About the speaker
Michelle "Shelly" La Fata is the great granddaughter of four Sicilian immigrants. She grew up in St. Louis walking through her grandparents’ large garden, eating Italian meals and cookies prepared by family.
Shelly graduated from Mizzou in 2009, worked at local Columbia restaurants for a couple years, then attended culinary school in Austin, TX in 2012. After school, she moved back to Missouri and began working as a private chef. In 2015 Shelly started traveling the country as Kitchen Tour Manager for Ozark Mountain Biscuit Co. During that time she worked with a team to assemble kitchens at music festivals, preparing and serving scratchmade food from coast to coast.
Pasta La Fata began as a pop-up concept in 2017, then became a booth at the Columbia Farmers Market in 2018 and in May 2022 opened their first brick & mortar.
These days a team of 18 people work to serve and prepare handmade Italian food, fresh pasta and desserts in a fast and casual restaurant. A few times each month the casual restaurant is transformed into a fine dining experience. Shelly also leads cooking classes, from topics like fresh pasta, to gnocchi, tiramisu, risotto and sauces. One of her favorite parts of this job is interacting with the community and customers.
Shelly loves studying Italian culinary traditions and working with top quality, seasonal and local ingredients. In her free time she spends time relaxing with her husband, family, friends and her dog, Luna. She likes to travel and camp every chance she gets.
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