When asked to Gerardo Cea Due to his age, he says that he has just turned 57 and slips an anecdote that paints his whole body: he had organized a celebration, but decided to suspend it because they told him that that same night Lionel Messi wanted to go with his family to eat at premium pasta, his successful restaurant in Miami Beach. And as for 30 years, he wanted to be there to welcome and provide the warmest possible service to his customers. “So I had a party the next day, and it was still pretty cool,” he smiles. This emphasis on attention is one of the secrets to the success of this Argentine entrepreneur who left the country at the age of 18 and made his way in the United States through hard work and a lot of charisma.
News: Many Argentinians who leave put restaurants serving Argentine cuisine. Why did you choose it to be Italian cuisine?
Gerardo Céa: When I came to the United States, we were supposed to go to Miami with my grandmother and my cousins. But I arrived at 10 in the morning and at 11 at night they put me on a plane and sent me to New York. It’s that a guy called saying that he had a very important job, and the next day they put me in the yellow jacket and started working in one of the most famous restaurants of the Gambino family, the mafia. I started without knowing anything, they made me a false document with my mother’s last name, Barletta, and I began to move in Italian gastronomy, in all the restaurants that had these characters, including private clubs as well. Thus I became a fan of this Italian food. After some time we went to Miami with my parents, who had come to live with me, dad also started working in Italian restaurants, so somehow he was decanting. For me the most important thing was to do what we liked, not just a barbecue, but a good pasta, a good sauce. That was what we were passionate about.
News: What stories do you remember about the mafia bosses from that first experience?
Cea: I got to see the people I saw in movies and on TV, from Yoko Ono to Cindy Lauper to John Travolta. That was during the day, until 10 at night. And when the place closed, at 12, the manager came and chose who was going to stay, because Paul Castellano and all his allies came to eat. There was a pianist who played and a bartender, who was even in the movie “Good Fellas”. They taught me a little English, because I arrived without knowing a word.
News: Has anything changed in these 30 years of Prima Pasta?
Cea: I always go back to the beginning and remember what made us so famous. They are simple things: say hello when someone arrives, have a good heart, not find a way to make them spend more, but less. Having that little candle, that music that doesn’t bother you, that the food is fresh. I always put service first. Then there is the food, because you don’t put a ravioli in people’s mouths as soon as they enter. And from the first day we always had a team meeting before opening the door. Change? Yes, we started with 28 chairs and paper napkins, today it is a huge and beautiful place.
News: Putting your own restaurant requires an investment. How did he do?
Cea: I thought that the most important thing to be able to do something was money, and at one point everything turned around, and I realized that it wasn’t that, but my head. That there were opportunities. Miami was just in full swing, so I started looking for places that didn’t work a lot or were closed. Until I started looking and found this one, who was waiting for me… I worked as a waiter in a restaurant and I had asked the owner if he could give me off on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. He worked the other days and in those three I went to Argentina and took suitcases full of clothes from Victoria’s Secret. He gave them to my sister, who sold them at the hospital where she worked, and with that she raised money. Until one week, the owner of the restaurant told me that he would give me those days but not to come back afterwards. He kicked me out. I went home, looked in the mirror and started crying. I called a cousin on the phone and asked him if he wanted to go to the movies, because he was sad. I went by car, and when I parked and started walking, in the middle of the block I ran into a place that said “for rent”. And I thought that this was the place I needed to end my problems. That’s where it all started. Then I went to thank the one who kicked me out, and we ended up friends…
News: What is the star dish?
Cea: Some who were from day one. The manzo carpaccio, which is a finely cut filet mignon with olive oil, lemon and Parmesan made at the moment. Some black linguine with seafood and a lobster-based cream sauce that we could never get off the menu and my dad made. And the milanesas a la parmigiana.
News: And your favourite?
Cea: I’ve lost count of how many Milanese Parmigiana I ate.
News: At what point did the celebrities arrive?
Cea: It happened very early on. A week later they told me that there was a girl with her hair up eating a salad, and although I had taken her order, she had not realized that she was Madonna. Two weeks later UB40 came, Cindy Crawford, the Bee Gees. We are between South Beach, which had grown up, and Bal Harbour, another powerful place. But there had never been anything there, so it filled up. However, the first and last name they have never moved us. Everyone pays, and when I feel like inviting, I do. I’m tired of receiving messages from influencers who want to eat for free, I invite more to those who don’t have followers, but I know they like our food. I also have nice experiences, like Michael Jordan came and ordered a bottle of wine. I asked him if he wanted Italian, American or Argentinian, he asked for American. I brought him a pinot noir, listed for $45. And he began to come often and he told me that he had loved it, because many times they charged him US$1,000 for things that cost much less, just because he is who he is.
News: Do you feel like you fulfilled the American dream?
Cea: Yes, and I’m talking about the pros and cons of the American dream. I complied with it in an incredible way, and I also made my parents comply with it, which was the main thing, and many friends, kids from the neighborhood to whom I gave visas and we brought the family. But I also paid my consequences, because I enslaved myself with 60 employees and a business that never stops. My head never rests, which plays against me with my life and my family.
News: And are you thinking of passing the command?
Cea: To make this complete, in the same way that I dreamed it, I think that I don’t want to die working here. I would like someone with great strength to come and give him the life that he may deserve. Prima Pasta is re-ordered, in Argentina, in Miami, in Mexico. What happens is that I can’t do it alone, I need a structure and a team. Perhaps someone very fresh will come along and can continue with this and even make a Prima Pasta chain, because the name has become very strong.
News: Lately you also began to dedicate yourself to music, how did it start?
Cea: The first thing I did when I got to New York was buy a Walkman and go to a record store. I said I wanted an album with the lyrics written on it, and they gave me a Billy Joel one. I started listening to the music and reading the lyrics, and used his words to communicate. That was in 1985. But going back, in 1979, in sixth grade, I had a classmate who one day invited me to see his uncle play, who had a band and was rehearsing right there at school. It turned out that Charly García, David Lebón, Oscar Moro and Pedro Aznar were there, it was Serú Girán! We would leave school at 5, they were always in a bar at 6 in the afternoon and would cross over to the recording studio, where we would stay until 8 o’clock watching them. With them I learned to listen to Pink Floyd records and got to know very good music. 10 years ago I met Charly again at Prima Pasta… And thanks to Diego Torres, a great friend, I also met David again, whom I told was that guy in the overalls who was going to listen to him. I always thought that music was for great musicians. But when I opened Prima Pasta, I started buying guitars for myself and putting them in my office. One day Lenny Kravitz arrived with the whole band and I invited them to meet behind. I grabbed a guitar and gave it to Lenny, who told me no, he was going to sit on the drums and I had to play. With that I got excited and began to study. Until I turned 50 and I went to Rudy Pérez’s, a great producer, and I told him that I wanted to do something in music.
News: Do you dedicate part time to that today?
Cea: Yes, and it improved my life and my head a lot. Because, in the long run, I never really knew what I wanted for myself. I was always moving forward and doing, and when I turned 50 I wondered what it had done for me. At first I went to a little house we have on the beach, because I needed time to think. There I composed a song called “If you could”, for my son, who had gone to New York to study. I realized that he was good at what he could do, that he had magic. And if I like him, why can’t someone else like him? Today I can say that I even won an Emmy award with the collaboration of a song called “Mil caminos” and that I wrote the song that was nominated for this year’s Latin Grammys together with Diego Torres and Yadam González.
