Any restaurateur or chef-owner of a large-scale restaurant will tell you the hospitality business takes a huge toll on one's personal life. The holidays, celebrations, and family moments most people take for granted are written off in the name of profits, customer satisfaction, and the restaurant's overall reputation. The fact is any day of the week and any time of the year, someone, somewhere, wants to go out to eat.

Somehow, chef-owner Paul Caputo of Café Bella Vita in Mohegan Lake has managed to build a profitable business, develop a dedicated customer base, and remain happy and content despite the grueling hours and endless work.

It could be that Chef Caputo has perfected the art of the "family business," a cautious undertaking but one that seems to have paid off. Along with his partner and wife, Gina Marie, the chef is truly at home in his kitchen, going through the motions without sacrificing family time.

While their son, Vincent Dean, 10, plays little league and focuses on his studies, the husband-and-wife team have created in Café Bella Vita a family kitchen where friends and relatives can congregate. 

"The joy is that we're always together," said Caputo's wife, Gina Marie. "We've been together since we were 13. Now we have a little boy, he's 10, and it's a little harder. We shuffle him from his aunt's to his grandparents' every weekend so we can take care of business here. We've been doing this now for 15 or 16 years. We just love it. I love being around the people, it's great. We have the best of both worlds."

And while his wife remains the joyful foundation of the restaurant, Chef Caputo maintains a realistic balance in his approach to his business. While quality, family time is an integral part of his Italian restaurant, the doors – just like any successful establishment – must stay open through thick and thin.

"Your day is never over, your time is not your own," Caputo said. "You sacrifice just about everything, owning a restaurant. You sacrifice your family, your personal time, how many weddings and communions and confirmations that I didn't go to….customers don't want to hear that, that you're not there, especially when you're the owner and the chef."

That dedication to his clientele is what has brought Caputo the success he has enjoyed. After running a powerhouse restaurant, named Gina Marie's after his wife, in Mt. Vernon for 15 years, he and his family moved closer to their home and opened Café Bella Vita. And while a fire destroyed their former "gold mine" in Mt. Vernon, nearly ending their run in the restaurant business, the couple could not foresee a future without their customers.

"I cook with a lot of love and intensity…." Caputo said. "It's very easy to get bored when it's slow, but when it's slow that when you really have to be on top of your game. You never know who's going to walk into your restaurant… you never know what a customer is there for. Whether they're there to tell their friends about you, for a catering event, or just to see what's going on whether it's your competition."

For Caputo, cooking is in his bloodline. He grew up in a traditional Italian-American family, through which he learned how to please people, and feed them. That, paired with a work ethic instilled in him since he was 12, has been the perfect recipe for his successes.

"I was about 12 years old, I got a job at a pizzeria restaurant in the Bronx because I wanted to save up for a car," Caputo said. "It was just our values and the way we were brought up, as hard workers.

He said he comes from a big family and remembers always helping in the kitchen as a child. 

"Everything revolved around food in our family," he said. "When you sat down every Sunday for dinner, it was a five hour event. There were about six or seven courses. It was a pretty big deal."

He tries to do the same at his restaurant too.

"I've got a five course family-style meal, which you're not going to come and eat in 20 minutes and get outta here," he said. "I try to bring a little of that back."

While learning the ropes of cooking from his grandparents, Chef Caputo said cooking must come from the heart. Even still, his experience behind the line of some of New York City's and White Plains' Italian restaurants taught him the ins and outs of the business – ideals that cannot be subject to compromise.

"You have to watch what the sous chef is doing, what the salad chef is doing, what the pastry chef is doing, the pasta man, the grill man," he said. "Everybody has got to work together. There's a lot of joking around, practical jokes, pranks, but when it comes down to service and its dinner time, everybody really knows how to turn it up, especially my staff. I've never really worked in a kitchen that was too lackadaisical, where people didn't care what we did."

Today, the couple continues to display a work ethic that is integral to creating a polished establishment. 

"There's always something to do, don't tell us there isn't any work to be done," Gina Marie said. "There's windows to be cleaned, ceiling fans to be dusted, napkins to be folded."

"I use more bleach than most Laundromats to clean [the restaurant]," the chef said.

After polishing every last corner of their business before leaving at night, Paul and Gina Marie Caputo are proud of their lives and the example they're setting for their son. While business never ends, the two share an incomparable satisfaction and the joy of things to come. When the doors to Café Bella Vita are locked at night and the last lights are switched off, rest is easy to find at home.

"We're homebodies, we built our home," Gina Marie said. "Everything we want is in our home…to me there are no regrets."