The legacy of Mark Giannini ’19 lives on
“He got into cooking because his parents weren’t around much,” his son Joe Giannini said. “He cooked because he had to.”
Later on, he cooked because he loved to.
“Without a doubt, he loved food,” said Joe. “But to him it was more about culture. Food was an outlet.”
After serving in the U.S. Navy, Giannini joined the Springfield Fire Department, where he often cooked for his fellow firefighters at the Station 9 safety complex on Carew Street. Through the years, he ran a catering business, opened a restaurant called Friends in Chicopee with his wife Abby, worked at MGM Springfield, and, more recently, started a fit meal business and landed a job as the head chef at Mario’s Café Ambiance, an Italian restaurant near his East Longmeadow home.
He didn’t need a culinary arts certificate or another cooking credential to pad his resume.
“That was the thing about him,” said Nicole Ortiz ’19, ’20, one of Giannini’s HCC classmates. “He wanted to further his knowledge. He really cared about the character of food. He had a lot of experience before he came here. He just wanted to sharpen his tools and learn some more things.”
[Giannini] wanted the scholarship to go to students who were known as being good people, helpful to their classmates and instructors, and who treated people with kindness, respect, and dignity
His classmates and instructors remember Giannini as generous, kind, upbeat, always willing to help, and excited to share food he cooked and brought in from home, especially Italian dishes.
“He always wanted to share what he enjoyed with everybody else and bring people together with his food,” said Jessica Garza ’19.
“He had such a positive, almost intoxicating energy,” said Maureen Hindle ’12, now a culinary arts lab tech. “His passion seemed to drive everything from his plating to his creativity to his overall work ethic.”
Giannini hired Ortiz to work for him in the kitchen at Mario’s while they were still in school, and Giannini worked with Ortiz as she was starting up her Crave food truck and restaurant business in Holyoke.
“He was more than just a classmate,” said Ortiz. “He was a friend, definitely.”
A few years later, as Giannini battled a rare and terminal form of gastrointestinal cancer, his attention returned to his classmates at HCC. He remembered one in particular, a single mother with a young child who was struggling with transportation, child care, school, family responsibilities, homework.
“Mark was overwhelmed with the dedication and hard work of this single mother, and that she was a really considerate and helpful classmate when she had so much on her plate,” said Julie Phillips, HCC director of institutional development.
That classmate inspired Giannini to establish a scholarship during the last few months of his life. But he didn’t want the scholarship to be based solely on academic achievement.
“He wanted the scholarship to go to students who were known as being good people, helpful to their classmates and instructors, and who treated people with kindness, respect, and dignity,” Phillips said.
Through the HCC Foundation, Giannini and his family created the Mark Giannini ’19 Good Character Scholarship, to be awarded annually to two students selected by the culinary arts faculty and staff, one in the certificate program and one in the associate degree program.
In December 2022, the scholarship was awarded for the first time during a special lunch at the HCC MGM Culinary Arts Institute to Tyrone McClure of Northampton and Aeryn Willigham ’23 of Springfield. They each received a check for $500, along with a vegan cookbook that had become meaningful to Giannini as he sought new recipes to make meals more palatable to him as he continued his treatment.
Giannini had hoped to attend the lunch himself to recognize the scholarship recipients in person, but he died shortly before.
At the lunch, McClure, 44, said he hoped to one day open a food truck business where he would employ the homeless.
“I know what it’s like to struggle with opportunities,” McClure said. “I want to do my part to help help ease the way for others.”
Willingham graduated from HCC in June with her associate degree.
“I was really honored that I was somebody they thought of as being hardworking and helpful and kind,” said Willingham, who went on to the University of Massachusetts Amherst. “I do my best to exemplify those sorts of attributes, and it means a lot to hear that it comes across like that. I didn’t know Mark personally, but I can say already that the legacy he leaves is making a lot of people happy.”
So did the day’s menu, which was prepared by HCC culinary arts students and selected with some of Giannini’s favorite foods in mind: Caesar salad, braised beef, polenta, and roasted root vegetables.
“The braised beef was amazing,” said his son Joe. “It brought me back. Homestyle — like how my dad used to cook it.”
