California chef, restaurateur, and cookbook author Biba Caggiano died last Thursday. Caggiano, who emigrated to the US in the late 1970s, and her husband opened an Italian restaurant simply named 'Biba' in Sacramento in late 1986, which quickly set the standard for fine dining and exemplary service in the state capital.

Caggiano had no formal culinary training, almost no experience running a business, and was a woman in a male-dominated world. Yet she not only survived, she almost single-handedly elevated the Sacramento dining scene. Staying true to her roots, she cooked only foods from her native Bologna, Italy, although she did take pride in using local ingredients.

While she was not a celebrity outside of the Sacramento area, Caggiano also wrote several well-regarded cookbooks, many of which are popular with EYB Members. Caggiano, who suffered from Alzheimer's in her final years, was 82.