Selling Pasta to Melbourne

pasta, immigrated to Melbourne from the region of

Tuscany in Italy in 1929. They settled in Collingwood

during the Depression, and Nello made alabaster statues

from moulds he had brought out from Italy which were

sold around Victoria by a relative. 

During the 1930s, with fellow Italian migrant Camillo Triaca, Nello opened Café Latin in Exhibition Street, followed by La Scala and La Tosca cafes. The menus still held by the family reveal a mixed menu of local and Italian fare. 

During World War II, anti-Italian sentiment led Nello to close La Tosca (the Latin having closed years ago) and rename La Scala The Hoddle Café. The family moved to Daylesford at this time to escape being labelled as

‘enemy aliens’.

Tosca Food Processing Company at 12 Bennetts Lane in

the city. With the exception of a relocation to Brunswick in

1972, the business has operated continuously ever since.

La Tosca produced tomato concentrate, tinned tuna,

asparagus and peppers, as well as a bolognese sauce

under the label of ‘Sugodoro’ (‘golden sauce’). The

tomato paste was the most popular product and was

predominantly sold to Italian delis and restaurants to

make the base for their sauces. The vegetables were

supplied by Victoria Market and tomatoes from Werribee

market gardens.

In 1952 the production of the canned vegetable products

ceased and only the tomato sauce line of Sugodoro

continued. This was due to the competition of large

companies such as Heinz and Campbells, with which the

family could never hope to compete with on a massproduction

scale.

In 1952 Nello began the production of fresh ravioli under

the label of La Tosca Pasta. Ravioli, considered a

specialty product, and only made for special occasions,

was the first pasta product the family made at home. The

Borghesi’s would work together to the roll the pasta by

hand, using a wooden ravioli roller to stamp the ravioli

pockets into the pasta sheets. Around 1957, the family

invested in a ravioli machine, purchased from a Greek

restaurant in Swanston Street.

Melbourne families and the heart of many communities,

such as butchers and tailors, greengrocers, restaurants,

and fish and chip shops. In terms of the Italian

community, countless cafes, restaurants, delis, grocers

and small food companies were flourishing around inner

Melbourne from the 1920s, and particularly around time

the Borghesi’s were setting up La Tosca Pasta during the

late 1940s and 1950s.

Post-war migrants, especially those from southern

Europe, embraced the opportunity to run small

businesses. They could get a start without large amounts

of capital, special skills or English proficiency. These

enterprises not only provided work for extended families,

but gave service and character to their neighbourhoods.

By the 1970s, supermarkets were starting to compete

with the local specialist stores, while food production was

shifting to light industrial precincts on Melbourne’s

outskirts. Today, milk bars and family-run factories, once

such a feature of Melbourne’s inner suburbs, are now few

and far between. But La Tosca has endured.