Marino Zazzera, Jr., is the son of a business couple who own and operate the Ben-Mar Restaurant in the aptly-named coal-country community of Carbondale, Pennsylvania. It was here, helping out in the family enterprise, that Marino learned the ins and outs of cooking, presentation, customer relationships, marketing, recipe creation, and running a small business.

When Marino went to college in Arizona, it was only natural, given his upbringing, that he take a job in a restaurant to help generate the extra dollars every struggling college student seems to need. He honed his earlier experience at Ambrosino's Gourmet Restaurant, whose homemade garlic bread was renowned throughout the area.

Returning to Carbondale in 1983 he mulled over the difficulty of finding high quality prepared foods in the Italian food world. The spark that led to Marino's Garlic Spread was ignited by an article by Susan Sachs (Then struggling writer who later worked for several years at The New York Times), in Entrepreneur Magazine, the subject of which was getting new products on the supermarket shelves.

Marino first devised a formula that would produce a garlic spread that could be used for garlic bread, Italian-style sautées, pizza topping, and a host of other Italian (and non-Italian) applications. After much success with local supermarket chains, food service was the next logical step. In 1990, Marino began working with Tulkoff Products in Baltimore, Maryland to carry and distribute the whole restaurant packs of Marino’s Garlic Spread—a mutually beneficial relationship that lasted for over a decade.

Eventually, as the directions and emphasis of the two companies diverged, Marino took on the sales of his foodservice product either by 1) shipping directly to the customer from his facility in Pennsylvania, or 2) referring the customer to a local distributor chosen from among the network of distributors throughout the country that proudly carry and deliver Marino's Garlic Spread in foodservice packaging.

Now, watching the explosion of products and services available on the Internet, Marino has made the necessary arrangements to allow you to purchase Marino's Garlic Spread direct to you regardless of where in the continental United States you might live. Retail sales and potential foodservice users should contact Marino directly >> e-mail Marino @ or call 1-800-839-9201.

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