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28 stouffville suntribune thursday march 31 2005 pasta queen uses noodle to cook up success by roger varley staff writer on the face of it elena quistini likely should have gone out of business years ago the founder and president of pasta quistini admits for the first three to five years she did nt have what is widely accepted as an essential prerequisite a business plan i started my fresh pasta shop to keep busy from 9 to 5 she said we never intended to be where we are today where she and her partner and husband orlando are is miles and years away from that pasta shop celebrating 25 years in business this year pasta quistini is setting trends carv ing out niche markets and exporting its prod ucts to the united states mexico and hong kong and still selling to customers who walk in off the street as well as grocery chains and restaurants and now they have a business plan we have had continuous growth over the last 25 years mrs quistini said thafs how we mark our success that and continuing quality products numerous articles over the past 20odd years have chronicled how the business start ed how mrs quistini developed in her kitchen a new style of pasta that her mother diag nosed with diabetes could eat and enjoy how that led to the opening of a deli store where she gave away samples of her pasta products to customers and how she and her husband eventually left the deli behind to con centrate on producing new and different forms of pasta and other products she is now known as the pasta queen incredibly mrs quistini has developed her products carved out her markets and fought the competition without any formal business training staff photobill roberts elena quistini founder and president of pasta quistini with husband orlando inside their vaughan production facility i learned the hard way one step at a time one backstab at a time she said bluntly i learned in the school of hard knocks maybe we would have reached our goals faster if id had basic business training flying by the seat of your pants takes a little longer she thinks however business is more excit ing the way she did it i never know whats going to happen she said if the business became boring or pre dictable it might become less rewarding this way its exciting to get up in the morning mrs quistini does a lot of things differently although there is a presentation kitchen in the pasta quistini plant on vaughans jevlan drive much of her research is carried out in i never know whaf s going to happen if the business became boring or predictable it might become less rewarding this way its exciting to get up in the morning elena quistini pasta qitistini her woodbridge home thats where i do my nittygritty testing she said ifs my biggest research facility her kitchen is where she produced the first flavoured pasta smoked salmon and pasta in different colours spinach and tomato nobody was doing anything with mixed colour pasta but it took off like wildfire and now its used worldwide she said she admits however some ideas didnt fly one that didnt work out was my pepper corn pasta she said the peppercorns all dropped out and left little holes in the pasta from her experimentation came diversifi cation one of the main reasons for our success is were constantly diversifying mrs quistini said noting the company also produces sauces prepared meals and other lines its not just centreoftheplate pasta meals sitting in her small cramped office where a collection of cookbooks is arranged haphaz ardly on the bookshelf mrs quistini laughs easily as she discusses her business my husband said hes met people who think im tough she said if people think im tough im doing my job