In America today, the cannoli is considered a quintessential Italian pastry, a staple at Italian delis and bakeries. Mundelein pastry shop Tony Cannoli, owned by Tony Volpentesta, certainly fits the image of a small, local Italian shop, and Volpentesta even learned the trade from his Italian grandmother. But his inspiration to start a cannoli shop actually came from an island several thousand miles away from Sicily, where the cannoli was first born — Japan.