![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/files\/2012\/01\/john_pladocostante.jpg\" "\\"John_Pladocostante\\"")
<\/a>Family is not only a huge part of Gastronomy alumnus John Pladocostante\u2019s life, but also a focal point of his career in food. Originally from Utica, New York, Pladocostante was first introduced to gastronomy at the elbows of his grandparents. \u201cI grew up living in my grandparents\u2019 apartment building. I learned how to care for a garden and make wine with my grandfather, and how to cook and bake with my grandmother,\u201d he says.<\/p>\nInspired to pursue a culinary career, he received his Bachelor of Culinary Arts degree from Paul Smith’s College, and earned his Master of Liberal Arts in Gastronomy at Boston University in 2011. One of his favorite courses was Food and Archaeology with Dr. Karen Metheny. He says, \u201cA degree in gastronomy is so much more than food and cooking. The Food and Archaeology course is a great example of exploring food through thousands of years of history. Being able to explore the world of early humans and reconstruct their diet by learning about how plants were first harvested and domesticated helps you to be more of a well rounded culinarian.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pladocostante is currently a culinary instructor at Remington College\u2019s Culinary Arts Degree program<\/a>\u00a0in Dallas, Texas. He is also well on his way to bringing his MLA thesis to life in Plano, a suburb of Dallas. For his thesis, he created a business proposal for a gourmet Italian foods company. Since graduating, he has started it, calling it Femia<\/a>\u00a0after his maternal grandparents. The central theme of family has already come full circle in Pladocostante\u2019s life. With plans to expand Femia into an upscale Italian caf\u00e9 in the future, he says, for now, it is satisfying to create a product that people appreciate. Dallas has long been known as a barbeque haven; and much of the young population in Plano tends to frequent chain restaurants and don\u2019t yet demand good quality ingredients. But this means a growing and exciting market for Femia. Pladocostante says, \u201cFor people who have never been exposed to true Italian cuisine, or can\u2019t cook, they love buying food that has a story, and that they can share with family and friends.\u00a0 That\u2019s the essence of Italian food, it brings people together to enjoy life.\u201d<\/p>\n John Pladocostante\u2019s story is far from over and we are excited to see where life takes him as he brings sophisticated, high quality, Italian cuisine to the land of barbeque and Tex-Mex.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Emily Contois Family is not only a huge part of Gastronomy alumnus John Pladocostante\u2019s life, but also a focal point of his career in food. Originally from Utica, New York, Pladocostante was first introduced to gastronomy at the elbows of his grandparents. \u201cI grew up living in my grandparents\u2019 apartment building. I learned how […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14625,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1468"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14625"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1468"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8495,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1468\/revisions\/8495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}