Pasta Cuomo
Cuomo, artisan pasta makers since 1820.
Leaving a secure path—built on recognition, career, steady rewards, and income—for the unknown. A guardian angel guided Amelia and Alfonso through an extraordinary change of direction. Life-changing for them, the Cuomo siblings, but also for their land: Gragnano. Breathing life back into the story of their ancestors was a way to truly live again. The longing to return home. Amelia, after years in the glossy world of Rome, and Alfonso, after a high-level career in cosmopolitan, ultra-modern London. Against all the difficulties and discomforts of doing business in the deep South of Italy. After years of success, the desire to reconnect with themselves by reviving the legacy of their historic family. Bringing Pasta Cuomo back to life by rediscovering roots buried for more than a century. The oldest pasta-making family in Gragnano. Covered in dust. Forgotten by time. A kind of “entrepreneurial Pompeii,” where time had buried skills, knowledge, and artisanal secrets unique to that era. Buried but not destroyed. To recover that frozen world took immense effort, meticulous research, and the study of historical documents that were hard even to find. But they weren’t alone in this near-impossible journey. Their family immediately gathered around them—first and foremost their father Mariano and mother Giosy. Together, they unspooled stories and anecdotes during countless family dinners, full of warmth, smiles, and the serenity that only Southern Italy can serve at the table. Retracing six generations. Six generations held together by macaroni. What they knew how to make—and make well. Deep roots stretching back to 1820, when the family began producing bronze-drawn pasta.
Brothers Antonio, Crescenzo, and Nicola leased several water mills owned by the Marquis of Quiroga to increase production. The Cuomo family building, located on the central Via Roma in Gragnano, became home to one of the most advanced pasta factories of the time. Surrounded by mountains yet close to the sea. And blessed with a unique spring water. A scene unchanged for over 200 years. Amelia speaks of her homeland with deep reverence, always respectful and attentive. From the moment the Cuomo siblings decided to do business under the historic family crest, they knew they had to focus on slow, careful semolina pasta making, guided by the secrets of the master pasta makers of generations past.
The Cuomo project is a perfect blend of rediscovered and respected ancient recipes, and a forward-thinking approach to business and marketing. Turning Gragnano into a tourist destination. A tribute the Cuomo family continues to pay with the opening of a unique museum, where visitors can take a virtual tour of the historic factory and discover the traditional pasta-making process. Cooking schools with fun classes, tastings, company tours, and even the chance to sleep in a historic pasta factory thanks to a beautiful B&B housed in the original 1800s building. A full immersion into the soul of a unique place—an experience that engages all five senses. Twenty-seven pasta shapes. Long pasta: linguine, bucatini, mafalde, thick spaghetti, ziti, fusilloni. Short pasta: rigatoni, caserecce, conchiglioni, lumaconi. And then the specialty pastas, where tradition meets imagination: treccione, triangle penne, chef’s hats, or bucatini-style scialatielli. For each one, a meticulous search for ancient recipes. Often going against the logic of industrial production, which prioritizes savings on ingredients and labor time.
Amelia greets you with a warm smile. In our conversations, she tells us about a product that’s hard to explain to the masses. “People buy Cuomo pasta because they want to rediscover lost flavors. Because they recognize our story and our way of doing things slowly. It really costs us a lot to produce with the pace and care of the past. But we won’t take shortcuts. We are pasta tailors, and we certainly won’t be the generation to betray the Cuomo family DNA,” she explains with elegance and firmness. Six employees, a small family where everyone works side by side. A 2021 turnover of around 300,000 euros. Constant growth. And profits always reinvested—into new projects, conferences, upgrades to the B&B museum, or developing new recipes. Nothing is static at the Cuomos’ in Gragnano. Energy and passion radiate from Via Roma across the country. To the people of the town, who followed the rebirth of a historic family crest with curiosity—curiosity that soon turned into a warm embrace and continuous mutual support. Every additional year of Cuomo’s renewed activity becomes a tangible gesture of love for the town of Gragnano.
Slowly but surely, from being Campania’s Cinderella, overlooked by tourism, Gragnano is becoming a destination for lovers of fine food. Culinary tourists who wouldn’t miss the chance to learn how to make pasta with 200-year-old secrets. “It feels like receiving a gift from royalty, with that refined and aristocratic packaging, dominated by the Cuomo logo, now more and more a symbol of top quality, aimed at true pasta connoisseurs”—this is the common reaction from those who order online from their efficient website. Behind Amelia’s smile and her spontaneous, warm kindness—echoing old-world charm—lies a refined and deliberate international strategy. No large-scale retail. Only sales to fine food shops. Across Italy and now increasingly in Europe and the United States. Michelin-starred restaurants around the world, where chefs cook exclusively with Cuomo pasta. A word-of-mouth phenomenon based on perfect cooking and texture tailored to refined sauces. A slow but steady expansion into the kitchens that matter and set trends. There’s no rush. No race for turnover. The business is self-sustaining. Growth is managed carefully, always putting people first—employees and collaborators alike. Just like it was on day one.
The art of making culture through “good” food—wholesome, traditional, with the unique flavors of the past, day after day, through constant immersion in their own story—is not subject to market timing. The Cuomos know this well. They’re constantly listening to the craftsmanship and care of yesteryear. Amelia and her noble, gentle way of expressing the emotions of six generations—emotions also preserved in a pasta that, above all, is family.