Lance and Brett Martin, founders of Delivery Italiano, grew up eating Italian food. Their great-grandparents came over from Italy in the early 1900s, and the two brothers spent their childhoods eating big Sunday dinners with their entire family. Relatives regularly brought over products from Italy, and their grandma used her own sauce recipes.

Lance and Brett have recently crafted a grocery box concept to celebrate the spirit of Italian cuisine with a familial touch and a guarantee of authenticity. The Houston-based business offers its subscribers two different collections of ingredients, along with recipes by chef Luca Manfè (winner of MasterChef Season 4 and author of My Italian Kitchen: Favorite Family Recipes). We recently met with Lance and Brett to talk about how they established their company to bring a taste of “Italy at your doorstep.”

Delivery Italiano brothers Lance and Brett Martin

What sparked this desire to create an Italian-centric box?
Brett and I noticed two things: People want to do cooking school, and people want to eat great food. We had already been involved in research for our culinary tours in Italy, and then we realized that we could find goods in Italy and import them ourselves. We can fill the niche here in the States by bringing Italian food over. Then people can cook in their home with quality, authentic ingredients. I previously worked in the oil and gas company for 10 years, and then I decided I was ready to move on and do my own thing. Brett is nine years younger than I; he just finished school at University of Houston. It’s great working with him, as our personalities complement each other.

What can consumers expect in their boxes?
Every month, you’ll get eight to 10 products that serve eight people. Usually there are two different kinds of pastas, two kinds of sauces, an appetizer and a dessert. Then we’ll throw in a few extra things, like extra-virgin olive oil. We can guarantee that all products are authentic Italian. We even have someone in Italy going to companies almost every day to inspect goods and send us samples, and then we’ll give feedback. Our guidelines for vendors are: smaller companies that produce items unavailable in the United States (e.g. pasta sauces, pâtés, desserts).

What do you hope to accomplish?
Our goal is to be a one-stop shop for all Italian food. We’re starting off as delivery boxes with two options available: meal and pantry. The pantry ones are more expensive, but they include bigger bulk items. In the future, we hope to offer cheeses, meats and perishable items as an online store for everything Italian. In fact, one of our chefs and curators for the boxes is chef Luca Manfè (photo below), Houston resident and winner of Masterchef, season four. We had known him for several months, so we pitched the idea, and he was on board.

Chef Luca Manfe of Delivery Italiano

Delivery Italiano shipped its first boxes on March 30 and is offering services now. Starting at $65 a month, one-time purchases or monthly subscriptions are available. Check out some of the offerings here. For subscriptions, click here.