When Maria Linquata first met her future husband, Chef Tony Susi, they were sharing tight kitchen prep space at Stir in the South End.
In fall 2019, Barbara Lynch’s now-closed, 10-seat concept restaurant featured a cast of rotating guest chefs, including Tony, a North End native, following stints in New York, and at Boston’s Wink and Nod. Maria, who grew up in Burlington, managed private events for Stir, and two days a week, six hours a day, due to the demonstration kitchen’s open layout, she and Tony were the culinary equivalent of cubicle mates.
They bonded over their “giant” Italian families (“bit of drama, bit of chaos, a couple of layers of guilt,” he explains) and the sometimes demanding, often comical requests from customers asking to tweak the chef’s recipe or seeking off-menu requests. (They cite “The Cake incident” and “The Yule Log incident” while exchanging knowing looks.)
The couple agreed they didn’t want a long engagement, opting to lean on their decades of industry knowledge and connections to plan a wedding in about a year. Cheryl Richard
It was professional, but added laughter and camaraderie to the workday. Plus, for Maria, there were taste-testing perks: “Tony gave me pasta snacks all the time,” says Maria. “That was my favorite thing about him, at first.”
Tony left Stir in January for contract opportunities at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and golf clubs and resorts in Florida while the Covid-19 pandemic kept Boston’s hospitality scene at a standstill for parts of 2020.
Maria, a longtime hobbyist, started a custom and wholesale business for pastries and other sweet treats. Spending time with Niko, her “little sous chef” and young son from a previous marriage, was her priority. She began with macarons after learning about their temperamental nature and was soon constructing hot chocolate “bombs” for cocktails at Chef Louis DiBiccari’s (now closed) Create gallery and lounge in Bow Market.
When Maria considered expanding her business in February 2022, she texted Tony for advice.
Maria’s son, Nico (center), served as ring bearer and walked with the couple down the aisle after the ceremony to Tina Turner’s “Simply the Best.”Cheryl Richard
“I respected his opinion and knew that he knew what he was talking about,” she explains. “I also felt comfortable in that he’s a kind person, and he would never be like, ‘This is a terrible idea, don’t do this.’ If he thought it was a bad idea, he was going to give me constructive criticism, if anything. But I definitely chose my outfit very carefully.”
She proposed a “business lunch,” but Tony suspected it might be a precursor to a date: “We could have easily done it over the phone,” he says.
At Coppa, Maria launched into questions about classifications and licenses for commercial kitchen trailers and food trucks. But soon, food — compliments of the chef — began to arrive from the kitchen.
“It was very eye-opening for me,” explains Maria, who says they can’t “walk into a room and not [see] someone who knows who [Tony is]… I was like, ‘My god, I’m with a celebrity.’” (Tony offers a humble shake of his head in response.)
The couple asked their friends Meredith FitzGerald and Chef Louis DiBiccari to officiate; Meredith had been the GM at Stir when Tony and Maria first met.Cheryl Richard
Their first official date was that July, a Plum Island beach day and dinner at Brine in Newburyport. Their first kiss was shortly after, following drinks at Lucca when Tony walked Maria back to her car. The first time Maria cooked for Tony was also the first time he met Niko. It also was the first time she made coq au vin.
“I like a challenge,” Maria, who grew up cooking with her father, explains. “If someone asks me for [a dish] on the fly, my go-to thinking is, ‘I’ve never tried this before. Let me do that.’”
Niko was 4, and the exchange consisted of a “hi” and “bye” before he darted off to Maria’s parents, who live in the in-law apartment behind her house.
Now 7, Niko and Tony are Mario Kart co-racers and partners in (fighting) crime — their newest pasttime is playing “police,” complete with sandwich bags Niko ‘borrows’ from his grandmother’s kitchen to collect “evidence.”
“I don’t think I love someone the way I love him,” says Tony.
By March 2023, Tony decided to trade his traveling contract gigs for something more permanent in Boston: “I feel like I’ve got a reason to be here.” (Maria clarifies she wasn’t the only factor in his decision, but Tony adds that she was “definitely a big role in” it.)
Among the wedding guests were a significant number of New England chefs. Cheryl Richard
One night in spring 2024, over dinner at Gallina in Lynnfield, Maria mused aloud: “So, are we going to get married, you think?” Tony felt “fine” about the concept of marriage, but he was passionate about spending his life with Maria and Niko.
“She’s a wonderful soul,” Tony says, “to say she’s a good person is not enough.”
In September 2024, Tony propped a ring box on their table at Sal’s Place in Provincetown. The Commercial Street restaurant was too crowded for him to take a knee, and a patron at their neighboring table waited through five minutes of Maria’s tears before asking, “Hey, did you guys just get engaged?”
Maria, now 35, and Tony, 52, wed in an outdoor afternoon ceremony on Sept. 21 at the Herb Lyceum in Groton. Their longtime friends Meredith FitzGerald and Louis DiBiccari — who predicted their “sparks” early on — co-officiated.
The couple read vows they had written, honoring a union that upheld a new “evolution” of their blended family. Tony restated his love and commitment to both his bride and her son: “I had married two people that day, not just one,” he says. In hers, Maria used the French phrase “mise en place” — or everything in its place — to describe their shared life and how Tony makes her feel.
The couple’s first dance was to Pia Toscano’s cover of James Arthur’s “Say You Won’t Let Go”Cheryl Richard
The couple planned every detail of their 250-guest wedding themselves. With their combined professional experiences — Maria is now the senior event sales manager for private members’ club, The Quin — they tackled wedding planning together as Tony simultaneously opened a new Hanover Street restaurant, Little Sage, a call-back to Sage, his former North End ristorante, in March.
Maria and Tony, who live in Burlington, had booked Herb Lyceum in Groton as their venue before they got engaged. Tony had contributed to the menu of the wedding of close friend Chef Will Gilson — who owns the working herb farm and event space with his father, David Gilson — in 2017. (The September of Tony and Maria’s engagement, the venue’s 19th-century carriage house, which served as indoor dining space, was destroyed in a fire.)
The property’s lawn and greenhouse serve as its primary event spaces, and guests spilled onto the grounds, eating their way through three waves of courses.
The menu — a collaboration of Will and Tony — featured a sit-down surf-and-turf dinner, with porchetta sandwiches served later in the night to fuel guests as they danced. Chef Jamie Bissonnette gifted the couple a bone-in Jamón Serrano, which was carved and served during cocktail hour; Tony’s father, Frank Susi, and his friend made 800 arrosticini, or Italian lamb skewers. (“A labor of love,” Tony says.) In addition to a lavish dessert spread, the newlyweds donned usherette trays to hand-pipe mini chocolate and vanilla cannolis for guests after dinner.
As they said their goodbyes, one guest relayed what can only be interpreted as a 5-star review: ‘I’ve never eaten so much food in my life.’
Read more from The Big Day, The Boston Globe’s new weddings column.
Rachel Kim Raczka is a writer and editor in Boston. She can be reached at rachel.raczka@globe.com.
Dining and Cooking