Ciao's Restaurant
Catering and cakes
Meet Adele
Adele De Rosa was born on the Cilento Coast in a small Italian village called Capaccio-Paestum, where she grew up watching her Nonna cook in the kitchen.
In 1981, Adele married Angelo Ciao in a monastery in Capaccio, and Angelo quickly found out that his new wife didn't know a potato from a tomato, for she never had to cook for herself! Angelo confided in his friend Peppino, who thoroughly enjoyed great food and was also a fantastic cook. He invited the two of them over for dinner and took it upon himself to teach Adele about eating for enjoyment and the exciting nature of tasting really great food.
After the night’s meal of steamed salmon, Peppino convinced Adele and Angelo to go on a gastronomic trip around Italy. Adele and Angelo thought this was a great idea, and they gathered some friends and went on a food tour of Italy, eating at the top restaurants including the famous Enoteca Pimehiorri, Osteria Dell'Angelo, and Antica Osteria del Ponte.The gastronomic tour forever changed Adele, and had kindled a fiery passion for truly good cuisine.
This new passion unlocked a desire in Adele to experiment with all kinds of foods in new ways, combining unique tastes and flavors.
Adele’s mother-in-law Italia, a phenomenal cook, furthered Adele’s drive to create great food. Adele’s cuisine was always being compared to Italia’s, so she made it into a friendly competition and always strived to make better dishes!
Fully in love with food, Adele decided to attended culinary school in S. Marco, Salerno. In the middle of her schooling, in 1993, she moved from Italy to live in South Bend for Angelo's work, flying back and forth from the USA to Italy in order to finish her degree.
In a new country with two small daughters, Eliana and Serena, Adele didn’t speak any English. She struggled to converse with her customers when she opened her first bakery in South Bend in 1994. After people met Adele and tasted her wonderful desserts, they wanted more, so Adele started catering 1995 and later opened a full restaurant in the Jameson Inn building in 1999. The rest is history, and Adele has been delighting Michiana’s taste buds with delectable Italian desserts and cuisine for over 25 years.