Mauro Filippeddu grew up in Sardinia, Italy, where he learned to cook the traditional way: from his grandmother. He loved making cookies with her especially treats such as biscotti and papassini. “My first teacher and her (his wife and business partner) first teacher were our grandmothers,” Filippeddu said. “Our grandmothers are the best teachers ever. You can study, but tradition is not something you can create in the book. My grandmother did not take notes in a book it was just talking. If you cook pasta in Italy nobody tells you how much salt to put in the water because you see it every day.”

He has had formal training, too. “We studied with a famous pastry chef in Sardinia," said Filippeddu. "He teaches a lot of secrets, and I studied about gelato with a gelato maker.” Filippeddu and his wife Antonella Scampuddu have brought a taste of Italy to Estero. They opened Sospiri Italian Bakery & Gelato at Coconut Point.