A red light bulb.
From the slopes of the Lattari Mountains to the conquest of the main world markets.
On the hills of the Amalfi Coast, that splendid red bulb that encloses the lapilli of Vesuvius and illuminates the flavors of Southern Italy.
It grows more slowly being in the hills and is able to enclose the winds coming from the Amalfi Coast which make it slightly savory.
A treasure.
A product that was disappearing.
It all originated from a plane trip in the nineties by Carlo D'Amato where he came across an article relating to the now absent cultivation of Corbarino.
The then Institute for Agricultural Cultures of Battipaglia, in collaboration with the Campania region, set up an experimental field in Corbara to restore the Corbarino seed that had become mongrelized in recent years to its origin in a natural way.
Despite the efforts of the institutions, the local farmers refused the cultivation of Corbarino because it was not very profitable.
In 2006 "I Sapori di Corbara" was born. The dream, the efforts, the tenacity and the entrepreneurship are all concentrated in the head, shoulders and heart of Carlo D'Amato.
The start of a bet. That of bringing this small tomato "son of fire and sun" on the tables of gourmets and in the kitchens of great international chefs.
The “I Sapori di Corbara” company was born with an immense economic effort: to pay local farmers double the kilo compared to the average of the Corbarino cultivation area. An economic encouragement that has brought about a change of direction for the new generations of farmers. It was immediately successful in both production and quality.
In 2006, 40 quintals of Corbara tomatoes were processed. The following years the numbers were exponential enough to attract the interest of the first local and then international media such as the Guardian who spoke of a world excellence rediscovered thanks to the perseverance of Carlo.
There were no Sundays for Carlo. His bet was to be won. For love. For the love of his land and his people.
The micro climate of the Lattari Mountains, with humid subsoils thanks to pumice stone (lapilli) of volcanic origin, arrived here from the eruptions of Vesuvius, capable of making the plant grow in arid farming, yielding low acidity, high sugar content, richness to tomatoes. vitamins, mineral salts and antioxidants would have been the elements on which to focus to internationalize the product.
And the critics were immediately attracted by the first results of the company: after just two years from the inauguration, Gambero Rosso, through the tasting tests of the experts, in 2008 assigned the first place to “I Sapori di Corbara”.
At the antipodes of the industrial product, today Carlo considers I Sapori di Corbara as an "organized artisan shop". He passed on his passion to his son Pietro for seven years in the company to manage the delicate phase of transformation, despite his young age he too has become a point of reference for young people who want to marry the Corbarino project. At a time when many young people prefer to stay at home without doing anything subsidized by "citizenship income", there is a generation of young people from the Corbara area who roll up their sleeves for the love of their land.
Corbara, only a decade ago, was considered only a transit city in the Amalfi area.
Not now. Radical change. International conferences. Chefs, journalists, celebrities, to visit Corbara specifically, as if a new center of excellence for Italian food was about to emerge.
Corbara, which is moving the cards to become a DOP area for its specific tomato production, owes so much to its putative father Carlo D'Amato that every year he invents cultural initiatives to explain his lands through his “red light bulb”.
International chefs as they were among the first to pay homage to and enhance the incredible processing of the Corbarino di Carlo tomato.
Corbarì has been able to open the doors of European haute cuisine, and not only, in a very short time. Exclusive kitchens that make flavor the only passepartout for success, wanted “the flavors of Corbara”.
A luxury product only apparently as Carlo himself explains: "if we do a food cost analysis our preserves are natural, without additives or preservatives, so in the end they are economically comparable to industrial products that make fun of the market".
To make quality it is difficult to make industrial numbers, explains Carlo. “We are a small company with a very flexible internal structure based on the seasonal phase. We go from 5 employees to over 30 collaborators in the summer harvest period. "
“The company's philosophy is based on total respect for nature and its times. It is the farmers every day who make the difference with their attention to every detail in the care of the plants. The company is only the intermediary. In various conferences held in Corbara to talk about our product, I have always wanted the farmers by my side. I wanted them to receive prizes and awards from the hands of great chefs or prestigious journalists in the sector. "
“The prizes on the one hand but the greatest satisfactions I have had from the common people, those who perhaps make an extra economic sacrifice and who, however, come close to me complimenting them. One of the best satisfactions I had when I was told that I was a child again to eat one of our packets of tomatoes.
Carlo's adventure was not easy. A thousand obstacles, first cultural to re introducing a cultivation that had been branded as unsuitable and then economic problems to start an extremely wasteful production mechanism.
With its gradual maturation and 4 moments of harvesting always by hand with the help of wheelbarrows and mules only.
A gradual harvest, that is, from time to time between 25 July and 20 September, the best tomatoes are chosen. Those not ready are left on the ground to ripen and then be collected in subsequent phases.
Accomplice to Carlo's success was the long-time entrepreneur Giuseppe Acciaio, partner and great friend. In the initial difficult moments, Giuseppe had great choices for Carlo.
The Acciaio family is represented in the company by Massimo Franzin and his daughter Priscilla, who are also in love with Corbarino.
Giuseppe Acciaio is a very successful entrepreneur: in 1980 he founded his first company in Pompeii, the "Gma Import Export Specialty" which in a short time became and is still a leader in the wholesale distribution of excellent products in the "Food & Beverage ”with a large basket where space is given to the many PDOs and PGIs as well as to the various Slow Food Presidia. Then an ascending path in the world of food excellence with the creation of different registered formats, ranging from the Gourmet Pizzeria to the Gourmet Pub, arriving at the “Capperi… che Pizza !!” franchise. with the first 3 offices on the Salerno seafront, in Milan and in Lugano in Switzerland. On the one hand, highly selected products, starting with stone-ground flours and obsessive attention to environmental compatibility on the other.
Then together with Carlo the project to enhance the pizza with a mix of selected flours and placing the Corbarino tomato at the center of the ingredients, giving life to the famous "Margherita Corbarì"
A real crusade against junk food increasingly prevalent nowadays to return to the true Neapolitan flavors of the past.
May it be the red light bulb of Corbara, reborn from the dream of two lovers of their land to spread the southern cultural revolution of the "good, healthy and uniquely true" all over the world.
