Mariano and Eugenio Turano were born in the countryside outside of Cosenza in Calabria, Italy. Their home housed the village’s communal hearth oven where the community would come to bake several times per week. It was here growing up that Mariano and Eugenio developed a passion for baking. After serving in the Italian Army during World War II and spending over two years in a labor camp, Mariano knew that he wanted a better life for his family. He was a successful coffee bean salesman in Southern Italy, but the opportunities for his sons were limited. Eugenio, having come of age following the War, knew that southern Italy would not provide the future for which he had hoped. War-torn Calabria was slow to recover and the limited jobs meant that Eugenio would have to look elsewhere. So, Mariano and Eugenio came to America in 1955, in pursuit of opportunity and the American Dream.
Upon arrival in America, Eugenio was able to work in their brother Carmine’s grocery store where he learned how to bake commercially and eventually opened his own bakery. Mariano returned to Italy in 1957 but after seeing that the situation in Calabria had worsened, he began anew in the USA in 1958 with his family. After settling and finding some success, Mariano purchased Campagna Bakery in 1962 and quickly made a big impression among neighbors thanks to generations of authentic Italian recipes. After a short time, Mariano and Eugenio merged their bakeries to form Campagna-Turano Bakery.
Campagna-Turano Bakery began with home-delivery routes and, as word of mouth traveled and the bakery grew, the Turano’s expanded the product line and the family’s involvement with the addition of Mariano’s sons Renato, Umberto, and Giancarlo. By the early 1970’s, Campagna-Turano Bakery, now known as Turano Baking Company, decided to take on the wholesale market, introducing Mamma Susi’s Pizza to local grocery stores alongside their signature Pane Turano, a traditional rustic Italian hearth bread known to the family for generations. It didn’t take long for the Turano’s to find their products on restaurant tabletops and grocery shelves throughout Chicago as the business began to expand rapidly.
Helping their father and uncle build and expand an Old World bakery, Ron, Tony, and Giancarlo were pioneers in developing approachable and affordable artisan breads in the United States. The brothers also helped introduce European production techniques to the New World bringing baking technology across the Atlantic to create traditional products faster and more efficiently through automation. The trio eventually expanded their business into American baked goods and has been recognized by numerous customers and publications for their commitment to quality, service, value, and variety. QSV2 continues today as a guiding legacy of Turano Baking Company.
The Turano Family has a passion for baking that is evident in each product and their lasting legacy is high-quality, rustic artisan breads that, when introduced, were unlike anything found in America. Many have immigrated to the United States and have become successful, but few have succeeded together as a family like the Turano’s.
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