The Santa Cruz Valley Sun recently wrote a great review on Nonna Vivi and Gasty, the "Pizza Pro".
Pizza Pro Living His DreamREAD THE FULL ARTICLE HERE
By Mike Touzeau, Special to the Santa Cruz Valley Sun
Published Wednesday, May 6, 2009 1:19 AM CDT
He still feels the pain of a youngster’s first failure in the business, but that experience is what drives him to this day to be the best he can be for his customers.
After 26 years in the produce industry in this valley where his family has prospered for 130 years, Gaston Bachelier is finally living a dream of owning his own little corner of restaurant magic, opening Nonna Vivi in Rio Rico in March.
That day at the Rio Rico Resort (now Esplendor) stuck with him all these years, a busboy getting a chance at age 15 to fill in for the chef.
A customer literally threw his steak down in front the boy in anger, and it broke his spirit and his heart.
He studied finance at U of A followed by that long career in the produce business, always dreaming of another chance to build and present something he could find satisfaction in watching loyal patrons enjoy.
“My dream was always to have a little place,” he said, though he thought it would be some kind of burger joint.
Realizing that wasn’t what the area needed, and after a lot of research, study, and consultation with specialty pizza experts all over California and Arizona, he went home one day and built his own brick oven.
Mortgaging their home, he and his wife Claudia, who had already set aside a childhood dream to become a dancer herself in order to support her husband, opened a wood fire pizza business in Nogales.
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