MS Taste of Hope

Lena Cialfi, pastry and pasta chef at Peppercorn’s Grill of Hartford and Piccolo Arancio of Farmington, stirs up a dish with the restaurants’ executive chef and part-owner Tina Autunno, right, at the MS Taste of Hope, Hartford. The event, held at The Society Room in Hartford, attracted nearly 200 guests and raised more than $30,000 for the National MS Society, Connecticut Chapter, with a matching grant from the Gibney Family Foundation. Cialfi, who was born in Italy, makes all of the homemade pasta served in the two family-owned restaurants.