Chef Aamar's parents didn't expect a chef when they sent their son to Italy to study architecture in Florence. His passion for Italian food began when he took a job in a restaurant to make some money during summer vacations. As time went on his interest in cooking grew. He came to the U.S. in 1984 first working in Kentucky, California and then New York. In 1989 he met Adam Reiss who had just opened Doc's in New Preston and left Orso to cook there. Cooking to rave reviews for 6 and 1/2 years, Aamar left in 1995 and opened Oliva in the spring of 1997.