Roberta Montelione

Executive Chef at Milan Catering and Event Design, LLC

From comedian to caterer may seem like a stretch, but not for out-of-the-box thinker, Roberta Montelione. Right after her first night on stage at McCurdy’s Comedy Theatre, she sustained a tennis injury and was off her feet in front of the tube watching the FoodNetwork.

“So I write an email to a local restauranteur telling him ‘I will cook the best food you’ve had in your life if you hire me as a chef,” she remembers. “I had never been in a commercial kitchen and thought I’d get fired from this $13 an hour job. In less than a year, I was running my own catering company.”

Today she runs two of her own kitchens, and is building back her business in the wake of the Covid pandemic. 

“My business was down 80 percent, but we have bounced back to pre-COVID levels already,” she says.

When the virus hit, Montelione went into go-mode. She created a plan and protocol for the catering industry that covered everything from how to put on a mask and gloves to detailed procedures she shared with other local caterers and eventually those across the country. 

The bulk of Montelione’s business is weddings, a segment especially hard hit by the pandemic. Couples had to cancel or postpone their “big day” and the business just dried up.

“We were the only caterers on the west coast serving weddings,” she says. “And we again got ‘Best of the Knot” for 2021 and recognition from the Wedding Wire. It’s a tribute to my staff. We didn’t lose a single soul. We moved together as a community thinking out-of-the-box. There isn’t a penalty for being wrong, but there is a penalty for being stuck.”

Roberta Montelione
Executive Chef
Milan Catering and Event Design, LLC
4141 S Tamiami Trail #3, 
Sarasota, FL 34231
941.312.0000
milancatering.com