When Chef Michael first moved to Austin, Texas, 20 years ago, his Italian parents came to visit. Wanting to learn firsthand, he asked his mother to show him how she made gnocchi. A simple request quickly turned into a full-scale production when she headed to the market and returned with ten pounds of potatoes and a ten-pound bag of flour. He jokingly reminded her they were inviting a few friends, not feeding an army—but in her mind, running out of food would have been unthinkable.

They spent the entire morning and well into the afternoon making gnocchi. The extras were carefully packed into small cardboard boxes and frozen for later. Lunch that day included his then-girlfriend (now wife), Paula, along with friends Greg and Rene. At one point, Paula turned to him and said she wished his parents could speak English. He was baffled—because they were speaking English. But surrounded by Texans deep in their Southern drawl, his parents’ thick Italian accents transformed the gathering into what felt less like a lunch in Austin and more like a midday meal in Rome, Italy.