CARMELO
Welcome, have a seat. My name is Carmelo Chiaramonte.
Although I have been renamed the wandering cook, because I have spent the last few decades without a fixed kitchen.
I did it to be closer – to chat, to learn, to invent – to my everyday heroes – farmers, breeders, fishermen & winegrowers.
In the year that forced everyone to stop, I stopped too. I did it for me and a little for them… because their work did not stop, because their work must be preserved.
I did not choose Donnalucata, but Donnalucata chose me.
I was looking for it, yes, a place that, to quote Vasquez Montalban, would allow relaxation of the sphincters of the soul for me and one of my imaginary future guests.
Then what happens to me when I go shopping happened; I go out to get strawberries, but if apricots come my way, I let them find me and my dish changes.
When I went out, this place came my way.
This place where land and sea ask questions to me, where people with big hearts meet as if by chance or by a miracle, where voices chase each other for fun and inspiration, something I never tire of listening to.
RITUAL TAVERN
Caro, me lo… (Dear, I’ll…) it’s a place of kindness.
Someone, imagining it with me, said: the ultimate quality of disorienting informality.
Informality is always the joy of cooking. Extreme and disorienting, these days, it is absolutely kindness.
Caro Melo is a ritual tavern because the game is also a ritual. The game between ingredient and flavour, the game between word and knowledge. A game of love, sensuality and fun. So, in my gastronomic jugglery you may also lose… your innocence, as I try to seduce you with “Figa la parmigiana!” (“Sexy Parmigiana!”), to make you question by “Porco Tonno” (“Pig-Ass Tuna”), to amaze you with “Cazzo che cozza” (“Fucking fantastic mussel”), to make you transhumance at the end of the meal for “Farsi una pera” (“High pear”), to push you towards “Maremosso” (“Roughsea”), to bring you back to shore with “Cose dritte” (“Straightforward things”).
Caro Melo is a ritual tavern, because to welcome you will be the inverted, libertarian and festive canon of the rite of wonder. In this courtyard experience the signs of my going here and there, because they are interwoven with every dream, every dish, every tale that, as soon as you are seated, we start writing together again.
Caro Melo is a ritual tavern because it celebrates the glittering beauty of life. A nurturing not exclusive to my kitchen, but also linked to the talent of artist friends – met while travelling or known forever – who will gradually become part of my ritual.
THE KITCHEN
OF LOVE
Cooking is always a (f)act of love.
Love, you know, has many ways of showing itself: sacred fire, passion, kindness, touch, compassion, sense of possession, care and even pity.
To each inclination of our feelings correspond ways of caring and thus of cooking.
I love a kitchen that seduces the soul, tickles curiosity, provokes the senses and their erotic nuances.
I love shopping every day, putting what I find on the cooker or grill. As that actor said: ‘of what there is, nothing is missing’, and I cook everything.
I love Archimedes’ principle applied in reverse… because a piece of pork inserted into a body can cause a push from the bottom upwards equal to the intensity of the porkiness it can provoke.
I love simple cooking, which is not afraid to love the ingredients.
And I love letting the ingredients speak, without them being forced or manipulated.
I love the time of conviviality, the space of the symposium, the idea of communion, of “presenza and panza” (“Belly and being there”), of art to be chewed and enjoyed.
I love the secrets of traditions, old recipes and ancestral products.
I love a dishevelled, elemental and unadorned table, because the beauty of every person lies in that quirky mole that makes them unique.
FRIENDS AND EVENTS
Every ritual, every celebration, is in fact an event. If, however, we were to give a classical reading of this word, then special evenings also have their place in my ritual tavern. That are, a little more special than others. And it happens every time the hall and courtyard of Caro Melo raise the curtain and become the ‘Obscene scene’ of gastronomic duets with friendly chefs, of close encounters of the third taste with authors, musicians and painters of tasty and savoury art and photography exhibitions, of endless performances punctuated by courses and percussion.
CCONTACTS
You can find me in Donnalucata, between the promenade and a corner overlooking the most melancholic sea there is. If you want to come and visit me, below you will find where.
Or, as you pass by, let the story and smells of the dishes, the chatter and laughter of my guests, the clinking of cutlery and glasses find you.
RESERVATIONS
Far be it from me to be precious and use sweary formulas. But in my ritual tavern, ‘reservations are welcome’. At Caro Melo, people come who know they will be harassed, disturbed, questioned. And so, let me know, if you too desire this. It’s always quick to add a place at the table… as long as the table is free.
CARO MELO DONNALUCATA
Via San Remo 7, Donnalucata, Scicli (RG)
Open every evening for dinner.
Book your table by calling 328 237 9452
