Saffiotti earns lifetime achievement award

The Baton Rouge Epicurean Society has awarded Tullio Saffiotti the Grace “Mama” Marino Lifetime Achievement Award for 2012. Saffiotti will be honored by the society at an Aug. 23 reception at the Crowne Plaza. Tickets are $200 per person. A six-course dinner will be prepared by area chefs for the reception, and a selection of fine wines will complement each course. The society annually selects an honoree from the Greater Baton Rouge area who has dedicated much of his or her life in service to the community. Born in Sicily, Saffiotti worked throughout North Africa and the Mediterranean in the seafood processing business before moving to Baton Rouge in 1964, where he met and married Ella Bologna. He joined up with Bologna Brothers Wholesale and took charge of restaurant development and the fine wine division. In 1987, the Bologna family merged with their cousins, who owned Baton Rouge Wholesale, and formed Bologna of Louisiana. Baton Rouge Wholesale sold out to Glazer’s Wholesale in 1999, from which Saffiotti retired in 2010 at the age of 83. Saffiotti is the sixth recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award. Previous recipients include Grace “Mama” Marino, T. J. Moran, Frank Bologna, Charles Brandt and John Folse.