Gabriella & Giovanna Favilli-Vigoreaux Transcript
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Hi, everyone. You're listening to The Future Of Food Is You, a production of The Cherry Bombe Podcast Network. I'm your host, Abena Anim-Somuah, and each week I talk to emerging talents in the food world and they share what they're up to as well as their dreams and predictions for what's ahead. I love this new generation of chefs, bakers, and creatives making their way in the world of food, drink, media, and tech.
Today's guests are Giovanna Favilli and Gabriella Vigoreaux. Gio and Gabi are the duo behind Bandidas Bake Shop, a cafe coming soon to Lakeland, Florida. I talked to the couple about growing up in Nicaragua and Florida, their experiences working in New York City's restaurants and how they want to advocate for LGBTQ plus representation in Florida's culinary scene. Stay tuned for our chat.
Thank you to Kerrygold for supporting The Future Of Food Is You. Kerrygold is the iconic Irish brand famous for its beautiful cheese made with milk from Irish grass-fed cows. It's winter here in New York and lots of other places as you know, and I love to brighten the season with my favorite Kerrygold cheeses. Kerrygold's Cashel Blue Farmhouse cheese has become a staple in my salads. The creamy delicious texture has that distinct blue cheese bite and is the star of my kale and walnut salads. Soup season is also in full swing. Kerrygold has some great recipes on their site and one I have in frequent rotation is roasted broccoli soup with Kerrygold Dubliner with Irish stout cheese. The sweet and nutty flavor and caramel notes take it to the next level, and then the sandwich of the season of course is grilled cheese. Upgrade yours with a Kerrygold Reserve Cheddar, which is sharp, strong, rich, and smooth. For us snackers out there, a personal cheese plate always hits the spot. Kerrygold Skellig, a rich and tangy sweet cheese pairs perfectly with tart apple slices, your favorite crackers or a pickle or two. Look for Kerrygold cheese at your favorite supermarket, specialty grocery store or cheese shop. Visit Kerrygoldusa.com for recipes, product information, and a store locator.
Thank you to everyone who came to our Future Of Food Is You event in Miami. We had a great time at Valerie Chang's restaurant Maty's celebrating the local food scene. I had so much fun meeting all of you, hearing your stories and exploring the city. If you miss this event, don't worry. We'll be announcing more tour stops later this year, so stay tuned for those states and cities. Thank you to our friends at Kerrygold, Walmart, and OpenTable for making this tour stop possible. Now let's check in with today's guests. Gabi, Gio, thank you so much for joining us on The Future Of Food Is You podcast.
Giovanna Favilli-Vigoreaux:
Yeah, thank you for having us.
Gabriella Favilli-Vigoreaux:
Thank you for having us. We're so excited when anyone wants to talk to us.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Perfect. Gabi, we'll start off with you. Can you tell us where you grew up and how did food show up in your life?
Gabriella Favilli-Vigoreaux:
I grew up in central Florida in a town called Winter Haven, which is just a town over from where I live now. It's kind of a town known for its citrus and water-skiing and Lego Land now. So it's kind of this weird mix of small town vibes with a touristy place. So growing up, going out to eat was Chili's, Outback, that kind of thing, but I went to Miami all the time with my parents. They actually moved from Miami a little bit before I was born to Winter Haven, so I still had a lot of family there. So once or twice a month we would drive four hours from Friday to Sunday and just spend our weekends there and that was my version of food paradise. Everything I looked forward to eating was there, like the Latin pastries, always got my birthday cake from this Cuban bakery there. Mamey milkshakes, all the tropical fruit, but we always got a big box of empanadas for the four-hour drive home.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Best road trip snack ever.
Gabriella Favilli-Vigoreaux:
Yeah.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Was there one place in Miami that if you were to drive back down right now you'd go to?
Gabriella Favilli-Vigoreaux:
My parents have a place there, so we still go and there is a gas station kind of near their apartment called El Carajo, which kind of like the crap hole and,-
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Makes sense.
Gabriella Favilli-Vigoreaux:
In the gas station there's a little Latin bakery and a tapas restaurant within the gas station and we'll always just get our empanadas, get our quad pastries, get our croquetas.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
How about you Gio? Where did you grow up and how did food show up in your life?
Giovanna Favilli-Vigoreaux:
I grew up in Lakeland where we live now, right dead center of Florida between Tampa, Orlando, 30 minutes from Winter Haven where Gabi grew up. My mom just cooked every night, didn't matter how long of hours she was working during the day, she was still going to cook us a meal at the end of the day. Nicaraguan food, both my parents are from Nicaragua, so I got to kind of grow up seeing that. She didn't really want help in the kitchen, but I did watch her all the time. Really inspired me. I feel like I gained a lot from that. And then we spent our summers in Nicaragua on my family's farm visiting my family. So I kind of made that connection of where food comes from, all the hard work it takes to get the ingredients and the fruit and the vegetables and that was just super inspiring for me and I think that was my connection to food.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
That sounds like a dream. What were some of the crops that were growing on your family's farm?
Giovanna Favilli-Vigoreaux:
Right now largely pitaya and achiote and,-
Abena Anim-Somuah:
So that's the chili. And what's pitaya?
Giovanna Favilli-Vigoreaux:
Oh, pitaya. Dragon fruit.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Oh, very cool.
Giovanna Favilli-Vigoreaux:
Yeah. But in Nicaragua, it's a really nice purple violet color.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yeah.
Giovanna Favilli-Vigoreaux:
Really beautiful. When I was younger I feel like we had a lot more, had a lot more coffee. We had a lime that, Tahiti, that's what it was called, Tahiti. And it was just a specific lime that is the best lime in the world. It doesn't matter what lime I try to get here, it does not compare. Makes the best ceviche.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Wow. Even better than a key lime?
Giovanna Favilli-Vigoreaux:
Yeah. Yes, yes. Naranja agria. We grew lots of naranja agria, sour orange, and then we had lots of cows, lots of cows and ponies that I used to love to ride until I got too big and the ponies were like, get off of me.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
We're retiring.
Giovanna Favilli-Vigoreaux:
Yes.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yeah.
Giovanna Favilli-Vigoreaux:
Yeah.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
So before you moved back home to Florida, you both went to culinary school and spent a lot of time working in restaurants around New York. Gio, we'll start with you. What was the decision that sparked you to go to culinary school?
Giovanna Favilli-Vigoreaux:
School and the way I was trying to learn in school was just not my vibe. I was not doing that great. I was really struggling to find my purpose in college. I felt really lost and I always had that connection to food. I feel like for the longest time I thought it was a hobby or something I just liked to do and it made me happy. But there was a switch where I was like, I need to figure out what I'm going to be doing for the rest of my life that's going to make me happy but also successful and make me feel like I have purpose. And I kind of took that chance and was like, let's try culinary school. I don't think you have to do culinary school, but for me it was amazing. It was perfect. I felt very comfortable in that setting. I thrive when I can see somebody doing something and I learned that way the best. It was great for me. I feel like I gained so many skills and confidence just going to culinary school.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
How about you Gabi? What was your experience like?
Gabriella Favilli-Vigoreaux:
I definitely feel like I learned a lot of the techniques in culinary school, but I did not thrive in the environment at all. I was not a structured person at the time. I didn't like the way that I was spoken to, like even by instructors who were probably just trying to mimic the way that we're going to get spoken to when we go work in restaurants, but I was like, I don't like this. I also started freelance writing around the same time that I went to culinary school and I knew that I wanted to combine the two somehow. So got actually my first job at Cherry Bombe when it was a baby and then from that went to work at test kitchens, which was a whole different type of education. I learned that I couldn't be so chaotic and impulsive about what I was doing. It was a very slow and methodical process and trying to develop recipes that anybody can replicate no matter where they are and what they have. And I feel like that is actually where I learned that I liked baking more than cooking.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
And so when you guys both moved back to Florida, you decide to host your own pop-ups. Can you tell us a little bit about those individual pop-ups and what you were serving? And Gabi, we'll start with you.
Gabriella Favilli-Vigoreaux:
I moved home after eight years in New York for what I thought was going to be a temporary period of time that ended up not being temporary at all and then the pandemic happened, so it was really permanent and I knew that I needed to do something to make money. I didn't even have a driver's license at the time and I was living with my parents. I got the idea overnight that I was going to start an empanada company. It all came to me in one day, like the name, the vibe, the inaugural empanada flavor, like everything. So I started with a beef and plantain empanada, that was my mom's recipe and I knew that I wanted it to be a baked empanada, not a fried one. And I knew that the dough was something,-
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Healthy.
Gabriella Favilli-Vigoreaux:
Yeah. I prefer that style. I think it's like the Argentinian style and the empanadas that I grew up making and eating were mostly the kind where you buy the pre-made shell, like the Goya shell or whatever, and then you fry it, which is no dis on that. I love those, but I knew that I wanted the dough to be just as good as the filling.
So I spent a few months in my parents' kitchen just pumping out empanadas and my mom's a party planner, which was very convenient because she was hyping me up to all her clients and everybody was ordering empanadas from me and it turned into a few flavors. And I ended up actually finding an incubator, a shared kitchen space in Lakeland that helped small businesses get started with their licensing and everything. So I got my driver's license just so that I could drive the 30 minutes to Lakeland every day and go work in this shared kitchen and legitimize the business, which I named Vicky G's, which was kind of like a spin on my name, which is Gabriella Victoria. But I didn't want to call it anything that people,-
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yeah.
Gabriella Favilli-Vigoreaux:
It's too much pressure to be like Gabi's Empanadas.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yeah.
Gabriella Favilli-Vigoreaux:
It was like an alter ego.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yeah, it's like your nom de plume, your Sasha Fierce,-
Gabriella Favilli-Vigoreaux:
Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yeah. That's awesome.
Gabriella Favilli-Vigoreaux:
Exactly.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
How about you Gio? I know you also had something similar to what Gabi was clicking up.
Giovanna Favilli-Vigoreaux:
Yeah, it was called Casita Verde. I just served Nicaraguan food. I felt like there was so much that I grew up with knowing this food and loving this food and not many people know about it. There aren't many cookbooks about it. There aren't many restaurants. I was like, this is what I'm supposed to do. I'm supposed to bring this food to the table and have my community experience it. I do think it was a little hard at first in trying to get people to try different things and I started realizing that it would be easier at the farmer's market. Instead of calling something a buñuelo, maybe a fritter and this is a fritter, come try this fritter, things like that. Slowly people started trying it, people started liking it and it was nice and it was fun. Yeah.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
You find like living together, you're both kind of working on your individual projects and it kind of sparks like, Hey, you're baking, I'm cooking. Why don't we decide to do something together? So you decide to open this new bakery. Gio, can you tell us a little bit about what sparked the decision to open the bakery and work on this project together?
Giovanna Favilli-Vigoreaux:
When we finally moved in together, we kind of just started realizing how ridiculous it was that we were paying two market fees and two bills at the kitchen incubator and two licensing fees when we were collaborating so often and doing pop-ups together. So we kind of took the time to think about if we wanted to keep doing these two businesses or just combine and make something new. We decided on doing that and yeah, I feel like it was for the best.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
And then Gabi, why did you decide to call it Bandidas? I love the name. I think it's so, so great. Yeah.
Gabriella Favilli-Vigoreaux:
So when we were trying to figure out what to call this new business that now included both of us, we were throwing a lot of names on the table and Gio actually is the one who threw out the term Bandidas and for me it was a movie with Penelope Cruz and Salma Hayek like fighting crime in the wild, wild west. That was my association. So I was like, love it, totally fits. And she explained to me that it's like a term of endearment that her family called her when she was younger. It's like a word that you would call somebody when they're doing something they're not supposed to be doing, like sticking your hand in the cookie jar.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Based on seeing your work, it seems like it's going to be a really warm place, but I would love to hear how you're thinking about the atmosphere of the bakery. Gabi, we'll start with you.
Gabriella Favilli-Vigoreaux:
The bakery itself is very much an extension of us. We're planning on filling it with plants and art and just things that are very personal to us. We just had my cousin fly in from New York and she painted this really beautiful mural in the hallway of all these trees from,-
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Oh, how beautiful.
Gabriella Favilli-Vigoreaux:
Nicaragua and Puerto Rico and Florida, and it's just this wild, crazy zany, like not to scale picnic scene of all these cakes under pitaya trees and it's wild. We love it. And yeah, I feel like the food, the menu just reads like a biography of our lives. There's a lot of family recipes that have made their way to the menu, things that we learned in New York, dishes that we have developed for previous jobs and then a lot of things that we're trying to recreate from memory where we don't even have any written recipes for them.
A lot of the recipes that Gio tries to describe to me from Nicaragua, like there's no written representation of them anywhere and she describes it and we try to develop it based on a memory and I've obviously never had these things, so I just think it's all delicious. It's just all really personal and I think that we have a big focus on seasonality with our baking, which is something that we're still trying to get people to be more open-minded to because it's one big hot swampy season around here and people tend to lean towards more convenience and uniformity in their diet and they don't understand why we don't have something in the summer that we have in the winter when you can still buy those things. And it's just something that we're trying to open up people's minds to and something we miss a lot about New York.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Let's take a quick break and we'll be right back. Thank you to SIMPLi for supporting The Future Of Food Is You. SIMPLi is a leading regenerative food brand. Co-founded by bombe squad members Sarela Herrada that has a mission to connect people around the world through the joy of food. SIMPLi sources grains, beans, legumes, oils, spices, and super foods directly from farms throughout South America and Europe. These elevated pantry essentials are single origin, flavorful and nutrient dense. Plus they benefit producers, people and the planet. I love a mission-driven food company and admire SIMPLi's commitment to restoring flawed food systems and preserving mother earth for future generations. These products are well-loved by home cooks and chefs and are sold in some of your favorite grocery stores across the country like Whole Foods. Plus their ingredients are used in restaurants, meal kits, meal delivery services and more. Try some of their regenerative organic certified products like their gigante beans sourced from Kastoria, Greece in your next winter soup or veggie stew. Their Peruvian chia seeds in the chia seed pudding or their Andean Valley chickpeas blended into a delicious hummus. SIMPLi products are a sustainable way to experience flavors from around the world on your plate. Visit Eatsimpli.com to read more about their mission, learn where their farms are located, see their full product catalog and find them in a retail store near you. That's eat, S-I-M-P-L-I.com.
What have been some of the most challenging parts of the business and what have been some of the most rewarding parts of the business? And maybe we'll start with Gio.
Giovanna Favilli-Vigoreaux:
I think people have tried to pigeonhole us into one specific thing or tell us what we should be making, or tell us how our business should look, or what the vibe should be or there's so much pressure around that and I feel like it was hard and has been hard to have people trust our vision. I'm not quite sure what the disconnect there was, but I feel like that was the biggest challenge we had, was just having people trust our vision and that we kind of knew what we were doing even if we didn't really, we did for the most part and we trusted that whatever we were going to make was going to be great. The journey was, it took forever to get to this point it feels like. And I'm so glad we got over those challenges. It makes it that much better to look back at the journey and see how far we've grown and how we were able to face those people trying to pigeonhole us and push forward and advance.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Well then Gabi, I guess I'll put this question to you. What advice would you give to someone who is facing a similar challenge and how do you ignore the naysayers and just focus on what you really want to build?
Gabriella Favilli-Vigoreaux:
I think for us we just find somebody who understands your vision to the core that you can lean on, and luckily that's built in for us. I always had Gio and she always had me and we have our families. And I feel like a lot of the naysaying has come from people believing that we lack a concept and that hurts when your product is so personal to you because it sounds like you're not enough, we're not enough, we need to fill the needs of somebody else. And people see two Spanish-speaking girls out there at the market and they're like, "Do you have a Cuban sandwich?" And we say, "No, we don't make that." And also there's a lot of places,-
Abena Anim-Somuah:
So neither of you are Cuban.
Gabriella Favilli-Vigoreaux:
Neither of us are Cuban. And also, there's a lot of places to get that here, but this is something new. And just getting people to push out of their comfort zone and try something new and just trust us. And I think we thought that that was going to be a lot easier considering that we're both from here and coming back, we maybe were naive and thinking that it was going to be a small pond kind of situation, but we live in a small city that is rapidly growing and there's a lot of competition. The rents are insane and there's a lot of people trying to do the same things and just getting people to trust us has been really hard, but I think that we just never lost sight of what we wanted and I think that we honestly just manifested this next chapter for ourselves because the perfect space just kind of landed in our lap right when we were about to throw in the towel. So it was kind of like a sign from the universe like,-
Abena Anim-Somuah:
To keep going.
Gabriella Favilli-Vigoreaux:
Don't stop. Yeah.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Another reality of running a business is raising capital. It's no joke. And especially for a brick and mortar space. I'm curious how you guys were able to raise the funds for the space and how did you sort of lean on each other for support as you were getting money to sign a lease and work on a build or bring other people into the process to help make your dream happen?
Gabriella Favilli-Vigoreaux:
I mean, when we tell you that Bandidas is a family business, we mean that in every sense of the word. Every member on both sides of our family has thrown so much money and time into building our legacy of this bake shop. We have our mom's cleaning probably right now while we're here in the shop, our dads doubling as accountants. We have our brothers-in-law building our pastry counter and our furniture for the shop. It's very scrappy and our entire family is involved. At the end of the day, we don't trust anyone else. There was a time when we were considering having investors, but it's just, nobody gets the vision like family. And when you are lucky enough to have a family that is supporting you and helping you achieve your dreams, that's just amazing. So we wouldn't be here without them. And we've also been looking for a really long time, so we had the opportunity to save and we're in a strip mall, so the rent is not that bad.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
We love a strip mall bakery situation. I'm just amazed at how much time you guys have because you're working on the business, but then you both also have your own literary projects. I know Gabi, you had some experience in editorial and you have your Substack, Cool Beans and Gio, you have your zine Paloma. I want to learn more about how both of these projects are inspiring you right now when it comes to what you're working on. Gio, we can start with you.
Giovanna Favilli-Vigoreaux:
I started Paloma during the pandemic. I had just moved back from New York and there was literally nothing I could do. I did not have a job anymore. I was living with my parents and we couldn't even leave the house, so I was like, what a perfect time to start this zine that I've been wanting to do. And honestly, living in New York inspired it. I used to go to this bookstore called Quimby's on Metropolitan Avenue and they had a huge selection of zines and I got obsessed. This little like photocopied book just had this huge expression of voices that you don't really get to hear all that much, and it was just so authentic and unique. I just thought it was fun and I was like, I feel like this would be something I would really enjoy putting my thoughts and creativity into. And I started it, literally stamped every cover, stapled everything.
I don't know why I couldn't figure out how to print double-sided. So like the first copy, I literally glued the papers together so that it would be double-sided. It was very janky, but I really enjoyed it and I kind of curated different people's voices and it had recipes, and music playlists, and art, and I would contribute some photojournalism. Gabi would contribute poems and writing. Gabi is an amazing writer. It just kind of helps me detach from everything else we're doing and sometimes it can be a little stressful but not as stressful as everything else, so it's a nice little break and a fun little way to be creative.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yeah, I love that. And it's still connected to some part of your culture and maybe takes the pressure off really trying to build something perfect.
Giovanna Favilli-Vigoreaux:
Totally.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
And yeah Gabi, I'm sure Substack has, I feel like Substack has blown up in the last year. Everyone and their grandma has one, so I'm curious how you're keeping things going on there.
Gabriella Favilli-Vigoreaux:
I actually didn't really know what it was. And the Cool Beans, it's not my Substack. I was hired to write a weekly, this like column for a Substack called Cool Beans, which is aimed at sustainability in the kitchen and trying to reduce our footprint through the things that we eat and the things that we cook. The editors of Cool Beans found me through some freelance work I had been doing for Savoir and they called me out of the blue. I had said that I didn't want to take on any more projects, but the pay was really good where we were a pop-up food business. I was like, if I can just pump out a recipe a week and we can make extra money and it can help us in the long run with Bandidas, which it has. It's actually been great because it's gotten both of us to really change the way that we approach cooking at home.
We definitely eat a lot less meat now. We're always focused on utilizing our food waste and that's something that can carry over to the bake shop as well. And it's made us realize how few restaurants in our area are focused on sustainability at all. Our town just announced that they're stopping recycling this year, so it's just kind of crazy. But we did find a local nursery, a tropical plant nursery that we're going to be dropping off our compost to, so it's all carrying over and hopefully we can set a precedent for other restaurants in our area.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
You got to be the change, be the sustainable change you want to see, right?
Gabriella Favilli-Vigoreaux:
Yeah.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Florida is often in the news, sometimes for good things, sometimes they're not so great things. And as an LGBTQ plus couple in Florida, I'm really curious to hear how you hope that your work inspires those in queer culinary communities because I think queerness and food are so intersected. And food has just been a relief and a sense of joy and family for a lot of people in the queer community.
Gabriella Favilli-Vigoreaux:
I feel very lucky that I moved to New York when I was young. I was 22 when I started doing work with Cherry Bombe, and I feel like I did not have the same experience that a lot of queer people in kitchens had. I was surrounded by queer chefs and I knew a lot of them through Kerry and through the magazine and through the industry. And I really do feel like being able to see myself and seeing other people in those positions, I never doubted that I could do it. The road was paved for me. I do feel a sense of responsibility to continue paying it forward and continue speaking out about it, even if it's not something that I'm normally comfortable talking about, especially living in a small conservative town.
It is important to be vocal about it and just let people know like, hey, this is a safe space. We really do lean on other queer businesses in our community, food related or not for things like that. And yeah, just representation is everything for both of us. I mean, we both left the towns we grew up in because we didn't see ourselves and now we're back. We want other people to be able to see themselves in what we're doing.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
That's really special. And Gio, what do you think the future holds for queer-owned businesses based on what you've been working on and based on what you're seeing?
Giovanna Favilli-Vigoreaux:
Yeah, I just hope there's more of us and I hope it's successful for everybody. I think opening up a bakery or a restaurant or a business is super hard already. And I think being queer, especially in a state or a town that is conservative, there's a bunch of challenges, more challenges that get presented. So I hope with more of us being out there and having successful businesses, we can just help each other out, have a community, help other people, mentor. Although we have faced our challenges and it's been hard to connect with people, we have had mentors who have helped us and made us feel supported and it's everything. And I hope to be that for somebody. And growing up in Lakeland, it was hard because I didn't really see myself anywhere, and you feel lost and then that contributes to other aspects of your life and you don't really have confidence and you're just trying to figure everything out.
And going to New York and being in a work setting where I did see somebody like me, or even just like on the street or on the subway, seeing other people that I felt like I could identify with really put into perspective how important it is to see yourself in somebody else. I'm not trying to lead anything or be this big face of anything, but I just hope that if there's somebody younger, like my past self, they can look at us and know that they can be successful. And they can do whatever they want and they can be in a loving relationship and have a family and a business and thrive in their community.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
We're huge manifesters on the podcast. So I would love to know if there's any dream guest, queer or not that you'd love to visit the bakery one day?
Gabriella Favilli-Vigoreaux:
We love Melissa King.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Oh. Oh, yes.
Giovanna Favilli-Vigoreaux:
Melissa King.
Gabriella Favilli-Vigoreaux:
We love her. We hope she knows we exist. Our wedding was in the issue of Cherry Bombe that she's on the cover of. So maybe she knows about us. Come to the swamp.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
What do you think the future holds for Florida's culinary landscape and how do you think it contributes to America at large, specifically with what you're working on? I guess Gabi, we'll start with you.
Gabriella Favilli-Vigoreaux:
Florida, we get a bad rap in the press, but you can't deny,-
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Florida man.
Gabriella Favilli-Vigoreaux:
Yeah, Florida man. You can't deny that our food history and culture is very rich, very diverse. And I mean in North Florida you have a lot of crossover from the deep South, so you have a lot of soul food and southern food, Creole food, and where we live in central Florida, it's very produce driven. We love a strawberry fair, a strawberry festival, an orange fair. We love that. And then of course in South Florida you have just all the beautiful Latin cuisine and just immigrant cuisine. And I feel like what's kind of sad is that you start to see, this is a very touristy state and in Miami, I feel like especially you're starting to see a lot of these big restaurants from New York come and open new restaurants in Florida and it's kind of turning into this thing and all this smaller restaurants can't really survive, raising rents. And I hope that the future of Florida looks like people coming here and seeking out those smaller businesses and not just the hot, trendy, third location of a restaurant that's not from Florida and,-
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yeah, it's like the Vegas location of it all. Yeah.
Gabriella Favilli-Vigoreaux:
Yeah. So that's what I hope the future looks like.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
How about you, Gio?
Giovanna Favilli-Vigoreaux:
Yeah, ditto.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Love it.
Giovanna Favilli-Vigoreaux:
We're still redeveloping our love affair with Florida and what that means to us. We're very much in the process.
Gabriella Favilli-Vigoreaux:
Yes.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
I'm always so fascinated by couples that live together, work together, build businesses together. I would love to hear, how do you guys take care of yourself outside of working on Bandidas?
Gabriella Favilli-Vigoreaux:
We do do a lot together, but I think in terms of hobbies, we're very different, I would say. But we both like to be outside and we both play tennis. We have a poodle. We like to take her to the trails. We have some beautiful trails around us. We like to go camping. I picked up distance running since the pandemic, and that's something that I've become really passionate about. It's something I look forward to our day off where I can go on a really long run and just listen to a podcast or three and count all the critters I see, count the birds and the gators and think about recipes and stuff like that. We're actually about to go on vacation. We'll be going to Puerto Rico to visit my family and to do a half Iron Man. So I don't know how many people would count that as a vacation, but we're very excited.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Yeah. That's awesome. I would love to hear how you hope to grow as individuals and what you think the future is for Bandidas in the next, let's say five years. Gio, we'll start with you.
Giovanna Favilli-Vigoreaux:
I hope I can grow into myself, find more confidence, figure out a balance, a healthy balance of work, and caring for myself and others. I tend to put myself on the back burner sometimes. I feel like work is just going to get crazier and I really got to focus on figuring out how to have that balance and knowing my worth and loving myself and loving what I'm doing and yeah, being confident. I hope I can get there.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
You got it. How about you Gabi?
Gabriella Favilli-Vigoreaux:
Yeah, I think we both have a lot of imposter syndrome when it comes to what we do, and I think that's natural because we, like I was saying earlier, we left a place that we felt uncomfortable in and found ourselves back, and I think that we're always going to be striving for that peace, that we don't have to give up the comforts of family and of home to live our authentic lives and be ourselves. We can have both of those things in the same place, and if we can just inspire other people, especially queer people to be who they want to be, live where they want to live and not give that up, then it was all worth it and we're in the process of doing that right now, so.
Giovanna Favilli-Vigoreaux:
Yeah.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
I love it. I think sometimes it's hard to see the forest within the trees, but I will say from this side, I think what you're doing is exceptional and I wish you lots of success and I can't wait to come down to Lakeland and have a tennis and pastry day and yeah,
Gabriella Favilli-Vigoreaux:
There's tennis court right across the street from the bakery.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Oh my gosh. Please. Maybe I'll just camp out there for a month or two. Well, Gabi and Gio, if we want to continue to support you, we're the best places to find you.
Gabriella Favilli-Vigoreaux:
You can follow us on Instagram.
Giovanna Favilli-Vigoreaux:
Yes. At Bandidas Bake shop.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
And when's the opening day?
Giovanna Favilli-Vigoreaux:
Sometime in April is the goal.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Great. Awesome. Congratulations and thank you so much for this conversation.
Giovanna Favilli-Vigoreaux:
Thank you so much.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
Before we go, our guests are going to leave a voicemail just talking to themselves 10 years from now. You have reached The Future Of Food Is You mailbox. Please leave a message after the beep.
Gabriella Favilli-Vigoreaux:
Hey, Gabs, it's me, your 33-year-old self calling to check in. You're not picking up, you're probably at the bake shop, but I just wanted to say I'm proud of you. You did it. You found your home in the same place you once tried to run from. You did it your own way and on your own terms, and with the love of your life and your family by your side. You've inspired so many young queer folk to fight for their right to be exactly where they want to be. It's been a long journey to get to where you are now, but I know that you're not tired. I know you're always dreaming of the next thing, and I can't wait to be you and see what else we do. Just don't forget to stay present and enjoy the now. Remember, you have everything you've always wanted minus the second poodle, which hopefully you've gotten by now. I love you so much, Gabs. Stay hungry.
Giovanna Favilli-Vigoreaux:
Hello, my sweet Giovanna, it's 2024 and you and Gabriella are weeks away from opening Bandidas. I hope you can look back at this time and smile at how young and scrappy we were, how you managed to stay true to yourself no matter how difficult that was. I hope all the challenges you've been facing during this process have helped you grow and realize you can do anything you set your mind to, like literally anything. I hope you've learned to give yourself some grace and be patient with yourself. Remember, mistakes aren't the end of the world. I also hope you've stayed as curious as you've always been, and that you know your worth. You are worthy of so much more than you think. I hope at this point you finally believe that. Keep spreading love to those around you. But most importantly, remember to love yourself.
Abena Anim-Somuah:
That's it for today's show. Thank you to Kerrygold and SIMPLi for supporting today's show. The Future Of Food Is You is a production of The Cherry Bombe Podcast Network. Thanks to the team at CityVox Studios, executive producers Kerry Diamond and Catherine Baker, associate producer Jenna Sadhu, and editorial assistant London Crenshaw. Catch you on the future flip.