Now, while this project is young, its roots go deep.
A lifetime deep.
That life belongs to Cosimo Piscioneri, our founder. His journey begins in Calabria, a region in the far south of Italy – renowned for its crystal-clear seas, pristine beaches, massive mountains, and outrageously spicy dishes. Much less known about this sunny heaven is the lack of financial and educational resources that often stand in the way of personal development, making the future look like a red-brick wall too high to climb, too thick to look through.
But Cosimo didn’t want anything to stand in his way. He was a curious kid, who loved to roll up his sleeves and get involved in practical things. His father worked in the same industry where he would much later found Mastro1985, and brought samples home. Cosimo had a small gelato maker for home use and experimented with it. In the summer, during the school break, he worked at a nearby ice-cream parlour owned by a relative. He didn’t mind working long hours, as long as he felt useful.
When he graduated in his little hometown, Siderno, he decided to accept a job offer in what was then considered like some sort of a different planet: Milan, the busy-bee metropolis up north; the foggy, frantic, freezing metropolis. He resisted 15 days, then fled to his hometown again. But by a mysterious turn of events, they called him back for a vacancy in France: that’s where his life was really turned upside down. Cosimo started working as a consultant for one of the Big Ones in the ice cream industry, in charge of developing the franchising network and of training personnel. After 3 years, a new position opened up in Miami, Florida: it was time for him to cross the ocean – and as scary as it sounded for the newly-adjusted-to-France Cosimo, he didn’t flinch from what would turn out to be the greatest opportunity in his life.
Like many Italians before him, he landed in the USA hoping to make up for his poor English with his great enthusiasm and risk-taking attitude. The land of the bold and the free didn’t fail him: first he helped develop Italian companies in the US, then he started working on product research and commercial development on the US, Canadian and South American market, thanks to his proficiency in French and increasing fluency in Spanish.
But that couldn’t be the end of it. And it wasn’t. Back in Italy, he enthusiastically dived into his new job, which made him realise there was a whole new world to discover: the Middle East, Africa, Europe. He gained awareness about the multifaceted needs, requirements and expectations of international audiences by comparing them with the ones he had gotten used to in North and South America, plus France. He gained experience and confidence in communicating with those audiences, anticipating their needs and becoming the full-fledged expert he was aiming to be.
And yet, he still felt incomplete. More than 15 years had passed from the day he had hurriedly packed to move to France and he was now starting a new job, the ultimate experience on the field he needed, where he could finally be a manager, not just a high-rank consultant, and be responsible for people, not just businesses. It was like completing a circle, writing the final line to a very long story. But a new book was already awaiting: this is where the idea of Mastro1985 came up, when Cosimo seriously began to think about exploiting all the experience and knowledge built up over the years to start something of his own. And, as usual, he transformed his thoughts into action.
The idea behind Mastro1985 – which carries, in its name, the double significance of Master, referring to the reliability and quality of the brand, and of Cosimo’s personal identity, marked by his year of birth – is that of surpassing limits. Geographical ones, because after travelling far and wide, Cosimo knew how tiny the world actually is; and all other kinds of limits as well, because any door can be opened with the right key. And Mastro’s aim is exactly that of opening doors: onto new markets, new flavours, new ideas. By partnering with one of the benchmark companies in the production of pre-made mixes for catering businesses, Gelatitalia, through Mastro1985 Cosimo added his unparalleled knowledge of foreign markets to the assets of a strong family company with branches all over the world.
Based in the very heart of Milan, in modern premises that include a tasting area and a terrace for open-air events, easy to reach from the two airports of Linate and Malpensa, Mastro1985 brought Cosimo again where everything started, but a long way up on that same road.
