Leo Danna, started making salad dressing 20 years ago in the kitchen of the family owned restaurant, The Quality Café, est. 1930. His passion for delicious, exquisite flavors originated long before that--it came from the people in the Italian wedding photo that graces all of our retail labels. Those are Leo’s parents, Sam and Helen, and some of his many aunts and uncles. Growing up in a big Italian family, it was his privilege to wake up every Sunday morning to the smell of fresh garlic and onions sizzling in extra virgin olive oil—the beginnings of the amazing “suga” sauce his mother was preparing for the day’s pasta.

So it was no stretch for him to throw great, fresh ingredients together in the kitchen to make an
Italian dressing for the restaurant. It became a hit with people eating it on everything from salad to
meat to cornbread. A one gallon recipe quickly became a five gallon recipe with Helen pouring in
the spices, herbs and cheeses while Leo stirred it all together. Customers started asking for
Leo’s Italian back then and it’s now one of the
stellar recipes in our Leo’s Original retail line up.