In the Mascio home, Italian food production has been the family business for at least four generations—starting with great grandparents Nicola DiIulio & Giuseppina Madonna, continuing with grandparents Antonio & Flora Mascio, followed by parents Gennaro “Jerry” and Roz Mascio, and now their children, Angela and Tony.
In the early 1900s, Great Grandpa Nicola came to Black Diamond, WA to work in the coal mines until he could earn enough money to start his own pasta company back in Sulmona, Italy. Upon his return, in 1928 Nicola started Pastificio Maiella (named after the nearby mountain range). The company flourished until the 1950s when they were stiffed on a large pasta, forcing Pastificio Maiella to close its doors.
Soon thereafter, in 1954, Gennaro’s father Antonio was offered to run a pasta company in Tripoli, so the family moved to Libya to run the show for a few years until political unrest forced them out of the country.
Looking for a permanent home in the land of opportunity, the Mascios immigrated to the United States in 1959, when Gennaro was just seven years old. They settled in Seattle where not long after, Flora chose to get back to her family roots—producing authentic Italian food.
In the 1960s the Mascios started stirring the pot again. Mother of four, Flora began making fresh ravioli in the basement of their Beacon Hill home to sell to friends and eventually to local restaurants. With her ravioli in high demand, soon the family began bootlegging the fresh pasta all over Seattle until the USDA caught wind and forced Flora to go legit. The Mascios were determined to continue the family tradition. To get things on the up and up they opened an approved commercial kitchen in Georgetown, where sales expanded to more restaurants and retail stores. After a stint in the service and completing college, Gennaro officially rejoined the company in 1980 when it became incorporated as Mascio's Italian Specialty Foods.
In 1985, the company moved into the old Lucerne Dairy building in the International District where sales grew to include most West Coast Costco stores and the staff grew to over 100 employees—lots of products, lots of people—a fairly complicated operation. In 1993, the company sold and moved to a new and larger facility in Monroe, WA.
At this point, Jerry wanted to start a new chapter in his family’s Italian food business, with simplicity as a key ingredient. He founded San Gennaro Foods to produce one of his personal favorites, polenta. Jerry grew up with this traditional dish and wanted to offer this versatile food to the hardworking families who didn’t have time to make it from scratch. A huge time saver while retaining authentic Italian recipes, this was one of the first mass-produced pre-cooked polenta of its kind at a time when many had never heard of the traditional Italian dish.
Production began back at the old Georgetown facility. The company quickly outgrew this location and after several moves, eventually settled in a 30,000-square-foot facility in Kent where it currently resides.
Nearly 100 years after his great grandfather founded his first food company in Italy, San Gennaro continues to be run as a family business today.
