'Coming Home To Do What I Love': Levittonian Finds Social Media Stardom With 'Italian Sushi'

LEVITTOWN, NY — When Dondi Peterson started working at his uncle’s Italian market, he didn’t expect to become a social media sensation. He was 12 years-old, and the biggest question on his mind at the time was how he could pay for the newest pair of Air Jordans.

“I grew up in Queens. I moved out to Long Island when I was 10. My uncle Tony had an Italian pork stork where they made ravioli and mozzarella," Peterson said. "I wanted the new Jordans that came out. And my mom was like, ‘You're going to have to get a job, because there's four of you." And I said, ‘Okay.’ So I called my Uncle Tony, I started working there, and I’ve made pasta and mozzarella since I was 12 years old.”

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Fast-forwarding a few years, Peterson moved from one uncle's store to another: He took over the mozzarella cheese department for Uncle Giuseppe’s Marketplace in 2010. While he had experience making mozzarella, the now-41-year-old said it wasn’t the easiest space to innovate.

“There's only so many ways you can cut a piece of mozzarella, right? You make a Caprese salad, you can put it on an antipasto platter,” Peterson said. With that in mind, the question was simple. “What fun ways can we come up with [to serve] it? So I was looking at all these different things, and I was like, ‘you know what? I see these people making this Italian sushi, but they're using it as like prosciutto base, and they're filling all the prosciutto, they're rolling it up.’ I said, ‘What if I use it as a mozzarella sushi? And mozzarella is the main item, and that we could fill it with different items and go from there?’ And we did it, and I said, ‘Let's make 10 of each a day, and we'll see where it goes.’”

After the initial 10-a-day batches of “Italian sushi,” Peterson said the new menu item took off to an extent he couldn’t have foreseen. Millions of social media views and an appearance on “The Today Show” later, the Levittown father of four said his lifelong passion for food has been rewarded.

“Lo behold, it took off. Social media took it, and it went wild,” Peterson said. “And I really couldn't believe it…I’m passionate about food, and I believe if you have an imagination and you have a love for food, the sky is the limit. There's no end to what fun creation you can come up with, with a beautiful flavor profile.”

To that point about creations, there are three of them on the Uncle Giuseppe’s Italian sushi slate right now: Fig, arugula and prosciutto; stracciatella, roasted red pepper and prosciutto; and pesto, pepperoni and hot honey. All three, of course, come with Uncle Giuseppe’s mozzarella, cut into eight pieces and served with balsamic glaze, sold for $12.99 per-roll. Peterson said the menu isn’t done expanding, either. One perk of the dish’s social media superstardom, he said, is some immediate feedback from prospective customers.

“It’s been challenging, because I read every comment…I see the good, the bad and the ugly, I see what people say,” Peterson said. “And some of the things I've been seeing on there was [requests for] vegetarian [sushi]. So I am trying to figure out how I can get a nice thin fried piece of eggplant and make a vegetarian one. Instead of a prosciutto, use the eggplant on the outside. But that's not out yet, we haven't perfected it yet, but that's my goal.”

For shoppers used to a more traditional antipasto platter, Peterson said samples are readily available in-store.

“We sample everything, and once you taste one of our items, there's a good chance you're gonna buy it and take it home, whether it be the new innovations in pasta, new innovations in seafood, or the bakery,” Peterson said. “We have sample stations all over the store, you can taste what we create. And once you taste it, you're going to buy it.”

For the man behind the mozzarella, a decades-long career at Uncle Giuseppe’s is coming full-circle these days.

“My uncle Tony introduced me to Uncle Giuseppe’s, and the rest was history," Peterson said. "We’re coming up on we're coming up on our 25th anniversary this year, which is amazing. When I started, we had five stores. Now we have 12, soon to be 14.”

One of the soon-to-open stores, Peterson said, will be in Greenvale, while the other will be in his hometown: Levittown.

“It’s funny, Levittown is where I live. That’s where I started,” Peterson said. “It’s like I’m coming home to do what I love, even though I’ve lived there my whole life.”