Hi! I'm Dorina.
I've been teaching people how to cook since I was 19, but my passion for heritage runs even deeper. Since 2005, I’ve been helping people trace their roots in Italy, bringing them back to the land of their ancestors. What started as culinary trips to my hometown of Roseto quickly became something much bigger. I realized I wasn’t just sharing recipes—I was sharing a way of life. And so, the Roseto Effect Tours were born.
For over a decade, we've been reconnecting Rosetans whose families emigrated and never returned, along with anyone who longs to experience real Italy—the Italy of community, tradition, and deep, meaningful connection.
The Back to the Table Movement and Roseto Effect Revival
are my way of bringing this philosophy beyond Italy’s borders, helping people reclaim the lost art of gathering, sharing, and truly being together. Everything important in life happens at the table. It’s where we celebrate, where we grieve, where we make life’s biggest decisions. It’s where we pass down our heritage through food, share our faith in gratitude, and strengthen our families and communities—simply by sitting together.
In America, we’re often told to be a melting pot. But maybe… just maybe, we should be more like a beautiful antipasto—a collection of unique, vibrant flavors that shine individually, yet come together to create something truly extraordinary.
Let’s honor the beauty in our heritages and faiths, celebrate our differences, and recognize how alike we really are. Let’s share our traditions, our stories, and our food.
So—start cooking, gather your loved ones, and let’s get Back to the Table and Revive the Roseto Effect!
BUT WHAT IS The Roseto Effect???
In the 1880's people from Roseto Valfortore a small village in Southern Italy immigrated to the United States. They ended up in Eastern Pennsylvania where they found work in the Slate Mines. They built their own town on the side of a mountain and eventually named it after their homeland.
Roseto Pennsylvania was born.
Fast forward to the 1960's. A doctor serving the town shared with another doctor that no one in the town seemed to have any heart disease...or any other diseases for that matter! The next thing you know, doctors descended upon the town to study the people.
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Roseto, Valfortore, Italy
The first thing they studied was the obvious: the diet. But, what they found when they studied the Rosetan diet was contrary to their beliefs. Even though they grew wonderful gardens, they ate a lot of salted, cured meats, fatty cheeses, food fried in lard,(no olive oil being imported back then!) were overweight and they smoked and drank... YET, they were healthy and happy!
People in this town lived 3 generations under one roof. They lived a community centered, church centered, family centered life. People spent time together, stopped and talked on their porches or while walking down the street. There was a true sense of community and belonging. No one was ever alone. They found that the Rosetans were nourished by each other.
Roseto, PA was built based on the traditions and values and way of life from their heritage and faith lived in their homeland- Roseto Valfortore Italy. Many other Rosetan immigrants built very similar communities in towns like Akron and Cleveland Ohio, Washington DC and in Toronto, Canada, but none were quite a unified community like that in Roseto, PA.
"The Roseto Effect is the phenomenon by which a close-knit community experiences a reduced rate of heart disease." BUT when you think about it...isn't it more than just that?
It is also lower incidences of other diseases, less mental health issues, less broken families, less crime, more love and support from family and friends, less loneliness and more attention. Isn't this what we all crave?
Doesn't that just simply equal ---happiness?
SO... I have re-worded it a bit... "The Roseto Effect is the phenomenon by which people live a longer, healthier, happier life by the way they live in community!"
Dorina's Kitchen is reviving the Roseto Effect with our Facebook Live/YouTube Cooking and Lifestyle Show, Trips to Italy and Family and Relationship Coaching. Learn traditional ways to improve the quantity and quality of your relationships and enhance all the aspects of each day. Be inspired! Let's work together to all live longer, healthier, happier lives!
Remember ....It's not JUST what we eat... but how we eat it. TOGETHER.
That's where community starts. First within the home, then outside.
When the cornerstone and foundation are set, the whole building is stronger.
SO.... if you want to join me here in Roseto or one of our neighbouring towns... see what it's like to live in an authentic village on a trip that will truly change your life... just click on the Italy Trips link above! You won't be sorry!
Love, Dorina
