Giovanni Rana (born 15 October 1937) is an Italian pasta maker, founder of the Giovanni Rana brand of Italian food products, including refrigerated pasta, sauces, and ready-made dishes. The brand started in 1962 with homemade

tortellini Tortellini is a type of stuffed pasta typical of the Italian cities of Bologna and Modena, in the Emilia-Romagna region. Traditionally it is stuffed with a mix of meat (pork loin, prosciutto, mortadella), Parmesan cheese, egg, and nutmeg and ...

and has since expanded, distributing products in 38 countries.

Life and career

Rana was born on 15 October 1937 in

Cologna Veneta Cologna Veneta is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Verona in the Italy, Italian region Veneto, located about west of Venice and about southeast of Verona. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 8,207 and an area of .All demo ...

, Italy. He joined his brothers at the family bakery in

San Giovanni Lupatoto San Giovanni Lupatoto is a town and ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Verona in the Italian region Veneto, located about west of Venice and about southeast of Verona. San Giovanni Lupatoto borders the following municipalities: Buttapi ...

, Veneto, in 1950 and began making tortellini, personally preparing the pasta and the filling. He began producing pasta and made the deliveries door-to-door with his motorbike. In 1962 Pastificio Rana officially opened its doors. At the beginning the production, the pasta was strictly handmade. Rana himself oversaw its distribution and delivered the tortellini from house to house. With the assistance of local engineers and mechanics, Rana designed and developed new machines to meet the increasing demand for pasta. The machines increased production from about of tortellini an hour to about an hour. In 1971, the factory moved to its current location of San Giovanni Lupatoto. Rana's son Gian Luca (today the CEO of his father's company) joined the company and expanded the brand to other European countries and the US. The first factory in Chicago opened in 2012. In October 2012 the Giovanni Rana pasta company opened its first restaurant in the United States at the

Chelsea Market Chelsea Market is a food hall, shopping mall, office building and television production facility located in the Chelsea neighborhood of the borough of Manhattan, in New York City. The Chelsea Market complex occupies an entire city block with a ...

complex in the Chelsea neighborhood of

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

, New York City. The same year the firm opened a restaurant at

Regent's Place Regent's Place is a mixed-use business, retail and residential quarter on the north side of Euston Road in the London Borough of Camden. The site is bounded by Osnaburgh Street to the west, Longford and Drummond Streets to the north, and Hamps ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, England, which is its first eatery in the United Kingdom.

References

External links

Giovanni Rana's U.S. Web Site

Giovanni Rana Pastificio & Cucina Restaurant in New York

Giovanni Rana Web Site (Italy)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rana, Giovanni Italian pasta companies 1937 births Italian chefs Italian brands Living people People from Cologna Veneta