St. Louis-based Louisa Foods—our 2021 Frozen Foods Processor of the Year—can trace its roots back almost 60 years, not to a food processing plant, but a single family-owned restaurant in the Gateway City.
“Louisa Foods was founded by my uncle, John Baldetti, and named the company ‘Louisa’ after my grandmother and his mother, Luisa Baldetti,” says Tom Baldetti, owner, Louisa Foods. “Luisa and her husband, Ferdinando, were immigrants from Italy. Like many other food manufacturers, we are a spinoff from a restaurant, owned by my grandfather Ferdinando. So, our first customer was our own restaurant. We started in 1964, and later, we provided primarily meat-filled ravioli to other restaurants in the area.”