ROCHESTER TEN | MARGHERITA SMITH 

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Age: 38
Hometown: Rochester
Current residence: Rochester
Occupation: Chef; owner at The Saucey Chef

Margherita Smith, founder of indulgent takeout restaurant The Saucey Chef, wants to be a chef for the people.

“Everybody should be able to eat good and eating good does not mean fine dining,” she said.

Smith also has a personal and professional philosophy: relentless pursuit. It’s a term the strong-willed chef cemented when she received her first paycheck for a private chef gig, but has embodied since she was a kid sneaking into her mother’s pristine, guarded kitchen to cook.

“If my mom was going to be home at such-and-such a time, I would make sure to leave no trace,” Smith reminisced. “Mind you, she pretty much always caught me, but I just waged on.”

Over the years, Smith’s experience and knowledge grew as she worked at an Italian pastry shop, a pasta shop and a food truck; earned a degree in hospitality from Rochester Institute of Technology; bartended; cooked for private parties; and hosted pop-up dinners at the former Rosario Pino’s artisan food store. She flexed her networking abilities, learned how to use social media for marketing and embodied self-reliance.

Smith also spent time in the kitchen of legendary Rochester Italian joint 2Vine in its heyday.

“I’ve kept a scratch mentality because of the extra steps we took at 2Vine,” she said. “There’s nothing that we do [at The Saucey Chef] that we don’t do ourselves. That is a grounding principle for the food that we cook: as simple as it could be, we don’t cut corners.”

Corners aren’t cut with hospitality at Saucey either, despite being takeout-only with clear signage to keep people from coming inside. Smith can list names of regulars off the top of her head and knows what food they like. She’ll even give some especially regular customers a personal text about the next week’s menu if she thinks they’ll want to reserve a plate.

Before opening The Saucey Chef in 2019, Smith started a meal prep delivery service (now dubbed ‘Ripe by Saucey’) focused on healthy everyday food. The idea was born when a friend’s mother was sick and Smith wanted to lend a hand, making pureed soups and other easy-to-eat, wholesome meals. The Ripe concept grew and allowed Smith to save up enough money to eventually launch The Saucey Chef without going into debt.

Leslie Pierre-Philippe, an academic advisor at Finger Lakes Community College, met Smith in college. Though they lost touch for a few years, the two reconnected during the meal prep delivery days.

“When she started her restaurant and it was literally just her in the kitchen, I would come by after work and help her finish the night out,” Pierre-Philippe said. “I appreciate her genuine love of food.”

Now a mother of four kids, Smith has built up a business where she can flex her creativity as a chef while simultaneously making an impact on Rochester’s wide community.

“We serve everyone,” Smith said. “If there’s a neighborhood teen who wants to order Saucey, is there something they can afford on the menu? That’s important to me.”

Smith is unabashed in her views on culture and society. Saucey, with its multicultural team, has a working relationship with Ibero, a program from the American Action League that helps empower immigrants and the underserved, including obtaining working papers and finding job placements. During the student-led protests against local colleges’ ties to Israel in the ongoing war against Palestine, Saucey provided food to the encampments in Rochester.

“I don’t think I could be a chef without the elements of being an entrepreneur,” she said, “because I want to do what I want, how I see fit.” — KELLEN BECK