<p>Eric Skae was running Rao&#39;s — one of the most iconic pasta sauce brands in America — when his daughter told him she wanted to go somewhere else for her birthday. Not just anywhere: Carbone, the red-sauce Italian restaurant that had become the hottest reservation in New York. &quot;It&#39;s the place for my generation,&quot; she told him. &quot;I&#39;ve already been to Rao&#39;s with you.&quot; Five years later, Skae has turned that generational insight into a sauce brand that has surpassed <a href="https://www.carbonefinefood.com/">$100 million in retail sales</a>, landed in 30,000 stores, and deliberately abandoned traditional advertising in favor of a strategy built on earned media, events, and a single borrowed philosophy from the restaurant: dinner is the show.</p>