Chef DiSomma finds Gulf Coast rich in natural resources

Chef Carlo DiSomma, who owns The Greenhouse Grill, Bella Rosa Italian Grill and the McGregor Café with his partners, grew up on his grandfather's farm in Naples, Italy. His family owned five hotels in Naples, and guests who dined there ate meals made of ingredients grown, raised or produced on the farm, including wine, beef, poultry, produce, cheese and seasonings. Seafood was in abundance from local fishermen

EVAN WILLIAMS / FLORIDA WEEKLY Chef Carlo DiSomma Since moving to Southwest Florida 10 years ago, Chef DiSomma said the region's rich resources have fit comfortably with his background.

"Immokalee is one of the best agricultural lands in the country," he said. "We have an incredible amount of fish in Naples, (Italy), and we do here in the Gulf of Mexico. When you have so much abundance and resources it's very easy for a chef to cook everything from scratch."

At age 13, when most students are in middle school, he went to the Culinary Institute of Naples (Italy) to become a chef and later studied economics and marketing at the University of Milan. He's operated The Greenhouse Grill on Sanibel Island since 1999, where his Mediterranean style bouillabaisse — a comforting, saffron-tinted seafood stew — has become a signature dish.

Five years ago, he bought Bella Rosa Italian Grill on Daniels Parkway, where murals modeled on the Sistine Chapel add a gracious touch to the domed center dining room. He serves Neapolitan specialties like pasta made from scratch, pizza, eggplant parmesan and stuffed calamari.

Just last year, Chef DiSomma bought McGregor Café on McGregor Boulevard. Since it's been there nearly four decades, he left the menu alone, but like all his restaurants, he oversees all the food preparations. Using high quality ingredients, to him, is the key to being a successful chef.

"It's no option," he said.

His education began at home, where his first hospitality industry job, at age 7, was assigned by his grandfather. "Washing and filling 1,000 bottles of wine a week," said Chef DiSomma, chuckling.

He had always enjoyed cooking, and knew family members who were chefs, so "for me it was natural, the jump (to making it a profession)," he said. At the Culinary Institute, he remembers teacher Luigi Carnacina who gave him "not just the basics, but knowledge" of cooking.

On summer breaks from the Institute, he completed internships with chefs throughout the world. Later, he graduated from the University of Milan.

During the 1970s he owned a nightclub in Naples, Italy. He moved to the United States, to Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1981, where he was executive chef at Rolling Rock Country Club, then The Toll House Inn. Later, he supervised three hotels in Washington, D.C. He then moved to Albany, Ga., to take a job as chef and co-owner of Café Adeline.

He became the chef at Bellini's on Captiva Island about 10 years ago. But it was only open for a short time before closing. Then Mr. DiSomma bought the Greenhouse Grill.

"So I decided to stay and find a small house on Sanibel and that's how everything got started," he said. Now he lives in South Fort Myers.

His day starts about 7 a.m., when he goes to Sanibel to check on his first restaurant. Before lunch, he arrives at Bella Rosa to supervise the opening, moves on to McGregor Café, then heads back to Bella Rosa in the evening. Chef DiSomma gets home around midnight.

Most of his family still lives in Italy. The farm his grandfather owned in Naples is long since sold but one of his cousins still runs the five hotels there. He also has three children spread throughout Washington D.C. and Baltimore; and a brother who is a fashion designer based in Rome and Paris.

After all this time, he doesn't consider his work as a restaurant owner and chef a job. That's why he has no immediate plans to retire, even at age 64.

"This is not a job for me," he said. "It's a lifestyle."

In his spare time he likes to read "everything: history, romance, action."

His favorite part of his lifestyle is "making somebody happy, making somebody satisfied." That probably means serving them one of his rich Neapolitan or Mediterranean specialties. But when Mr. DiSomma cooks for himself, he's happy with a bare minimum of ingredients, just so long as they're good ones.

"I like to be simple — some crushed tomatoes, pasta and good bread — and I'm happy," he said.