Prince Emanuele Filiberto di Savoia, the grandson of Umberto II – the last reigning king of Italy – owns and runs a food truck in Los Angeles (LA).
Italy’s royal family was exiled after the country voted in a 1946 referendum to abolish the royals for aiding and abetting Mussolini in the years leading up to World War II. The royal family relocated to Switzerland, where Di Savoia was born.
So it came that on a visit to the US, Di Savoia was hungry but could not find a pasta option among the many mobile food stands in LA.
‘I started looking at this fashion, saw that so many of them were selling tacos, Korean barbecue and hot dogs, and I thought in my little head: why not create a pasta food truck with fresh pasta?’ he told The Guardian.
And so, ‘The Prince of Venice’, as his truck is named was born.
He installed an industrial pasta machine and extruder right in the truck, making almost 14kg of fresh pasta from scratch every day.
‘Pasta is something Italians have in their DNA, it’s something they grew up cooking with their grandmother—they’re family recipes,’ he told Atlas Obscura.
Unfortunately, customers won’t be meeting the prince when they buy their pasta from the truck. He lives in Monaco with his family, but says he does check in on the business as regularly as he can.
Image credit: Instagram
