Golden goose—that’s what proud parents Fiore Tedesco III and Katie Bender dubbed their baby girl when she was born with a shock of blonde hair—an anomaly in her brunette family tree. Tedesco, executive chef, now co-owns a restaurant bearing his daughter’s Italian nickname: L’Oca d’Oro.

But making the restaurant a gold-plated success took years of hard work in the industry, Tedesco said. Before opening L’Oca d’Oro in 2016, Tedesco cut his teeth at Franklin BBQ, running the kitchen at Bufalina and got his start in Austin at La Condesa. He said he remembers scribbling down ideas for the concept of L’Oca d’Oro, which first manifested as a pop-up restaurant with rock ’n’ roll album-themed dinners, in between running meat through the smoker at Franklin.