AN ex-stockbroker has moved his cannoli business inspired by American gangster TV show The Sopranos to Redditch.
Nigel Wright, aged 52, set up Cafe Cannoli in 2017 and has now taken a major step forward by moving into his first unit on the Washford Industrial Estate.
Mr Wright, of Mappleborough Green, said: “I worked as a stockbroker in Birmingham until being lucky enough to retire early. I carried on with trading privately but wanted to do something completely different.
"I love Italian food and an episode of the Sopranos made me think of cannoli and I discovered that it was rare to get good Sicilian Cannoli made with truly authentic Sicilian ingredients.”
A trip to Sicily to learn how to make the pastry delicacy led to building relationships, sourcing and importing all his ingredients from genuine sources throughout Sicily.
“The biggest lesson I learnt from my time in Sicily was that authentic Sicilian cannoli needs to be made with Sicilian sheep’s milk ricotta – we won’t use anything else. We pride ourselves on the quality of our ingredients, even our pistachios are grown on the slopes of Mount Etna.
"However sourcing the right ingredients was only the start as it has taken a lot of hard graft, working 110 hour weeks and 21 hour days sometimes.”
“In 2019 we launched the first UK Cannoli Kit for nationwide delivery so you could make your cannoli at home.
"Demand for these increased and we have sent them as far afield as Inverness and the Isle of Wight but with the markets and festivals cancelled, we started our home delivery service through our website and also started supplying retailers.
“As lockdown started to wind down and demand continued to rise, we decided it was finally the right time to stop working from our home kitchen and garage and set up our own premises.
“We had been looking since last April but everything was so uncertain it made sense to wait."
Cafe Cannoli has now moved to Heming Road after conversion work to establish food preparation areas and all the facilities needed to store the ingredients for cannoli and their many fillings, from traditional, chocolate, lemon, caramel and a choice of nut varieties.
Mr Wright added: “We’re hoping for a busy summer. Our new premises are an ideal base as we keep growing and we can also now run a collections service.
“In addition, having our own premises means we can apply for a Kickstarter grant to help take on a new worker, offering an opportunity to one of the many local people who have lost their jobs over the last year.”
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