Carmela’s delicious next chapter

For almost 20 years at Sorrento Trattoria – her restaurant in Sorrento’s main street – Carmela D’Amore cooked the Sicilian recipes her family taught her. Today in Carmela’s home kitchen she shares how it all began and what life looks like after selling her much-loved restaurant.

“My mum and dad were both chefs,” says Carmela. “I come from a long lineage of cooks on both sides, and fishermen and fisherwomen. I was born in Kilmore, a rural Victorian town. My parents had a café. I was born in the café and the smell of food was the blanket. As a child I remember my grandmother sitting down with my grandfather and saying, ‘What are we going to eat today?’ It was something they planned. It’s not something that we just spark up. We eat seasonal vegetables and fish; it has to be in season.”

In 1974, Carmela was 14 and her parents and uncle moved their families from Campbellfield to Rye. “We opened up the first Italian restaurant in Rye, called International Pizza restaurant. I was the only Italian in Rosebud High. It was very uncomfortable and challenging. It was a world that was not mine. I came from the western suburbs where I grew up with Greeks and Maltese in a multicultural community; here it was surfies.”

Carmela learnt the ropes of the restaurant game working in her family’s businesses. “We had two restaurants between three families. I worked on the weekends and every evening, and went to school during the day. I was an apprentice to my grandfather. He taught me how to make the food of their region. Without me realising, I was already in a culinary cultural world of migrants that they were teaching me and that’s what I teach today.”

When Carmela opened Sorrento Trattoria, she wanted to create a place where people could eat and feel the love of food and cooking. And that she did. But after almost two decades of feeding people and teaching cooking, working 12 to 14-hour days wasn’t possible. “It was so hard to sell; I’d built such a strong reputation. But my ‘why’ had changed. My kids had grown up; who was I doing it for? And I really wanted to be part of the other side of the counter. I wanted to enjoy my friends. Many people had passed away in my life. I started to realise the value of life. I realised it was important for me to enjoy my day because it was all I have. Tomorrow is a promise.”

Life after the restaurant is full of choice. Carmela continues to offer her cooking classes, now at the Italian Club in Rosebud. And her creativity extends to writing more books. There’s also an opportunity to host a radio program on RPP-FM. The call of travel is strong too. “I promised myself that I’d go back home for a while and just grab my roots back. I want to do videos on food, every region of Sicily, and just discover and uncover my heritage.”

For more information about Carmela’s cooking classes, go to www.carmelascucinaclass.com.au