Pioneer Pasta Maker Dies At Age 70

Giorgio Fini, a restaurateur who first packaged and sold homemade pasta, has died of a heart attack in a Rome clinic. He was 70.

Fini died Monday, several days after entering the clinic for heart trouble.

After World War II, Fini built a fortune by retailing tortellini, small pasta rolls filled with cheese, meat or vegetables, which until then were only sold fresh. Besides pasta, Fini’s brand is known for cold cuts, wine, balsamic vinegar and other traditional foods of Modena, his hometown in north-central Italy.

In the 1950s, Fini first turned his father’s sausage factory into a fancy restaurant and then into an international food company.

In 1989, he sold his 500-employee company and its brand name to the multinational food company Kraft. The family also opened a luxury hotel in Modena.