‘They took away a part of us’: Handwritten family recipes stolen during restaurant break-in

CULVER CITY, Calif. — A family heirloom containing recipes that are nearly 100 years old was stolen during a burglary at a California restaurant.

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Burglars targeted Pasta Sisters in Culver City over the weekend, stealing a safe and a few thousand dollars inside it, KTTV reported.

It wasn’t losing the money that devastated the restaurant’s owners. In an Instagram post, Pasta Sisters explained that the owners’ grandmother’s diary was inside the safe and taken. The diary, described as handwritten and “full of recipes, life tips, and her memories” was written in Italian. The owners said the diary “is the only thing we have left from her, and it’s extremely important to us.”

Francesco and Giorgia Sinatra, co-owners of Pasta Sisters, opened the restaurant using the recipes and knowledge handed down by their Nona Jana in her diary, KNBC reported.

“That book was something we could actually touch, and that was her,” Giorgia Sinatra told KNBC. “She’s in every single recipe, our gnocchi, the lasagna, everything people eat here is like a celebration of her life.”

Sinatra told KCBS that the thieves broke into the restaurant early Sunday morning and took just 20 minutes to rip out the safe, which had been bolted down.

“You can still see all the scratches of the safe,” Sinatra said. “You can see there, they dragged the safe out and you can see the scratches where they probably had a car.”

There were a few thousand dollars in the safe, but the Sinatras are only asking for the return of the diary, and are offering a $5,000 reward, no questions asked.

“We just want the diary,” Sinatra told KCBS. “My grandma wrote it while she was growing up, and when she was young until she passed away. After she passed away, that was the one thing she left to my mom.”

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