Friends and family are remembering local culinary icon Grace “Mama” Marino—who died Thursday night at 94—not only as the hardworking matron of the Baton Rouge culinary community but also as someone who remained humble despite her high-profile status.
“She inspired so many people in the industry,” her son, Gino Marino, says. “She didn’t know how much she reached out and inspired young chefs and restaurant people with her hard work, dedication and passion for the food industry.”
“Mama” Marino founded Gino’s Italian Restaurant in 1966 and it quickly became a date-night staple while serving the Baton Rouge community for more than 50 years.
To many, she embodied the American dream, becoming a small business owner and restaurateur just eight years after moving to Baton Rouge with her husband and three young children from their native Agrigento, Sicily.
Gino’s, named after her youngest son, on the taste buds of her Old World Sicilian recipes quickly gained a strong following. As her success grew, Gino’s Italian Restaurant relocated from the Perkins Road overpass area to its current Bennington Avenue location.
Gino remembers his mother as a fearless worker who enjoyed cooking for friends and family. She worked 15 to 17 hours a day and treated everyone like a son or daughter, he says.
“She had a lot of young people work for her,” he recalls. “They looked up to her just for her passion that she had—how a woman from another country could come here and have a drive and passion to do what she did.”
“Mama” Marino racked up numerous awards and honors. She is the first recipient and namesake of the Baton Rouge Epicurean Society Grace “Mama” Marino Lifetime Achievement Award, which honors local food industry professionals whose hard work advanced Baton Rouge’s culinary culture. She was inducted into both the Louisiana Restaurant Association’s Hall of Fame as well as the Business Report Hall of Fame in 2014.
“As a veteran of the restaurant industry and her dedication to family and the community, her legacy will live on,” the Baton Rouge Epicurean Society says in a message posted to Facebook.
Despite the attention she received, “Mama” Marino never understood the attention she received, Gino Marino says.
“She was like a rock star. She would walk through the restaurant and people would want to take picture with her,” he tells Daily Report. “Through all of this, she didn’t understand how many people she touched.”
—Alexandria Burris
