Chef Franklin Hernandez discovered his calling as a teenager when he took his first job as a pizza maker at Ecco Café Pizzeria in Old Town Alexandria in 1988. Over the years, the owner opened other Italian restaurants in Arlington and Shirlington, where Franklin cooked and served as an assistant manager.In 1994, he began working at Primi Piatti in Washington, DC, under the tutelage of three renowned Italian chefs: Savino Recine, Roberto Donna, and Luigi Diotaiuti. Franklin and Luigi worked together for 20 years, including opening Al Tiramisu in Dupont Circle. They often hosted wine dinners, taught cooking classes, met and cooked with other Italian chefs (including a two-month stay in Italy), and even provided meals for the Italian National Team at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah.In 2017, Chef Franklin went to Manassas Park to help another chef open Tortino Mare, where he ran the kitchen for two and a half years, quickly building a loyal clientele. When the owner of Canterbury Village Shopping Center on Sudley Rd. in Manassas heard about the outstanding food at Tortino Mare, he invited Chef Franklin to prepare a chef’s table dinner for a party of eight to celebrate his wife’s birthday. Franklin rose to the occasion, and the gentleman was so impressed that he invited him to explore a vacant location in the shopping center, asking if he would consider opening a restaurant there. Franklin accepted and spent almost a year completing renovations. The name, “Semifreddo,” was chosen by his wife, who suggested it in honor of her favorite traditional Italian dessert—a semi-frozen mousse with crunchy amaretto cookies and caramelized walnuts.