Article by Matteo Donelli
Leaving the certain road, made up of affirmations, career, continuous satisfactions and earnings, due to uncertainty.
The passion handed down by our ancestors guided Amelia and Alfonso in an epochal change of road.
For them, the Cuomo brothers, but also for their land: Gragnano.
Bringing the story of your ancestors back to life and dreaming!
The desire to go home. Amelia, after many years of living in Rome as a manager, as does Alfonso, after a long period as a top manager in cosmopolitan and super modern London.
Against all the difficulties and inconveniences of doing business in the deep Italian south. After years of super careers, the desire to find oneself through the writing of the Risorgimento of one's historical family.
To revive Pasta Cuomo by rediscovering its historical roots that have been lost for over a century.
The oldest pasta family in the world, whose history was in danger of being forgotten.
Erased by time. An "entrepreneurial Pompeii" where time has submerged skills, abilities and craft secrets unique for that period.
A submerged but not destroyed history.
To find that frozen world it took a lot of work backwards. Made of meticulous research through the study of historical documents that are difficult even to find.
Not alone, however, in this almost impossible adventure. The family immediately clung to them, first of all their father Mariano and mother Giusy, who had already ventured into the world of pasta a few years earlier.
Unraveling stories and anecdotes during endless family dinners made of so much warmth, smiles and serenity that only southern Italy can offer at the table.
Going back eight generations. Eight generations held together by macaroni. What they knew how to do. And very well.
Deep roots that start from 1820 with the beginning of the activity of bronze drawn pasta. The brothers Antonio, Crescenzo and Nicola rented some water mills owned by the Quiroga marquises to increase production. The Cuomo family palace, located in Gragnano in the very central Via Roma, became the seat of one of the most modern pasta factories of the time.
Surrounded by mountains and at the same time close to the sea. And a unique spring water. An unchanged picture for over 200 years.
Amelia speaks with revered respect for her territory. She is obsequious and has always listened. The first step taken by the Cuomo brothers was to turn to a Brescia heraldist to restore the ancient family coat of arms, which would have allowed him to bring the past back to the present to navigate towards the future.
They knew that they had to focus on the historicity of the brand and take care of the processing of semolina pasta, through a slow and careful process following the secrets of the pasta masters of the ancient generations and the ancient recipe they had found and which is currently kept in the vault.
The Cuomo project is a perfect combination of the rediscovery of ancient recipes and an innovative marketing approach.
The goal has always been to make Gragnano a temple of pasta and a place of tourist worship, a tribute that the Cuomo family constantly pays thanks to the opening of a unique museum of its kind, where it is possible to make a virtual exploration of the ancient factory, to discover the bicentennial family history and the production processes of the past.
Cooking schools with fun Cooking classes, tastings, company tours but also the thrill of sleeping in an ancient pasta factory with a splendid B&B inside the 1800th century building.
Fully enter the authentic soul of a unique place in order to live an experience that embraces all the senses.
Twenty-seven types of pasta: long, short and special pasta where tradition and imagination meet.
For each of these products there is an articulated and meticulous research of the recipes of the past. Often going against the logic of industrial production, made of saving on raw materials and labor times.
At Pasta Cuomo we are exactly the opposite.
A warm smile that of Amelia, during the various meetings tells us about a product that is difficult for the mass to understand.
“Those who buy Cuomo want to rediscover the lost flavors of the past: the customer recognizes in our history and in our way of doing things slowly an identification in the past of flavors. It costs us a lot to produce with the times and care of the past.
But we don't want to take shortcuts. We are the tailors of pasta, and we of the last generation certainly don't want to go against the family DNA of the Cuomo's ”explains the young Amelia with an elegant yet firm attitude.
Six employees, a small family where everyone works side by side. Turnover in 2021 of around € 300.000. Always growing and profits always reinvested in new projects, conferences, improvements on the museum, on the B&B and on the study of new recipes, there is nothing static in Gragnano under the Cuomo's roof.
Energy and desire to do that spreads from Via Roma throughout the country up to its inhabitants, who have followed with curiosity the rebirth of a family business with a centuries-old history.
A curiosity of the fellow villagers that was transformed into a warm embrace and continuous mutual support and for each additional year of activity of the reborn Cuomo, corresponded to a tangible gesture of love towards the country of Gragnano.
Slowly it went from Cinderella of Campania, ignored by tourism, to become an impressionable destination for lovers of good food visited by gastronomy tourists, who cannot miss the opportunity to learn how to make pasta with the secrets of 200 years ago.
"It seems to receive a gift from the court with that refined and aristocratic packaging dominated by the Cuomo logo increasingly synonymous with high quality, for pasta connoisseurs" this is the common thought of those who bought online from the efficient company website.
Behind Amelia's smiles and spontaneous warm kindness, attributable to gallantry of another era (as well as her products), there is an extremely careful and refined internationalization strategy. Not large distributions but only sales to high gastronomy shops. Around Italy and now increasingly in Europe and the United States.
Starred restaurants. Around the world. With chefs who expressly cook pasta only with Cuomo packaging. A word of mouth, of perfect cooking, porosity suitable for certain refined sauces.
Slow but widespread commercial propagation in the kitchens that count and set trends. There is no rush. There is no race for turnover. The company that is self-supporting but knows that it will not have to be overwhelmed by turnover.
It will manage its growth, putting its people, its collaborators and their needs at the center. Just as it has been since the first day of opening.
The art of making culture of good, healthy, traditional food with unique flavors of the past, day after day, through constant immersion in the search for its own history, does not have times dictated by the market.
The Cuomo are well aware of this and are constantly listening to craftsmanship with great attention to the quality of the product of the past.
Amelia and her noble lovable art of communicating the emotions of eight generations of skilled pasta makers are contained in Pasta Cuomo.
How good!