The lunchtime rush had long passed, but conversations lingered across the tables at The Original Farmers Market. Friends pulled up chairs, families shared plates, and generations of merchants greeted familiar faces. For chef Nancy Silverton, that scene captures something essential about Los Angeles.
“It’s sort of a microcosm of what L.A. is,” Silverton said while overlooking the historic market during Ancestry’s The Stories of US: Generations event. “It’s this gathering place.”
The celebration brought together merchants, community members, and one of Los Angeles’ most influential culinary figures for an intimate cooking demonstration centered on family stories, heritage, and the small businesses that have helped shape the city for nearly a century.
As co-owner of beloved restaurants including Pizzeria Mozza, Osteria Mozza, Mozza2Go, and Chi Spacca, Silverton has spent decades helping define Southern California’s culinary identity. Yet her appearance at the market wasn’t about restaurant accolades or industry recognition. It was about tracing the family stories that shaped her long before she entered a professional kitchen.
Los Angeles leads the nation in small businesses, and nowhere is that entrepreneurial spirit more visible than at The Original Farmers Market. Walking through its aisles feels like moving through a living archive of the city itself, where family-run businesses have passed recipes, traditions, and ownership from one generation to the next.
“You feel the generational fabric in each of the businesses here,” Silverton said. “You feel like all of them opened with the intent of keeping it a family business. Each one is proud of that little sign that says established whenever it is. Whether it’s 10 years or 60 years, you feel like it’s part of the family.”
That sense of continuity sits at the heart of Ancestry’s Stories of US campaign, which encourages people to explore and share their family histories. For every family story submitted through Ancestry’s platform, the company will sponsor a Los Angeles-area student to participate in the entrepreneurship program offered by the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), connecting personal history with future opportunity.
For Silverton, family history begins with stories she inherited from her parents. Her father grew up in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, spending summers on relatives’ farms in Saskatchewan, Canada, while her mother was raised in Yonkers, New York, surrounded by politically active relatives who left a lasting impression on her worldview.
Those family roots helped shape Silverton’s perspective, but it was the daily rhythm of family life that left the deepest mark. During the cooking demonstration, she prepared one of her mother’s signature recipes: an egg salad sandwich. The dish may seem simple, but for Silverton it carries decades of memories.
“My mother and her egg salad is definitely a story on so many levels,” she said with a laugh. “She loved it. I hated it growing up. I wanted bologna sandwiches and all these things, and she would never make them for me because she was very health conscious.”
Today, that same sandwich serves as a bridge to the past. “For me, it wasn’t actually the food that is the memory,” Silverton said. “For me, it’s sitting at the table with my family and the conversation that went on at that table.” Every evening, her family gathered around the dinner table at 6:30 p.m. Her father sat to her left, her sister to her right, and her mother across from her. It became a nightly classroom where discussions ranged from politics and books to movies and the day’s events.
“I learned about politics. I learned about movies. I learned about books. I learned about opinions,” she recalled. “There was always somebody that ended up pulling up a chair at that table. Whether it was a friend of my sister, or mine, or a friend of the family, they were always welcome.”
That hospitality, she said, shaped the way she approaches food and restaurants today. Meals were never just nourishment. They were an invitation to connect. It’s a lesson that feels increasingly relevant in a world dominated by algorithms, endless scrolling, and digital distractions.
Asked what advice she would offer younger generations navigating social media and an increasingly fast-paced world, Silverton pointed back to family history. “My parents were such champions of their ancestry,” she said. “Embrace your ancestry. Find out your own history. It really gives you a different perspective on life.”
She paused before reflecting on how easily people can become consumed by followers, trends, and online validation. “Are they really stopping to think and reflect on where they came from and how that impacts their life?” she asked.
As Silverton looked across the market’s bustling corridors, she seemed to recognize something larger than a food destination. She saw a gathering place where Los Angeles continues to tell its story, one family at a time. And like the chair that was always waiting at her family’s dinner table, there is always room for another story.
For more information about The Stories of US: Generations Walking Tour visit ancestry.com
Visit The Original Farmer’s Market
Address: 6333 W. 3rd Street, Los Angeles
Hours: Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.–9 p.m.
Saturday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m.
Sunday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m.
Photo credits: Photo courtesy of Ancestry
