Dena Fenza: Culinary Expertise And Family Traditions Built A Viral Social Media Brand

Many successful people reinvented themselves in a later period in their lives. Jeff Bezos worked on Wall Street before he reinvented himself and started Amazon. Sara Blakely sold office supplies before she started Spanx. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was a WWE wrestler before he became a successful actor and filmmaker. Arnold Schwarzenegger went from a bodybuilder, to an actor to a Governor. McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc was a milkshake-device salesman before starting the McDonalds franchise in his 50s.

How does one reinvent themselves? What hurdles have to be overcome to take life in a new direction? How do you overcome those challenges? How do you ignore the naysayers? How do you push through the paralyzing fear?

In this series called “Second Chapters; How I Reinvented Myself In The Second Chapter Of My Life “ we are interviewing successful people who reinvented themselves in a second chapter in life, to share their story and help empower others.

As a part of this interview series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dena Fenza.

Dena Fenza is the influencer and multi-talented culinary & lifestyle expert behind the popular MiciaMammas blog and social media accounts where she’s gained a viral following for sharing her culinary know-how alongside her timeless tips for hosting, traveling with kids, and making it all work as a busy mother of five. After leaving the restaurant industry to prioritize her expanding family, Dena set out to create something of her own and began documenting and sharing her treasured recipes through social media as a meaningful way to honor their grandparents’ legacy.

This journey culminated in the creation of My Italian-American Table, which Dena hopes will inspire others to cherish meals, memories, and family connections.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we start, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?

As the oldest grandchild on both sides of a very large Italian-American family that originated in Naples and Calabria, I spent a lot of growing-up time with my grandparents. A majority of it was in the kitchen where I would love to be put to work and to learn the recipes. Nothing was ever written down. Grandpa would say, “Food is love. It has to come from the heart.”

I was born in Brooklyn, NY but my family continued to carry on many of the traditions from Italy here in the USA. At Christmastime, we would get together and make struffoli. At Easter, we would make the Easter Bread. These traditions were passed on by my grandparents and continue to this day.

My family put passion into the food they made. To them, food was a way of showing love. We even managed to start new traditions. For over sixty years my family has celebrated what we call the Feast of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve. It has withstood the test of time, a pandemic, a natural disaster, sicknesses, and family loss, but it is still going strong. It is my favorite night of the year. I host it now and see it as an honor, a way of carrying on my grandparents’ legacy.

Sundays were days for big traditional Italian dinners where we sat for hours and ate incredible meals. Those were the best days for me. They were filled with music, food, crazy conversations, games, and best of all, time with the family that I adored and felt so lucky to have.

When I was six, we moved from Brooklyn to Long Island. This may as well have been another country. I missed my extended family desperately. But somehow we always managed to get together. I would spend every holiday and summer vacation with my grandparents. I never wanted to leave them. They were my best buddies. But over time I realized that Long Island was not that far from Brooklyn and that living there would be ok.

I went on to become a student at Fordham University. I loved attending there because not only was I close to my favorite baseball team, the Yankees, but I was walking distance from Little Italy in the Bronx. As a young college student, I loved being so near to amazing Italian restaurants, shops, and markets. Amazed at the fabulous Italian products I would find, I cooked all the time for my friends, roommates, and even a few Jesuit priests.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

I think for me the biggest life lesson that I could teach someone else is to “never give up.” To get up every single morning, and no matter what life deals you figure it out and move on. We all have personal struggles and issues that we deal with. All through life there are ups and downs. I’ve learned that inner strength and perseverance will prevail, and that hard work and dedication do pay off. Plus surrounding yourself with good people and an amazing family will help you get through it all. If you had told me years ago, when I was working 14-hour days to make ends meet that I would have the joy of owning a home in Italy, a cookbook, and an olive oil brand, I would’ve never believed you. If you told me that after I closed my restaurant I would ever get back into the food industry, I would’ve looked at you like you were crazy. But always believe, always dream, and always stay positive. Get up every day, put your feet on the ground, and make the most of it.

You have been blessed with much success. In your opinion, what are the top three qualities that you possess that have helped you accomplish so much? If you can, please share a story or example for each.

1 -Hardworking is one quality for sure. Sometimes I am guilty of working too much. My husband constantly tells me that I need to take a day off. When I had my restaurant, my dad took the keys one day and told me that I needed a break to go to the beach.

2. Be genuine. I think a big reason for my social media success is that I try to be as genuine, and as realistic as possible. I always use my social media channels to promote positivity, and I think that comes through in my videos.

Recently I met someone at a book signing, and she was so excited to talk. She said that in this crazy world sharing my stories of my family and my recipes brings her happiness. That makes me so happy.

3- Persistent — I feel like I’m a persistent person who never gives up. As crazy as life gets, and whatever life throws at you, you can never give up. I feel like it is up to you to make changes in your life. Like I said before, if you were to tell me when I was working those 14-hour days and had no money, that now I would have a brand and a home in Italy I would have thought you were crazy.

Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion about ‘Second Chapters’. Can you tell our readers about your career experience before your Second Chapter?

When I first graduated college, I was a third-grade teacher and then had 3 children of my own. When they were young, instead of going back to teaching, I began doing cooking classes, catering, and working in restaurants to make extra income. I took a full-time restaurant manager job and helped open a large Long Island-based restaurant. After working there for a few years, I decided to venture out on my own and opened up my own place. The restaurant was a breakfast, lunch, and dinner operation. I worked 24/7, plus I was newly divorced. Unfortunately, it became very overwhelming. I wasn’t seeing my family at all. The restaurant was barely breaking even. I met my fiancé, Peter, and balancing it all became very tough. After two years I decided to close it and stay home with my kids.

And how did you “reinvent yourself” in your Second Chapter?

After I closed my restaurant, it was very hard on me. I was happy to be home with my kids but so upset that the restaurant after all of my hard work didn’t do well. I threw myself into motherhood spending as much time with my kids as possible. I married my husband Peter and really enjoyed raising my 3 kids and his 2. We were like the Brady Bunch! For so long I had missed doing so much with my kids, and I was happy to be home with them.

But I always felt like I wanted to do something on my own. In 2020, I started sharing my family recipes on social media. At first, I did it with a few friends but post-pandemic they decided it wasn’t for them and I took over.

Can you tell us about the specific trigger that made you decide that you were going to “take the plunge” and make your huge transition?

For me, it was all about needing a creative outlet and having something of my own but also having the confidence to do it. Once I took over the Instagram page and started sharing my family’s recipes, I really began to enjoy it. I was able to raise my children and do this job while they were in school. At this point, they were teenagers, and I knew college was approaching quickly for all of them. This would give me something of my own to do.

As the following on social media began to grow I became more confident. I had lost so much confidence in myself and trying any sort of new business ventures when I closed my restaurant. I swore I would never get back into food and here I was sharing recipes. But, people made my recipes and loved them. Then my husband and I bought a home in Tuscany and I started to share the renovation process as well. People loved it. Followers told me, “Dena, please write a cookbook.” In the middle of all the renovation insanity and traveling to Italy I wrote the cookbook. It was endless hours of work, research, and time. Plus, I had this other dream for the olive trees at my home in Italy. I taught myself about farming olive trees with the help of friends and locals. I wanted to harvest the trees and make my extra virgin olive oil available back in the United States. Through it all my husband was so encouraging and so were my kids, and I was able to launch the olive oil and cookbook in early November 2023.

What did you do to discover that you had a new skillset inside of you that you haven’t been maximizing? How did you find that and how did you ultimately overcome the barriers to help manifest those powers?

I think when I started sharing on social media, I stepped outside my comfort zone a little bit. Filming the videos of myself making the recipes was all new to me. Plus, Instagram had just introduced reels back then, and I had to teach myself how to create them. For me technology has not always been a friend. In fact, I had tried to stay far away from it. Now I was knee-deep in it, but if I was going to be successful on social media, I had to teach myself. As my videos became more popular, it gave me the confidence to keep learning.

How are things going with this new initiative? We would love to hear some specific examples or stories.

So far things are going very well. About to go into the second run of my cookbook, my olive oil from my home sold out in less than two days. So I started bringing over my neighbor’s olive oil. He is the one who helps me take care of my trees in Italy when I’m not there. Sales with that are going very well. I’m about to introduce a new Mediterranean spice in my shop. Of course like with anything else and any business, it’s all a learning curve. I’m learning how to juggle inventories, and to price out things, amongst countless other things.

Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

I think my biggest fan is my husband. He has been so supportive and my biggest cheerleader.

I was afraid that after I closed my restaurant my husband would think I was crazy to invest money in another business. It was part of my low confidence at the time. But he was the exact opposite. Self-publishing a book and creating an Olive Oil brand takes money and he was very supportive of my investment!

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started in this new direction?

I think for me, it just makes me so happy when I meet people at my book signings. They tell me that my food reminds them of their childhood, and spending time with their parents and their grandparents. They share stories about their upbringings and how my recipes bring them back to those times. For this, I am grateful.

Did you ever struggle with believing in yourself? If so, how did you overcome that limiting belief about yourself? Can you share a story or example?

Yes. I struggled a lot. After I closed my restaurant, my confidence was at an all-time low. But at the same time, I was happy to be home with my kids, and as I said before I immersed myself in motherhood. When I started to share the recipes at first, I was so nervous about how they would be received. But the more popular recipes got, and the more people trusted the ones I shared, my confidence got better.

In my own work I usually encourage my clients to ask for support before they embark on something new. How did you create your support system before you moved to your new chapter?

I think my family is my biggest support system. We all help each other out. It’s part of who we are. When I launched the cookbook and the olive oil, they were all there to help me fulfill orders, and even promote it on their end.

Starting a new chapter usually means getting out of your comfort zone, how did you do that? Can you share a story or example of that?

I think being in front of the camera is getting outside my comfort zone. I tend to be a little shy and a little bit of a homebody. One specific situation was back in October when I made an appearance on a local television show. I was so nervous to be in front of the camera. Before I went on camera, I was shaking. But it all worked out and the experience was great.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me before I started” and why?

1- Hard work is important but does not always pay off. I believe in working hard. But sometimes when you work hard, it doesn’t always work out. Case in point was my restaurant. I worked so hard and I failed. But even when you fail you must not give up.

2 — It’s ok to make mistakes- we all make them. We’re all not perfect. We are all going to make decisions that we’re not proud of. The most important thing is that we learn from them. Again when I had my restaurant, I did make many mistakes I have learned from them, and I won’t make them again.

3 — Believe in yourself even if someone else doesn’t. When I first started this journey of sharing on social media, I think a lot of people thought it was strange. Like how is she going to make money? Why is she doing this? If you believe in what you’re doing and set your mind to it. I believe we can accomplish so many things.

4- Be true to yourself. I think that sometimes on social media things are not always the way they appear. There are a lot of fake people out there. Never try to be someone else just be who you are. I recently had someone tell me that they appreciate how grateful I am and that it comes through in my videos. She sent me a whole long note after I did a reel expressing gratitude to my contractors in Italy. This made me so happy because I feel like I am truly grateful for where I am right now in my life, and I think it is because I have always been true to myself.

5- It’s never too late. I think these days women think they can’t reinvent themselves after they have kids. Or that they are too old to do something new. I am here to tell you and prove that this is not the case. I reinvented myself in my late 40’s and created something from nothing.

You are person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?

For me, I think the biggest thing is showing people they can make delicious and healthy meals for their families. With the state of the quality of our food in this country and how busy everyone is, I feel like everyone turns to fast food way too quickly. If I could teach someone how to cook and make nourishing meals for their family as opposed to doing takeout I’ve succeeded in my goal. In addition, if I could bring people to the table as a family, where they forge relationships and memories it would make me so happy.

We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them. :-) I think it would be Martha Stewart. Most recently I had someone tell me that I am an Italian Martha Stewart, and it was such a compliment to me. Martha has had many rough times. Don’t get me wrong she had made her mistakes, I think we all have. But through it all she did it with grace and class and I admire her for it. She was able to get through bad times and come out a winner on the other side.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

I share a lot on my TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. I constantly share recipes, decorating ideas, life in Italy, and travel tips. Also, my website www.miciamammas.com is where you can find my shop with all my products.

Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!