Carlyle was recently honoured with the visit of renowned celebrity Italian Chef, Massimo Capra, who ventured to the rural town to meet with Eight Words Café owner, Michael Ellis, and staff.
Eight Words Café was the winning entry in a national draw, in which hundreds of other restaurant owners entered, hoping to have Massimo grace their business and share some of his expertise. The draw was a part of the Campbell's Soup program, and as a business customer of the brand, Ellis was entered into the draw, though he never imagined his small-town coffee shop would be the grand winner.
"When I started this business I used to make my own soups," exclaims Ellis, "I had a Cisco representative say to me, 'Mike you better try this product, this Campbell's', I said 'no I'm not serving Campbell's', but I tried it and what I found was I could not make a soup with that consistency and that high of quality, and I couldn't justify the time it would take to make that quality of a product and variety, and I was an immediate convert." Massimo is also a supporter of the Campbell's brand, which is how he got involved in the Campbell's promotion, "I'm here because Michael won a contest because he is a believer in the Campbell's soup, I am a believer in the Campbell's soup . . . I agree to be a part of the Campbell's Soup promotion, because I am a believer in the Campbell product."
You may recognize Massimo from his appearances on the Food Networks show, "Restaurant Makeover" or from his published books, "One Pot Italian Cooking", and his newly released "Three Chefs: the kitchen men," which won the English cookbook award. As well, Chef Capra is a regular columnist in the life section of the Globe & Mail, and has recently developed a new cooking show, "Gourmet Escapes" in which he travels the world and meets with other chefs, "That's where my show fits in [on the Travel & Escape Network TV], I do travel, I go different places around the world, I meet up with a chef or people that grow food, farm, and brew food, I get to drink a lot!" jokes Massimo, "but that's why I'm doing North America and Europe because we have a different sensibility, but now what I want to bring to Canada is that sense of inclusiveness - what's going on in Canada is not so different from the life that is everywhere else in the world, you know everybody wants food and for many, many years we've been trained to eat what is factory-made but the reality is that we have a lot of people here growing a lot of awesome food."
"There is good food made in factories and there is a mass production of food, but the reality is when you work in my business, I always have to look for the freshest, and look to the small farmers, and things that are not so much from large processing plants," explains Massimo, "My show is like that, I go out and I look for small farmers, and small growers, and small brewers, I'm not really militant about going against factories and so on, because they all provide a service, I've been to places in Canada that are not serviced by a little farmer's market and what are you going to do, go out and dig up turnips in the middle of the winter? I think the soil is frozen!" Massimo joked around as he explained what his show is about and his stance on using fresh, frozen, and processed food, "you need to look at where you live."
"To me, my show is about going out and seeing how local food is made. I love to see tradition, everything we do, and everything we have is based on traditions." Though Massimo is a proficient chef, in his show he likes to learn from other chefs' and see what they have to offer, rather than demonstrating his own skill, an example of Massimo's humble and happy character.
"I like to say it doesn't phase me, I'm just enjoying life, I'm enjoying the moment. I'm very humble, and I think it's thanks to my upbringing, you don't develop too big of an ego if you know where you stand in the world. I talk to everybody, I'm very accessible, I'm very much a man for the people, you never see me turn away from anybody, I answer all my mail, I answer questions I'm posed, and if someone wants a recipe I will do my best to find it for them, I'm very approachable," responds Massimo when asked about his success. "I'm not a star, I'm just a cook doing my thing. At the end of the day in my business we're all cooks and waiters, we're servants to the public. I drive a beat-up old car, I don't need too much."
"We've been late for every appointment because he loves people so much, he'll talk and talk and talk, I've been travelling with him for the last day and he finds everybody else interesting. Yesterday we met with another chef and Massimo said, 'I can't believe the guy wants to know more about me, I don't want to talk about me, I want to talk about him!' So he finds everybody else interesting as much as we find him interesting," commented Campbell's Account Development Manager, Julie Nicholson.
"I want to learn from other people! What do they have to offer," exclaims Massimo, who is indeed a very approachable person. His attitude is very relaxed, and he really enjoys talking and hearing what others have to say, he also is quite humorous, often making jokes and amusing remarks.
Massimo, who was born in Soresina, Italy but grew up mostly in Cremona, left home when he was 15-year-old and studied cooking school at Salsomaggiore from 1974-77.
During the free time time he had at school, Massimo went and worked in hotels and stayed in Italy until he was 22, before moving to Toronto where he found work through a distant cousin. Massimo also served time in the Army before moving to Canada, "I'm a sergeant in the Italian Army, heavy artillery . . . big cannons, but I cooked in the army."
Massimo started his journey to become a chef because he wanted the fastest way to get himself to a job that would offer some rewards and stability. "I couldn't afford to go school, so I had to pick a job that was very quick in payback, that wasn't the usual mechanic or other occupations, I didn't want to work in a factory it wasn't my calling" Based on his success, it certainly appears as though he made the right decision all those years ago, and truly found his calling in cooking.
Massimo climbed the ladder of success by working in various hotels and restaurants, continually learning and mastering his own style. Massimo is currently Chef co-owner of Mistura Restaurant, which opened in Oct 1997, and the recent addition, Sopra Upper Lounge. The well-known restaurants feature fine contemporary Italian cuisine and live music.
Massimo and his wife, Rosa, joined Ellis and his staff at their Christmas party held in the Eight Words Café on the evening of Nov. 16, "All the kids were excited, they go to their Christmas party and then they get to meet Massimo," remarked Kimberly Schneider, a manager for the Eight Words Café. Massimo was at the Café again on Nov. 17 and happily spent the day talking with Ellis and various people who were more than excited to meet him, before preparing a four-course Tuscan dinner for Ellis, his family, and select staff members.
"We spent about two hours today talking about the things that I'm doing, and you know I was really honoured because he looked at everything, and said, 'there's not a whole lot I can say, you're on the right track.
You've got these cappuccinos here, these espresso drinks, nobody does that in this area, you make your own bread, you make your own cinnamon bread, you've got these cookies and muffins here,'" explained Ellis on his time spent with Massimo, "we talked about tweaking people's imaginations, and we talked about leadership and decision-making, and talked interestingly about staff-turnover."
"You know I talked to Massimo about his favourite pizza, and you might just see something like that end up in the specialty menu, 'Massimo's Pizza'," continued Ellis, "I'm not guaranteeing that, I don't want to commit myself to any specific changes, but again just to add in a few dishes that are specific to me, that was the big take-away."
Having Chef Massimo at the Eight Words Café was an exciting and fun event for Massimo, Ellis, and members of the community. Massimo enjoyed Carlyle, saying it reminded him of where he grew up. "Rural areas are not that different from where I come from so I really feel at home, believe it or not, aside from the mass vastness of this place, I mean this is immense compared to where I come from, but take your time Google it, Google my home town, and you see it is very much like this."
