After months of illness, Gianfranco Sorrentino, one of the pioneers of Italian gastronomic entrepreneurship in the Big Apple, has died, leaving behind his wife Paula Bolla and two children, Sofia and Edoardo, who will continue to carry on his projects. 

Sorrentino was owner of two restaurants, Il Gattopardo and The Leopard at des Artistes, but also president of Gruppo Italiano, a nonprofit organization with the goal of promoting Italian culture and gastronomy in New York.