Carmella, Owner & Pasta Maker at Melina’s Fresh Pasta, grew up in an Italian-American family in Syracuse, NY. The first to be born in the United States, she longed for a connection to the country where every other member of her family was from. After years of watching her mother make homemade Italian food with ingredients from her father’s backyard garden, she wanted to share the Italian tradition of food made from scratch with care and served with love to family and friends. In 2010, she travelled to Bologna, Italy to supplement the Southern Italian cooking lessons of her mother and learn the Northern Italian tradition of fresh pasta making. Upon her return, she started Melina’s Fresh Pasta – the only small pasta manufacturer in the area – working from her garage until 2017 when Melina’s expanded to a retail shop in Durham. In 2024, Carmella opened a new pasta making school in Durham – Il Laboratorio – to teach people how to make fresh pasta, celebrate regional Italian cooking and more.