Today, Chris and his dedicated culinary team operate Alfresco Pasta as a unique, small-batch artisan pasta kitchen with big capabilities, sourcing local ingredients, collaborating with chef and retail clients and delivering hand-crafted quality and taste to kitchens across the country.
About Us
OUR SECRET INGREDIENTS
Our Story
After more than two decades spent opening and operating restaurant and catering businesses around the country, Executive Chef Chris Grissom realized his lifelong dream: to create his own successful hand-crafted artisan specialty foods company. Chris founded Alfresco Pasta in in Nashville, Tennessee the spring of 2000, and quickly built a solid reputation and an impressive customer list across the Southeast.
Saverio
Culinary Specialist
Saverio Castellucci
Sav brings incredible culinary talent to the Alfresco Pasta kitchen. Born in Rome, Italy, Sav was brought up surrounded by authentic Italian food and has extensive knowledge and history in making pasta. At the age of 18 he moved to Chicago with his family and started out working in a small business. He opened three restaurants in Chicago and just recently settled in Nashville. In his free he enjoys listening to live acts, acting, and playing sports.
Barry
Chef
Barry McKnight
Barry brings to the alfresco team a lighthearted happiness that is contagious to everyone surrounding him. He joined the Alfresco team this summer and works in production and packaging. Barry is a Nashville native, he has two daughters and a little boy. In his free time he likes to play basketball, pool and loves to bowl. He is surrounded by family in Nashville as his brother and sister, both of whom have their own children, live in the city as well.
Marvin
Chef
Marvin Dowlen
Marvin was born and raised in Cheatham County, a small town about twenty minutes outside of Nashville. He loves that everybody knows everybody in his hometown and that they are centrally located between Nashville, Clarksville, Ashland City and Springfield. Marvin enjoys cooking and worked in the food service industry prior to joining the Alfresco team about a year and a half ago. Now known as the “Dough Master” Marvin is responsible for creating perfect pasta dough. Each day the climate and condition change, and the recipes must be adapted according to humidity along with all the subtleties that have an effect on the pasta. Marvin is known as the “Dough Master” because he meticulously cracks the fresh eggs, mixes the flour and adjusts the ingredients to make the pasta dough foolproof each and every day.
Suzie
Accountant
Suzie Robinson
Suzie Robinson, a freelance bookkeeper is a part of our team one day each week. She manages our Accounts Payables, Accounts Receivables and our Payroll. Suzie has spent many years in property management, construction management and honing her accounting skills with a Nashville based accounting firm. Born and raised in Kentucky, she now resides with her husband in Franklin, TN. They have two grown daughters and five beautiful grandchildren.
Our Community
We recognize that no successful business gets there alone, and we wouldn’t be where we are today without
our "dream team" of committed, community minded partners.
Birdsong Creative
Birdsong Creative is a unique branding and web design company made up of a team of thinkers, programmers, marketers, writers, and graphic designers. They create storyboards for local businesses, enabling them to make their creative journeys come to life.
Edible Nashville
Edible Nashville is a local magazine dedicated to telling the stories of farmers, artisans, chefs, restaurants, home cooks, and gardeners throughout Nashville. They are drawn to the people behind the vibrant local food movement in the community and hone in on their stories, photograph their journeys and share delicious recipes.
Agnelli Macchine
Agnelli Macchine is a second generation family run business located in Busselton, Italy. They make handcrafted, artisan, custom order pasta machinery, designed for making pasta in the true Italian tradition. They value working with other small businesses and nurturing the spirit of entrepreneurship.
National Rustic
When it was time to design a custom dining table for our test kitchen, we wanted a timeless piece made by true local craftspeople. We got that and so much more.
PeachDish
We love creating dishes with PeachDish because their business DNA is very similar to our own. We’re not just collaborators and suppliers for PeachDish, we’re also customers!
Dominioni Group
Dominioni is a high technology pasta machinery manufacturer that prides itself in unbeatable quality and precision in their machinery. Located in northern Italy, they are a leading force in the industry, dedicated to creating high quality machines to make high quality pasta.
Ron Manville Photography
Ron Manville is a renowned Nashville based photographer with an extensive portfolio in fashion & beauty, music, lifestyle, food & beverage, and indoor & outdoor photography. He believes "less is more" and is drawn to images that are graphically strong and simplistic.
Pick Tennessee
Through these partnerships, and many others, we are proud to be recognized by Pick Tennessee, a function of the Tennessee Department of Agriculture which aims to help in “living local better”. We couldn’t agree more!
Welcome to Your New Pasta Kitchen:
Ready to create something special for your menu? We are, too.
Visit our Test Kitchen for a tasting tour or contact us to get started.