Kimberly Scott November 1, 2008
Damian Mandola has 33 years of restaurant experiences and is in one of the most successful restaurant families. Damian’s Fine Italian Food, was his first restaurant that he opened as a college senior in 1975 at the age of 22.
Damian Mandola
He opened a second restaurant , D’Amico’s in Houston in 1977. He later sold this establishment and founded Damian’s Cucina Italiana in 1984. Which is still around and celebrated it’s 26th anniversary this year. He then from there co-founded Carrabba’s Italian Grill in 1986 with his nephew Johnny Carrabba. In 1993, they started a partnership which was started from the outstanding food quality and customer service from Carrabba’s that caught interest to Florida based Outback Steakhouse Inc. There is currently 250 Carrabba’s Italian Grill locations around the US, with plans for 10 more to open in 2008.
In 2001, Damian and johnny were asked to host the nationally syndicated PBA series “Cucina Amore”. The show had been rated as one of the most popular on PBS. And now there are three companion cookbooks to the first three seasons, “Ciao Ya’ll”, “Ciao Sicily” and their newest “Ciao Tuscany.”
Damian fulfilled a career long dream and opened Mandola’s Italian Market in Austin (2006), then Mandola Estate Winery and Tarttoria Lisina in Driftwood.
Damian has been traveling extensively to his grandparents native Italy and throughout the US for the past 33 years i search of unique italian dishes along with his wonderful recipes from his family. The attention to detail and willingness to offer high levels of customer service led directly to the sucess of Damian’s restaurants.
Mid- 2008 he came to Texas Culinary Academy in order to meet with the students and do a Chef Demo for the students including different styles of fresh pasta and raviolis. He is an uplifting and joyous man full of spirit and decication.
