Reinaldo and Lesme met in Cleveland, Ohio while going to college. Their friendship was almost immediate when they discovered that they had the same background: fathers from Spain, mothers from Italy, and an upbringing in South America. When they were looking for a place to live, the old apartments of little Italy sounded ideal. Rents were reasonable and there were plenty of Italian restaurants to get a college job.

So for the following 4 years Reinaldo and Lesme worked as cooks for some of the best Italian restaurants in the area. One of these places was always packed with lines at the door at dinner time, even though winter. Their secret? They cook with fresh pasta. It was homemade, infused with natural flavors and never used after seven days. The job was fun.  Making flavored pastas became the most fun part of the job. A few years later, Reinaldo became an engineer and Lesme a business man.

Reinaldo was working for a European food manufacturing company near Lexington and to align himself better with his job, he had become a Chef at Sullivan University. Lesme acquired an MBA and moved to Tampa, climbing the corporate ladder in the financial world. Although they lived in different cities, Reinaldo and Lesme always remained best friends.  They would always get together for Thanksgiving, Keeneland, Derby, & summer vacations. They frequented restaurants in Lexington and Tampa alike, but at the end of the day, nothing compared to the evenings making dinner at home, cooking fresh pasta and enjoying food and life like their elders had taught them.

Ten years later, while Lesme was visiting Reinaldo in Lexington, they both agreed that corporate America was not what they had imagined years ago in Cleveland, Ohio. The following morning, Reinaldo took Lesme to Lexington’s Farmers to show him one of his favorite parts of Lexington. While walking around Cheapside Park with all that fresh produce around, they decided to have fresh pasta for dinner, play with the fresh Kentucky produce, and discover some flavors they never had in Little Italy.

As always, they had a blast making the pasta and after dinner, while still at the table, Lesme said, “This tastes so good and it is so much fun. I wish I could make a living doing this.” Reinaldo said in a half way serious tone, “We probably could. With my background in food manufacturing and culinary arts and your background in business, sales, and marketing, we can probably hit it out of the park.” Reinaldo’s wife Heather said “I think you guys are onto something and you could call it Lexington Pasta.”

Lexington Pasta was born that night. Lesme went back to Tampa, but just long enough to arrange his move to Lexington. Since the summer of 2009, Reinaldo and Lesme have been making fresh pasta to satisfy the need of a town that had nothing like it before. Stop by and see our products in the stores, or meet us personally at the farmers market. There is nothing we like more than bringing Lexington Fresh food. Fresh, from our kitchen to yours.