The Heat In Peter Caserta's Kitchen

It's dinnertime at Pasta Luna, a new cafeteria-style Italian restaurant in Richmond, Va. Standing near the kitchen is a balding, middle-aged man with his remaining gray hair bound tightly in a short pony tail. "All fresh, homemade ingredients," he tells a customer. After he concludes his amiable sales pitch for the restaurant, he proclaims: "This may be the best Italian food in the country."

Sure, it's hyperbole--but that's no surprise. The host is none other than Peter T. Caserta, whose bold pronouncements and alleged half-truths transformed Spectrum Information Technologies Inc. into one of the top performers on the stock market over a year ago. Perhaps the greatest display of Caserta's talents was convincing former Apple Computer Inc. Chairman John Sculley--who had also been rumored to be in the running for the top jobs at IBM and Motorola, to head the Manhasset (N.Y.) company that developed wireless transmission technology. Sculley quit four months later in February, 1994.