What will be inaugurated on Wednesday 26 June, from 8 pm, on Lungomare S. Angelo in Rossano (in Va Egeo 10), will not only and simply be a new quality seafood restaurant. It is not even just a new concept of identity tasting in which, around the ancient and modern mixology, stories and identities, flavors and roots of even different seas will be experimented, from oysters to sciabbachedd.
ON THE MENU THE INVITATION TO PREFER LOCAL AND SEASONAL FISH
MiNiKə – Huitrerie Mixology & Šabbakehdd is and will also be an experiment of how it is possible and necessary to do, from the bottom, at the table, every day, without excessive pretensions and without extraordinary ambitions, a bit of healthy food education, first of all with absolute transparency on the exact origin of the fish indicated in the dishes of the conventional menu; but above all explaining and explicitly inviting the guest, on the first pages of the menu, to prefer fresh and seasonal fish coming from ports, marinas and the closest markets of Schiavonea, Cariati and Cirò Marina, displayed every day in the window. More explicit than that?
THE MINICHEDD, A CENTURY OF FAMILY EXPERIENCE LINKED TO THE SEA
This is how Gennaro Scorza, the fourth generation of a century-long family and entrepreneurial experience, that of the Minichedds (from whose dialect epithet the naming of this new chapter and this vision that is renewed) derives, wants to strengthen that pact of loyalty and trust not only with those who decide to live the new MiNiKə experience, but above all with a land that from the sea to the countryside, from the coast to the hills, from the ancient fishermen’s boats to all its current innovation ambitions of its millenary heritage, she must necessarily recover her smile and love for herself and a lot, a lot of awareness of her own wealth and competitive ability. Indeed, everything at the table. Exciting.
EVO PAPER IN THE RESTAURANT, AN IMPORTANT AND ABSOLUTE NOVELTY
And it is also with this spirit, of a solicited intelligent and joyful re-appropriation of one’s roots, that the guests of MiNiKə will be welcomed and introduced, together with the general menu and the mixology and wine lists, also with a first experiment (which will be periodically updated ) of the Charter of Extra Virgin Olive Oils of the territory, most likely an absolute first for Corigliano-Rossano and for Sibaritide and certainly among the few similar initiatives in Calabria, which is starting to fill an oicophobic void that is no longer sustainable for the lands and cities of oil of this peninsula of olive groves.
THE SENSE OF NOSTOS IN THE WORK OF THE YOUNG GENNARO SCORZA
From the Santissima Achiropita, the name of the largest boat of the Minichedd to the sunrises and sunsets perceived at the rhythm of those who set sail and returned; from listening as a child to the indications, very precious and derived from ancient maritime tradition, on the exact direction, duration and evolution of the winds, up to the fascinating reading of the compass or how to steer the rudder, in those that were the last years before the arrival of echo sounders and radar.
FROM CASEDDA’S DREAMS TO THE BIRTH OF MiNiKƏ
The mind and soul of the then very young Gennaro (born in 1986) is also imbued with these frames, anecdotes and stories heard in those years of memory and cultural and entrepreneurial transition, almost like Manolin in the beautiful pages of the novel The Old Man and the sea by Ernest Hemingway: there is Uncle Giovanni who waves from the shore to announce an imminent and sudden storm; there is the casedda, which was not a simple warehouse where the now very rare tools of small-scale fishing were kept, such as lampare, boxes (which at the time were still made of wood), hooks and nets, but a real narrative place, a way of escape but also of rest, physical and imaginary for many daughters and grandchildren of the sea of an era without smartphones and which no longer exists today; it was an open but at the same time secret alcove in which you could find everything and more and in which, between handcrafted floats and that very strong taste of sea and salt, Gennaro too crossed the horizon in his mind and planned his future.
After graduating from high school, he enrolled in university, in the faculty of law. But something immediately didn’t add up, didn’t convince him, didn’t excite him and didn’t make him sail elsewhere, like when he spent hours in the fishermen’s house. Not even that 30 in philosophy of law could support him definitively on that path of education that he had undertaken with the sailors’ method, of setting sail to land and with the stubbornness and genetic and proverbial problem solving of the Minichedd. Nothing to be done. From that moment on, Gennaro made nostos, the return to the identity and managerial path traced by a century of family experience on and with the sea, his personal way out, professional and business, together with his father Gianfranco, his family and his uncles with whom he shared the inauguration, 10 years ago in Rossano Scalo, of the first successful territorial experience of a Pescheria con cottura. Which was also another evolution of the Minichedd: from the great-grandfather’s direct fishing to the sale of the catch with the grandfather in the municipal fish market, from the opening of their own fish shop Il Gambero all’ingrosso by the father and his brothers on board the Santissima Achiropita, they arrived, in fact, at the gastronomy and the direct use of fresh fish, displayed in the window, as the main ingredient of what was soon perceived as a real culinary experience and once again identity. Gennaro was immediately at the forefront of the fresh processing laboratory and began to try his hand in the kitchen. And with the other foot he continued to travel, to train, to compare and to be inspired by experiences of identity seafood gastronomy of different territories, regions and countries and which, from Normandy to Puglia, each capable of reinterpreting history and trends, gave him stimuli and suggestions, a sense of return and confidence in the future, memory and audacity. Until the conception and birth of MiNiKə, the natural and legitimate heir of those 100 years of history, passion, courage, innovation, tradition, family and business consolidated with that same sea that for the Minichedd – Free man you will always love the sea wrote Baudelaire – has always been a source of life, wealth, freedom and social experimentation. With MiNiKə, therefore, at least for now, a historical parable is completed, which began a century ago with great-grandfather Rosario, aboard the gozzi towards Taranto: that is, we return towards the sea, to the Lido Sant’Angelo, a contemporary offshoot of an entire area that for centuries and centuries, with the remains of the Fondaco and the Torre Stellata together with the ancient dock of which underwater traces resurface, bear witness to the ancient and glorious maritime history, often forgotten, of Rossano, today merged into the largest city in Calabria: Corigliano-Rossano. Accompanying Gennaro Scorza on this journey that will remain closely tied to the success of the Pescheria con Cottura in Via Ludovico Adimari in Rossano Scalo will be, not by chance, the young professionals trained at the Hotel Professional Institute of the Majorana Comprehensive Education Institute in Corigliano-Rossano, which in recent years has become a hotbed and exemplary beacon of training and innovation oriented towards identity management.
