, taking out my stuff, getting organized, getting situated. All hell broke loose. And and uh a woman came walking into our doorway, uh, one of the uh uh women that worked there, she was dressed like a poor authority clothes. She said that the uh World Trade Center, we we heard like noise, like something like that. But everyone's talking, it was a loud room, and everything's echoing, and you didn't really pay attention, but we there was something that happened. And and uh a lady came in, like I said, and she said that the trade center next to us was hit by an airplane. We're like, that's what that was. So we many of us walked to the now, the world trade center, the windows are very flat. You didn't have like a ledge, they were like this. So you couldn't really like you know, so you basically could look up, and when we're looking up, you could see like stuff floating in the air and coming down and all this stuff, and then we kind of look down, you see people all kind of glowing like looking up. So something happened. And and and I and if she said it was a plane, we believed her. So so the uh proctors were saying, you know, we have to stay, we have to uh uh uh uh you know maintain the composure here and all this stuff and and uh uh wait for instruction to to to whatever. We're like the hell are you, buddy? I threw my stuff in my in my bag, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:37

Yeah, absolutely, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:40

Go go go uh into the hallway. A lot of us did. I wasn't the only one that stared back with it. And and and uh we go into the hallway uh and there's hordes of people over by the elevator. So I walk over to the stairwell with the rest of my group, and I opened the door to the stairwell, and there was plenty of people that were staying to hell with it. They were all coming down the stairs. It was like like a parade of people coming down the stairs. And I joined in, and by the time I got all the way down to the uh bottom floor, got across the street, was looking at where we just exited and looking at this burning building next to us, though, the number one world trades. As we're sitting there trying to figure out all this, I hear a lady yell, oh my god, another before she could say the word plane, something we just came out of was hit. So make a long story short, without getting into the gory details, you can imagine standing like right there. Yeah, and the one thing I will say about 9-11, just to end it, um, what you hear on TV and what you see on TV, I'm not gonna go into all the conspiracies and stuff, but what I what I like to get across is the noises. It was so horrifically loud, the sirens, the people, the screaming, the confusion, the horns beeping, the cops, the the fire engines, the ambulances. It was it was just chaos. It doesn't really come across. Yeah, total chaos, like like shattered. Uh so it took me 13 hours basically to get. I lived, you could see my building from where I'm standing. It took me 13 hours to to get home. I had no cell, no service, no anything. No one knew everyone knew I was going to that building that day. My parents, my of course, my wife, uh my certain friends. And uh obviously the company knew I was in there. Um and and uh took me about 13 hours to get home. I get home and uh you know rekindle with my family and everything, and I'm like uh yeah, I'm just just totally a different person, and and and that's what changed my perspective on everything and food because instead of making the coolest dish and the most designed uh plate and working for these killer genius chefs and doing all this wonderful uh uh the artistic cuisine and and and and building my artistry as a chef along the way and all this stuff, I was like, throw it out the window, dude. It doesn't mean a damn thing. These people are running into a burning building trying to save people while everybody else is running away, yeah. And and and uh, you know, there's nothing heroic about like you know, making a foie gras. And and then and I and I didn't really think that it meant much anymore. So sure, yeah. So like it was like why I'm gonna do it. Changes you, yeah, yeah. And that's where I pulled back and I thought maybe I'll just maybe I had a good run and I did a lot of wonderful. Even at that point I had done had had a decent run, and and I and I thought, you know, maybe I'll get more serious and be an insurance salesman and make money and raise this daughter or son that I'm about to have and and get more serious with my with my uh family life and and all that, but it didn't happen. We kind of recollected and we moved down to Miami to get out of because because the uh the air and all that stuff was really bad.

SPEAKER_04 21:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:02

And for a pregnant woman, it was really bad. So uh I had some friends that were working and living in Miami Beach, and they helped me to locate a a job, and we moved down to Miami, and then and I kept going. And that's when I started writing this the book, Cooking Inspire basically talking about here is when would I start penning that uh probably

Aftermath, Miami, And Writing The Book

SPEAKER_02 21:25

right maybe you know, six months after 9-11, I start putting it together.

SPEAKER_01 21:29

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 21:30

That's how it all ties in with with 9-11.

SPEAKER_01 21:33

My goodness. Um, you know, that experience is something that most of us cannot even comprehend. And it's really like you said, you know, witnessing it on a television screen or seeing pictures is nothing like living it. And and you know, the sights, the smells, the feelings, the fears, the shock, um, all of it is so truly incomprehensible to the rest of us. So you you have this experience which is obviously life changing. And then you take the next incredibly life-changing experience, which is leaving really everything that you have known and starting over somewhere else with uh, you know, a a baby on the way and all of these things. I I'm so fascinated by what that writing journey of this book was like. Did you find uh let me let me backtrack slightly um how long did it take you to write this book? Like how long was the process of writing it?

SPEAKER_02 22:38

It was a long process because it in in in this journey I started to give I started to become very uh uh what can I say uh sidetracked with other things in life that started to happen uh when my dad got Parkinson's my mom needed to have double hip transplant surgery eventually my marriage fell apart and we wound up getting divorced we still maintain you know uh a a nice relationship to raise our daughter but like that happened so things like I say do do happen so yeah so things things happened and and um it it kind of like but I kept coming back to it but not like uh uh like I really like like like you know like like Alan Poe just writing everything at midnight and with a candle and bang it out like like like I it came over time and but what really refocused me was I took a job I got hired as the first American I'm an Italian American guy but I'm American first American guy to uh get hired by Oceania Cruise Line which is one of the best cruise lines in the world it's headed by Jacques Popon he's like the famous French chef uh you'll see him all over now he's he's he hasn't do as much but he was all over with Julie Childs back in the day on TV and um he was the culinary director and I got hired I cooked for them and I got hired and I was the first uh uh Italian guy American guy though uh to get hired to flag to to run their flagship Toscana restaurant on their ship so it was where like everyone paid more money to go eat in this restaurant they're already paying a ton of money just to be on this this ship and then they pay to go to these exclusive restaurants so at at night there's nothing really to do so it's not like a party mode it's a very exclusive thing. So so I would go back down to my cabin I had a solo cabin and that's when I started to say I'm gonna take out the paper and pencil get on this and I started and I started using my time to uh formulate when I left that contract I think it was a six month contract I had a lot of the book pretty much done so so then I came up and I was going to the library reorganizing my notes but I think the whole process just to get to the point I think it was probably like eight or ten years. Okay yeah so that so the the writing journey of that book really it was a uh uh kind of traveling through this whole experience in real time really in a lot of ways yeah so when you went back and reread it was there anything in it that surprised you like things that you didn't realize then that you see more clearly now when I what happens is when you when since it's an and and I'm I'm sure you understand this as an author when when when you're reading it you say oh gee I should add this in there or oh gee I really shouldn't let the world know that or oh gee I I you know and so you you get you get all like that but at the very end of everything um it which which which I was done with all the the the the the re-editing of the editing kind of deal I knew in my heart that I did I did the best I could do I brought everything out I try to make it relatable for the reader so you're not just reading about like me it could be you it could be whoever and and through the things I mention about getting over adversity getting over hardship getting past depression anxiety whatever your thing is in life that's bringing you down um it's in the book so you can grab onto stuff and realize hey you know this was his journey but this is also my journey too in a way. Yeah and coming back to the church coming back we can speak about spirituality coming back to Jesus and my religion uh uh uh you know uh things like that all were were were monumental in in help because without you you know any recovery program or what is you need some sort of spirituality involved right so so uh you know that was a big it's not just food food is can be very spiritual in its in its own right and um so I added a little bit of that into the book um so there's a little element of spirituality not too crazy but but enough for people to get what I'm saying and you know and and uh I really thought I I wrote something that could be bottom line was I thought I wrote something that not only depicted uh uh a nice story it uh and I'm sharing like like my story with with the world I it also could be helpful to many people and many people have told me that it's been very inspirational read and and and really they were more impressed after they finished the book than than before. So I guess I hit my mark in a way nice that's beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 27:34

That's it's absolutely beautiful and I love I love that you share that part of it because people do shy away from sharing it for fear of how other people will react and whether they'll think it's you know whatever whatever people think of anything right um but you know when you're writing a memoir as you well know um you are you are putting you out for the whole world to uh analyze and dissect and interpret and that is such a vulnerable um feeling so it's no small feat to to do that and particularly with the things that you experienced um and and I love that um your your faith was part of all of that because um I I think people go in one of one or two directions one of two directions when something truly truly deeply traumatic happens in life and that's the giving up on their faith if they had it to begin with uh giving up on it because you know they they start asking all of those hard honest genuine questions um or they lean harder into their faith and um if you don't mind sharing a little bit more about that for you you know when you think about 9-11 being a firsthand witness and I I participant is the wrong word but I know you know what I mean. Right.

SPEAKER_02 28:57

Um to experience that did it shake your faith was it like immediate that you lean deeper into it or did that come over time I think I went through the the process that you're explaining I think I pulled away like like the how everything the hell was my job the hell did this this is just how could this even happen?

SPEAKER_01 29:18

And I mean what an act of evil if there really was a God this you know and you go through all that stuff and I pulled away I think um I came back to the church I came back to my faith uh uh my mom is a is is a huge churchgoer and I mean she listens to the mass every morning and she does her rosary every morning and she's telling me oh you should just step into a church and pray a little bit or you should just go to a mass on Sunday you'll feel better and I'm like ah that kind of stuff and uh I was living in Florida and that all my family is in uh the New Jersey area so I was living you know in my own world my own thing and and um I don't know I finally I was like you know what maybe I really because I I did go to Catholic school in the beginning of my my uh schooling in life so I kind of that little old Catholic boy was still like inside me someplace so I I said you know what I really probably should and I went in to talk to a priest so I I had said I kind of was Father Walsh so like I go I talk to father Walsh in private in his room and explain to him this whole thing and um he tells me they have this men's Bible study and we do all these great things and we need a chef we do these events and we need someone to cook and like we did we did a beer and bratwurst thing and all this stuff you would have loved it so so so yeah we did beer and bratwurst at the church man so so so so so like um that reinvigorated me and I started to realize that you know these are good people and they're so helpful and they really want to help and um mom was basically right I should have done this years ago and I should have stepped into the church and and I got really involved and I religiously every Tuesday I was going to this Bible study at like 7 30 in the morning because all the men go it's a men's group and all the men go and they go to work we had like 60 men coming to this group and and and uh all ages all walks of life everything and the father walsh he was an Irish uh priest

Faith, Trauma, And Returning To Church

SPEAKER_01 31:18

so we had a real Irish broke and and um it was just a wonderful experience and that's what like re-sparked me back into the into the church and I shrugged off a lot of that like err that I was feeling and and um you know and I can't speak more highly of it I don't push it on people but if you are on the cusp of of of uh maybe I should maybe I shouldn't return back to whatever your faith is I would say take a plunge and try yeah absolutely that's so true and you know and the reality is and again and I'm right there with you I'm not one to preach at anybody for anything but you know if you are struggling if you do feel lost if you have you know this anger inside of you you know what better place to take it you know than to um you know to the one who who sees you and knows you and and loves you. Right? I mean oh my goodness it is so life changing and I'm so with you that you know if if if anybody would ask me that's where I would direct them all to and you know and they say what proof do you have well I'm I'm sitting across from it right now. You know you went through the darkest times and the darkest things that can break people that truly do break people uh break their spirit and break their hope and and their faith and all of those things and and you know you're somebody who made a different choice and I love that it it led you to to write this book and to share this journey and to share the hope um that you have and and the peace that you found. No thank you and I think anybody who reads your book will will thank you as well um it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 33:01

Talk to me a little bit about the subtitle we touched on it a little bit earlier but um design the subtitle is Design Your Dish design your life explain yeah explain that philosophy a little bit well it's kind of like a a uh a tag that I came up with I don't know a long time ago I I I was making a website and the web designer said you know uh we'll put your website together but you should have some sort of like a a tagline on your website and I'm like I don't have any idea for a tagline so I I stewed on it for a long time and somehow I was reading a book I think it was something about uh uh uh the the the like journey of this Michelin star chef and how he he he uh his artistry grew as he went through all these Michelin kitchens and yarp and all and then he became like this artist and blah blah now he makes the most beautiful design dishes and that just where I put um somehow and then and then I was like you know maybe design your dish but like instead of designing your dish like like we get like as chefs or as food uh oriented people we get so into like the most beautiful like you said your grandma was very into like the beautiful presentation maybe setting a gorgeous table and we get all in we get all into all this stuff and and um you know maybe if we took such that meticulousness of of cooking that you need to have when you're you're cooking at that high level um and put it into our life that's messy maybe maybe we can like organize and make something beautiful simultaneously here rather than just feeding people and making them happy and you're still miserable inside so so that was how design your dish design your life came to be what a phenomenal bridge to to create right like it's such a phenomenal bridge to to create with that because I I see it as you're explaining it I I'm visualizing I'm seeing it in in my head how how those two things could be married together and and just um correlate and work.

SPEAKER_01 35:09

So so it it truly truly does what do you feel your your purpose is like do you feel like being a chef having this skill was part of your purpose like do you see it that way I'm just curious.

SPEAKER_02 35:25

I think I mean I fell into food like I said because I was literally like lifted up out of my world and dropped into it by my parent my dad so so like you know I feel that there was something there. I was studying like even though you in those days you're you you're going to college you're not going to college you're taking class whatever I was doing and I was starting to be a social worker. So I think I made much more of an impact with what I eventually started to do in in in terms of like not only did I touch people in my local area I touched people in the states I even reached people now outside of the country. I'm going to the Frankfurt book show in in uh in October and my book is going to be there so I mean they're thinking about like hey maybe we'll do it in German maybe we'll do it in this language maybe we'll do it now so I mean this is far beyond anything I ever thought I was doing when I was writing this book. I was just trying to think of a legacy and I figured well I'll just write a book and I'll print it and I'll leave it to give a copy to my mom and my daughter and this and that it turned out to be this this the much bigger thing so so yeah I I I think yeah I'm so happy for you your daughter must be so proud of you. Yeah she she she she's kind of like amazed because she never really like knew that part of me she knows me as dad I don't sit down and talk to my kid about all this that's stuff like you really don't even want them to know. Sure.

SPEAKER_01 36:51

You know so so but whatever I mean she's old now it's not like she's a kid she's growing adult so yeah you know so but you mentioned the word legacy and and of course that's the first thing I thought of as you were as you were talking about it and you mentioned your daughter like what a legacy that you gave to her. You gave her that you know she you gave her the ability to know her parent her dad um in in such a different way which is something you don't appreciate until you're an adult until you're older and you have children of your own to to know you know as somebody with parents and grandparents with just such a storied life experience um to know their stories is so powerful. And when I was a kid, a teenager it wouldn't even cross my mind to want to know these things. So leaving that legacy and for your future grandchildren for them to to have um that that part of you is is such a treasure. So uh so so glad for you that you did that.

SPEAKER_04 37:50

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 37:50

Yeah um let me shift gears slightly for a minute I got to ask you about um you spent so much time in in Italy and and you know around the world really um without asking you to be I because I'm thinking that we're definitely less uh cultured than other parts of the world in the culinary sense to what what's the sign is there a significant difference between how Americans view food and how Europeans, for example.

SPEAKER_02 38:20

Well I I think the main thing the biggest thing uh that that uh the Europeans view Americans as basically unhealthy eaters you know like like uh that but doesn't mean that my brother's a health food nut so he wouldn't fit into that category right you know what I mean so he's definitely but I think what it comes really down to is the ingredients there are certain things certain uh uh uh ingredients that Europeans have marked like you know not usable in their and and making their bread and making their in their products and making their pastries and that we actually do allow here because it's cheaper it's more efficient it gives more shelf life I mean bread shouldn't let's sit on the shelf for a week and still be good.

SPEAKER_04 39:10

Right.

SPEAKER_02 39:10

Obviously there's something wrong with that. Yes you know and we were kids we would have like wonder bread with peanut butter and jelly and the thing would be there for like eight days and it gets smaller and you would just it's not supposed to be that way. Right. So so so you know you go to Europe within like two days the bread is hard as a rock because it's hell you know so that these are the things that are much different. It's the ingredients it's what we allow um the FDA here is much more lax uh compared to whatever their FDAs are over there and and and um this is where the big difference is so when people

Design Your Dish Design Your Life

SPEAKER_02 39:45

come from Europe and they come here for vacation stuff they're blown away they they they they can't believe how much different the food is and I think us as Americans when we go there we always say oh my god the food in Italy was so awesome the food in Germany was so awesome the food in France it is it is awesome it is it's simply yeah absolutely and I always say eat like a European you want to be healthy eat like a european there you go and they and and one last thing I'll say is they don't eat these humongo portions right so like you know for I I'll mention Italy for example uh you know because I take groups of people to Italy and I have a tour company and all that stuff but you get pasta for example you get a little bowl of pasta like you know like enough for maybe like like an appetizer portion of pasta here we get a bowl of pasta i mean it's like you know you get like half the box leftovers for a week yeah you know they look at that like absolutely absurd because and it is the carbohydrates and calories are just through the roof right and that's not supposed to be your meal like like you're after you have your pasta then you're having your asobuco or having your chicken or having your whatever that that that's just like a little starter thing you know the beer is like your main course but you don't you're not supposed to eat so much pasta at one shot darn it that's the problem right you're talking to a guy that like as a kid that was like that was dinner like a big bowl of pasta yeah I love pasta yeah pasta's my weekend that's my kryptonite it is it is either that's the night you have to go running or jogging or something right yes um you mentioned your your tours um tavola tavola tours yes um tell me about that because that sounds absolutely amazing tell me all about it please well okay thank you so so um I started a tour company uh right in 2017 uh people were asking me uh people like on my Facebook Instagram all that stuff were saying hey you know uh do you do tours would you take a groove we see your old and my mother believe it or not she was a Spanish and Italian teacher in our local high school and then she also taught at the community college Spanish and Italian uh for like a part-time job

Europe’s Food Mindset And Tavola Tours

SPEAKER_02 42:10

so she used to take students to Italy and France and Spain and all this stuff with the school and when we were kids we had nowhere to stay on the summer vacation so we would go with her we'd be like 12 13 years old going with mom with this group to so it really got me into it like like uh it got me into it but uh I I didn't think of it as a career but years later when people started to bring it up I said you know what I probably could do this I I just sit down I'll talk to mom I'll get some ideas and and uh put some stuff together and I did my first tour to the Amalfi Coast in 2017 I posted it on my Facebook page and I swear to you within like three four weeks I had like a full tour. Wow yeah I didn't and I didn't have a group I didn't have anything I just have people that were like basically Jones in the go to Italy. Sure so so so um I did the I ran I did a beautiful tour and then after that those people started to say well when you go again to another location please let us know uh my my my sister and her family would love to go uh we loved it it was it was so wonderful it was better than the other tours we've done in Italy and and it's so nice to go with the chef you know you're you're you're you're a very approachable guy we can ask questions and and it was just really so whatever long story short it grew grew grew so now Tavila tours if you ever want to check it out it's just www.tavotours.com we're going now to poolia the heel of the boot we're going in September so that is so exciting yeah oh my goodness beautiful group we're gonna go to olive groves we're gonna go to uh uh a uh two wineries we have two awesome cookie class that's the home uh land of our Orchetti pasta speaking of pasta so that's where orcheti comes from and that's where Famous and they have very famous breads. Speaking of breads, they're known for their breads and facaccia. So we're gonna have a bread and focaccia class. So people can go back to the steaks and kind of make their own homemade bread and focaccias if they want. Um, and then we have a beach day, we're on a resort. The weather there is still nice in September, it'll be like high 70s, low 80s every day.

SPEAKER_04 44:22

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 44:22

So you can still go hang on the beach, you can still hang at the pool. So so we yeah, we have so this is the kind of tours I do, and it's all culinary and cultural and educational, and it you know, I put them together, but then I turn it over to the experts there. You have your experts that guide you through everything, and I'm there just to facilitate.

SPEAKER_01 44:42

My husband is gonna be so mad at you. Because he, I'm gonna because I'm gonna I'm gonna tell him today, like, guess what we're doing? Yeah, because truly, all you know, all the joking aside. I'm not even joking, but um uh that sounds so incredible. What an experience to to offer to people uh like myself who have always wanted to do, you know, I I've never been to Italy. I haven't I've never been to Europe. Um and I have not. So I yeah, I I absolutely have to. And that's that that is coming down the road. But what stops me and and probably other people like me um is we don't we don't know where to go, we don't know what to do. So we have to like rely on somebody that we don't really know to tell us where to go. Right. And here you are putting together this uh absolute dream of a package together. The only thing I would say for me, not for somebody else, is can I just watch you guys cook the food and then eat what you yeah, people do do that.

SPEAKER_02 45:48

There's just plenty, there's there's been people that are like, no, I'm not really into cooking, but like, you know, don't worry, and I'll hang out and take pictures, and they they just there's always like one or two people that yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:58

That's I know I'm that I'm that jerk. I'm that jerk that just wants to eat everybody's hard work.

SPEAKER_02 46:03

It's fine. People definitely do that. Yeah, and some of them that weren't into it at the end they say, you know, I really didn't think I was gonna like it, but I really love making that or ketty with my finger.

SPEAKER_01 46:12

And I really Oh, let's see.

SPEAKER_02 46:14

So you never know. Like you might get pulled into it. I would do it.

SPEAKER_01 46:17

I would do it. I would be a big girl and do it. Oh my that sounds so amazing. I I can't oh my goodness. Tell everybody the website again. What's the website for that again?

SPEAKER_02 46:27

Uh Tavila Tours, and it's www.tavila, t-a-v-ol-l-a-tours.com.

SPEAKER_01 46:33

Oh my goodness. So after surviving what you survived and living the life that you've lived since that, which is such a big, full, beautiful life. Um, what do you know about life today that the younger Franco absolutely did not understand?

SPEAKER_02 46:51

I think the the advice, the advice I so to speak, what I would give my younger self would be not to get so hung up on all the little things. You know, like there's so many little things in life that you get hung up on, like, you know, you're bummed that you didn't get this job, or you're bummed that this relationship didn't and then these are all very serious things to to to to be bummed out over, but don't take so long to get back moving again. You know, like life is going by, and you know, I I like many people spend a lot of time licking my wounds rather than going back into life, and and uh I would say, you know, spend your time, heal, and then and then get back into the game and be happy, be you know, be be jubilant about the fact that you're still going, you're still alive. There's plenty of opportunities, and there's plenty of things that'll come your way, and brush yourself off and get out there. And that's kind of like what I would tell myself.

SPEAKER_01 47:47

Yeah, and and uh honestly, that is truly one of the best bits of advice of advice that you could receive. Uh anybody, any one of us could receive, um, because it's just it's so true. Life is so short, it is so fragile. And to spend your time, um, like you said, to use your words, you know, licking your wounds and and just um dwelling on things that don't benefit you, that don't move your life forward, right? Is it's such a waste. And and I think people who experience truly profound um life-changing experiences, 9-11, cancer diagnosis, um, you know, life and death situations, um, that they are they are truly some of the most blessed people on the planet if they understand what you understand, what you know.

SPEAKER_02 48:42

There you go.

SPEAKER_01 48:42

Tell everybody where they can find your books

Life Advice And Where To Find Him

SPEAKER_01 48:45

and your website and all of that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_02 48:50

So you can just go Barnes and Noble and put in cooking cooking inspired, and boom, you can order it anywhere in the States, they'll send it to you in Canada. Um, like I said, I'm going to the Frankfurt book show in October, and hopefully, then therefore we'll reach the European market. I can tell you then where those people could find it. I don't know right now. And my personal website, if you want recipes, if you want to see some great inspirational videos for cooking. Uh I was in Palermo a couple uh about two months ago, and I did some cooking in my in my apartment there. Went to a beautiful outdoor market. Uh, you can see all that stuff on my personal page. It's Franco F-R-A-N-C-O-Lania, like my name on the uh screen here, l-a-n-i-a.com. Beautiful. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:37

Oh my goodness. This was such a joy. I loved talking with you so much and hearing your story. Thank you so much for sharing all of that.

SPEAKER_02 49:45

It's a true pleasure. I really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 49:47

I'm so glad. I'm so glad. All right, everybody, you will have all of those links in the show notes. So you'll be able to click right on them, get right to them. I know that tour is gonna get booked up before I can get to it.

SPEAKER_03 49:58

Oh, please.

SPEAKER_01 50:00

Fine, people be that way. Oh, but thank you again. And uh I just wish you the most tremendous success in everything that you do.

SPEAKER_02 50:10

Likewise. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 50:12

Thank you. Take care.

SPEAKER_02 50:13

Bye. Ciao, ciao, everybody, bye.

SPEAKER_00 50:15

Ciao. You've got a story worth sharing. Now it's time to tell it well. Whether you're an author, entrepreneur, influencer, or podcast guest, stepping in front of the camera or microphone can feel overwhelming. On the other side of the mic is your practical, encouraging guide to becoming a confident, authentic, and engaging interviewee. Written by media personality and best selling author Elsa Kurt, this book blends real world wisdom from hundreds of interviews with a touch of humor, grace, and heart. It's more than a how to, it's a roadmap to presence, professionalism, and peace in every conversation.