Joe Faro’s business cards call him Tuscan Brands’ “chief food taster,” but that modest moniker doesn’t begin to scratch the surface of a career in which he’s built, not one, but two, wildly successful Italian food empires.

Chapter one of that entrepreneurial life was Joseph’s Gourmet Pasta and Sauces in Haverhill, which grew into the largest producer of specialty pasta and sauces in the country and which Faro sold to Nestlé in 2006. Chapter two has been Tuscan Brands, which includes restaurants and Italian markets located throughout the region, including its newest in Boston’s Seaport District and its flagship Tuscan Kitchen and Tuscan Market in Salem, New Hampshire, which Faro calls “the epicenter of our scratch Italian brands.”