We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Elise Wiggins a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Elise , appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I grew up in Louisiana…the deep south. As a child my mother would make exciting dinners for us kids such as Carbonara and pair it with photos of her childhood summers spent in Italy. I was mesmerized by the beautifully mountain and lake scenery of Lake Como, Italy. She would tell us of all her wonderful experiences there and the amazing food she ate. I was hooked from then on. I desperately wanted to go to Italy and experience the amazing sights and tastes of this beautiful country. So from that very first dinner about Italy, I set out to become a chef with the ultimate goal of studying in Italy.

I claim that my desire to be a chef was in my “mama’s womb”. I say that I came out with a pair of tongs in one hand and a spatula in the other.

I was always in the kitchen with both parents and grandparents. Consumed with learning all I could.

I have one vivid moment that crystalized why I wanted to be a chef. My mother was making chocolate chip cookies and I was “helping” her. She set me on the counter and put my hands in the raw cookie dough. I can still feel the cold buttery dough with the rough chocolate chips. After she pulled the hot cookies from the oven, she gave me, my sister and dad a fresh hot cookie. This was my first chocolate chip cookie. I remember the endorphenes coursing through my body from the sweet over the top delicious cookie. As I was in my own personal rapture, I saw my family feeling the same sensation. There were eyes rolling with delight and lots of moans of “Lord have mercy” this is so good. It was precisely at this moment I realized that if you make good food, you can please a lot of people at once. I have never looked back from that moment.

It is this passion to make people happy through food that has driven me to become a chef and restaurant owner of a multi award winning restaurant.

Elise , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Cattivella ( means mischievous young girl) is a multi award winning wood fired Italian restaurant. I have spent almost 30 years studying literally all over Italy with many award winning chefs and butchers as well as lil nonnas. There are so many wonderful Italian restaurants in the USA let alone Denver. I wanted to separate myself by learning recipes that no one really does here in the states. Often people will come in and not recognize the menu items unless your are truly Italian and personally know of these rare recipes. I often get Italians asking me “how do you know about these dishes”. It is literally where I ask which ever chef I’m working with to tell me about rare dishes from small little towns that they don’t hear of being served in the states and off I go. Offerings these authentic and rarely known dishes are what sets us apart from other Italian restaurants. We are a place where native Italians and US citizens that have traveled to Italy can enjoy a taste of the old country.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I first started learning to professionally cook in an award winning Italian restaurant with an Italian chef in the Dallas are. This was back in the late 80s early 90. This style of learning was considered “hard knocks” which is how it was done way before culinary schools. I learned that yelling, screaming and degrading was how you “motivated” people to do better. I was dead wrong. My first sous chef position had me learn a hard lesson that being mean to people will never get people to follow and respect you. I literally had 4 cooks walk out on me during a dinner shift because of it. Sadly, I knew deep down that I didn’t like being treated that way but because I and many other cooks I worked with stuck it out, I thought that’s what you do. From that moment forward, I went with how I truly wanted to lead people and that was by nurturing, coaching and continually rewarding for great performances. This has been my winning formula for decades now. I have people that have worked for me from 6 years to 18 years. This is a testament in the restaurant world of what a positive and nurturing environment I provide.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I recently had to pivot my business during the pandemic. In order to save Cattivella from closure, I decided to do take out food of my Louisiana roots. I drove down to my home state and bought 3000 lbs of crawfish to cook for a take out only crawfish boil. It was a huge success and helped my restaurant survive!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.cattivelladenver.com/

Image Credits
Marla Keown