Kids in the Kitchen

We spoke to three restaurant owners about the value of teaching your children about their heritage, the value of a dollar, and how to cook for yourself (or at least how to clean up afterwards).

Almazonica Cerveceria & Peruvian Eatery is an exotic oasis inside a strip mall off Tamiami Trail just south of Bee Ridge Road. The space is a restaurant, a bar, and a microbrewery featuring richly colored murals and ambient lighting—it’s not hard to see that this is a Darwin Santa Maria joint. Spend some time here and you’re bound to see every member of the Santa Maria family. Darwin’s wife, Lellys, runs the office and day to day operations. She’s also the main cook at home. “My wife keeps us fed and healthy at home. She makes lots of salads and shakes and juices.” On Sundays, however, Darwin helms the grill and barbecues with the kids.

Darwin has taught all three of his children to cook. Joaquin is their oldest at 15 and he loves being in the kitchen. He enjoys working with pastries and often handles the ceviche station. On New Year’s Eve he stepped out from behind the line to oversee the host stand. Their youngest son, Ferran, 12, is more of a numbers guy. “He can cook but he’s not passionate about it—he’d rather keep an eye on the sales.”

Ferran’s twin sister, Alyah, is far more passionate about cooking. “She’s been able to cook for herself since she was 5. She can debone a whole fish and she has an excellent palate. She could differentiate between different spices from the time she was 3.” Alyah sometimes helps with prep before the restaurant opens but she’s not involved in service. “She doesn’t want to be in the industry; she wants to be a doctor.”

Every summer the Santa Maria children go back to the jungles of Peru and spend time with Darwin’s family. “They don’t have Wi-Fi. They stay for a month and a half or so—they end up with invaluable experiences and stories to share with their friends.” The whole family is hoping to travel to Japan one day—mostly for the food.

“Everything involved with food is very important to me. Food brings families, friends, and even enemies together. I want to teach my kids the value of hard work, responsibility, and community. Through the love of food, they can learn about their culture and history and pass it on to others. I’ve learned from my mistakes in business, in cooking, and in life and I want to use this to help them.”

> Almazonica Cerveceria & Peruvian Eatery: almazonicacerveceria.com

Bevardi’s Salute Chef Laszlo Bevardi and his wife, Ottilia, are tremendously proud of their daughters Blanka, 15, and Csenge, 13. After spending a couple of afternoons with the whole family it’s easy to see why: Both girls are unfailingly polite, straight-A students, and student athletes. The family has two successful but wildly divergent restaurant businesses: Bevardi’s Salute, which is a sprawling artisanal Italian restaurant on the corner of Main Street and Lemon Avenue in Downtown Sarasota; and Lido Island Grill at the Lido Beach Pavilion, which is more like an open-air food court at the beach featuring live music, frozen drinks, and tasty beach eats like lobster rolls and mahi mahi salads.

Blanka and Csenge have helped at both restaurants, but the girls spend most weekends at Lido Island Grill. Blanka wants to be a business owner, or maybe an inventor— both girls love “Shark Tank.” She designed the logo for Lido Island Grill. Blanka has fond memories of cooking with her parents. She feels that she and her sister have benefitted from being taught early on to respect food and culture.

“I’m thankful for the great experiences we’ve enjoyed speaking with adults about food. I feel like our maturity level is higher because we’ve been able to bond over a shared love of more sophisticated food.” Laszlo points out that both girls were eating sushi and olives and capers and oysters from a very young age. Ottilia made their baby food herself and as they got older, she didn’t differentiate between adult food and kids’ food. She didn’t cook separate meals. “We never utilized the kids menu at any restaurant. They didn’t want it.”

Csenge loves to cook; she makes amazing fried rice and recently blew the whole family away by making perfect French macarons. This is what happens when cooking shows are the background noise at home. “We don’t just eat because we’re hungry; we take the time to savor and enjoy and be grateful.”

Gratitude is a theme for the Bevardi family. Laszlo and Ottilia met in Philadelphia but they’re both from Hungary and they take the girls back whenever they can. “We came from communism; our childhood was harder, but we want out children to understand the value of a dollar and we respect that they want to work.”

> Bevardi’s Salute: salutesarasota.com

Andrea’s: The Art of Food and Wine occupies a small space across from the Southgate Mall and next to the post office on Siesta Drive. Andrea Bozzolo’s delectable Italian cuisine won’t be the only draw when he opens his new wine and pizza bar Mal Mosto, with partner Rossella Savinelli, in the space next door in a few months.

Andrea’s sons Damiano, 18, and Sebastien, 16, have been fixtures at Andrea’s since the beginning. The sweet little boys have grown into polite, hardworking young men and Andrea keeps them close. Damiano is now serving tables after years of bussing and helping to set tables. Sebastien has been bussing for about a year and a half. Andrea says that the boys work in lieu of an allowance. He laughs, “They want to make their own money and this way they don’t give me a hard time.”

Andrea says that the boys are adventurous eaters, willing to try everything. They’ve been fortunate enough to sample all the homemade pasta and bread on offer at Andrea’s, but he has also made it a point to send them to Lago Maggiore in Italy to stay with their grandparents every year. Lago Maggiore is one of Italy’s breathtaking lake districts and it’s easy to understand why Andrea said that Damiano made a sacrifice for the family this past summer. “Only Sebastien went this summer; I needed Damiano with me at the restaurant.”

I asked Andrea if he would ever recommend that his sons work on a cruise ship like he did when he was a young man. His response? “No way, no good.”

> Andrea’s: andreasrestaurantsrq.com