Thomas Delia: Chef and Owner, Trattoria Delia & Sotto Enoteca, Burlington
It was 23 years ago that founders and owners Tom and his wife, Lori, put their passion for Italy and traditional Italian cuisine into practice and opened Trattoria Delia.
A graduate of the School of Food, Hotel and Tourism at Rochester Institute of Technology, Tom met Lori, then a fine arts student at the University of Vermont, while he was doing an internship at Three Mountain Lodge in Jeffersonville. After graduation Tom joined the Perry Restaurant Group, managing several of their restaurants. Tom’s paternal grandparents, both great cooks, had emigrated from Italy’s Calabria region. Over the course of several trips to Milan to reconnect with the family, he and Lori came to the realization that bringing this type of ambiance and food to Vermont is what they wanted to spend their lives doing.