For longtime Long Beach diners, the much-missed Michael’s on Naples and the naples gem Marlena were never just restaurants. They were rooms shaped by hospitality, by warmth, by that subtle but increasingly rare art of making guests feel personally held. And for years, Debra Zelenka helped define exactly that feeling when she helped manage both.
Now, after nearly three decades in restaurants stretching from Manhattan to Southern California, Zelenka is stepping into something deeply personal: CaLisi Cucina Rustica, a Sicilian cooking-class series she is launching alongside her 83-year-old mother, Mary Frances Ruiz, inside Hartland’s, the perched-above-the-ocean space inside the 1900 Ocean building.
CaLisi Cucina Rustica is rooted not simply in food, but in ancestry.
CaLisi Cucina Rustica is the brainchild of mother-daughter team—specifically Mary Frances (Cali) Ruiz and Debra Lisi Ruiz-Zelenka. Hence “CaLisi,” paying tribute to their ancestors and lineage. Cali is Mary’s maiden name, and Lisi is Debra’s middle name, named after her mother’s favorite grandmother, Nonna Lisi.
And Nonna Lisi’s story, Debra says, is central to everything they hope the project becomes. Though she had little herself, she routinely gave away food and essentials to neighbors in greater need—a generosity that has become family mythology and personal compass.
“It’s a name I wear as a badge of honor and one I aspire to live up to more and more as I continue to grow,” Debra said.
CaLisi Cucina Rustica itself emerged the way many enduring ideas do: quietly, over breakfast, the morning after Debra’s 50th birthday. Still glowing from a night filled with friends, family, and shared food, she and her mother began talking about restaurants—what Debra missed, and what she did not. After years leading front-of-house operations at acclaimed spaces including Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows’s FIG, Rustic Canyon, Michael’s on Naples, and later helping open Marlena, she knew exactly what restaurant life demanded.
Stepping away from the hustle of hospitality gave birth to CaLisi Cucina Rustica
“Leaving Marlena was hard. It was a decision that did not come lightly. And it hurt. It pained me deeply,” Debra said. “I had poured my nearly 30 years of experience, knowledge, connections and love of seasonal cuisine, boutique wine, craft cocktails, and hospitality into a place I truly believed in.”
But stepping away was also about choosing time—particularly with family. After all, the demands of the role of a GM in a brand new, independently owned restaurant come with weights not seen by the common patron. Repairs. Therapy sessions with employees, both kitchen and FOH staff. Logistics, be it product ordering or figuring out the sound system… It left her with absolutely zero time for anyone, but especially her mother.
That absence from hospitality, however, did not last quietly. What she missed most was not simply service, but connection: community, conversation, and the intimacy of teaching people through food. That is where the cooking-class idea surfaced.
“What if we brought back the cooking classes?” she recalled blurting out to her mother. “But instead of you and Gab teaching them, you and [Chef Michael Flores from Marlena] can lead them. And I will offer a wine pairing for each dish that you teach.”
Culinary memories, storytelling, and Sicilian recipes.
That initial spark became something larger: a concept built around Sicilian kitchens, family recipes, culinary memory, and storytelling. Classes at Hartland’s will not simply teach recipes; they will trace the history behind them—why Sicilian food developed as it did, how ingredients traveled, what traditions survived migration, and how kitchens become archives of family identity.
For Debra, the project is also deeply personal in another way: preservation.
“It’s a chance to ensure that generations of family recipes and traditions passed down over centuries don’t die with me,” she said. “And on top of all that, it’s a chance to do it all with my mama.”
The last chance to see a Sicilian mother extend her motherly, culinary reach…
That her mother is doing this while navigating Parkinson’s after more than a decade makes the endeavor feel even more urgent—and more beautiful.
“The woman who, at 83 years old, even while dealing with Parkinson’s for over a decade now, is still not finished writing her story or the last chapter of her life,” Debra said. “And is just as excited to go on this crazy journey with me as I am with her.”
In a city where hospitality often moves fast, and openings can feel transactional, CaLisi Cucina Rustica arrives with something rarer: inheritance made public, family memory turned communal table, and a veteran of Long Beach dining returning not to manage a room—but to invite people deeper into one.
What to literally expect from a CaLisi Cucina Rustica cooking class…
Broken down, here is what you can directly expect from the class:
- Focus on regional Sicilian cuisine and wine parings, using locally sourced, seasonal produce.
- Hands on, immersive experience in an intimate setting.
- Classes are limited to 12 students (maximum) to allow personal interaction with Nonna Mary and the guest chef.
- Feature 1-3 main ingredients in 3 different dishes, showcasing their versatility.
- Appetizer, entree, dessert, or all savory.
- Mary, a guest chef, and Debra each take the lead on teaching one dish while the rest of us support and assist students.
- Guest chef teaches professional chef techniques & tips.
- Mary shares personal stories about the history of each dish, their ingredients, and their region of origin.
- Mary and Debra share personal stories surrounding our family’s traditions, history and culture.
- Debra features a different variety of Sicilian wine to be paired with each dish.
- Everyone sits and eats together, family-style, to enjoy what we made with students at the end of class, providing an opportunity to connect on a personal level.
