Carlo’s Cucina is leaving its mark on the world, and they’ve caught the attention of a national television show.
In the upcoming season, Dish with Mary will feature Carlo Guzzi of Carlo’s Cucina. Mary Mammoliti is a blind chef who navigates her way from the kitchen to Canadian chefs’ backyards. Each episode focuses on one chef, one dish, and one-star ingredient and has Mary visit each chef’s restaurant and the communities they sit in.
For Guzzi, this meant Mary coming to Winnipeg Beach. The show contacted him a while back, asking if they could feature Guzzi and Carlo’s Cucina as a top-notch burger restaurant in Manitoba.
“I said, ‘is this real?’” said Guzzi. “The first thing I did was I cried because I felt like that was my calling. It was like wow, someone finally noticed.”
Being a three-time Le Burger Week winner, Guzzi knows people have noticed his burgers before. He knows he makes good food but is constantly wondering if it’s good enough, and getting the invite for the show was like an answer to his questions.
“When those types of things happen and get thrown at you, you’re like ‘wow, OK, we’re at the top of our game right now,” he said. “And there’s no better position than being at the top.”
Dish with Mary came to Carlo’s Cucina in mid-July, and from when they arrived to when they left, there were barely any free seats in the restaurant. Guzzi said they had asked him how many people he called, and he told them he was always that busy. He often told people to take their business elsewhere for the night because he could take on no more orders.
The show sat Guzzi down for an interview and asked for his origin story. He grew up in his mom’s restaurant, punching potatoes, working the till, and taking orders. He soon started working in other restaurants around the province, and with a push from his mom, Guzzi decided to go to culinary school in Calgary.
There, his chef told him he was “much greater than this,” and Guzzi came back to Winnipeg after graduating, ready to start his own kitchen. He started working out of the Elmwood Curling Club and eventually opened Carlo’s Cucina in the Interlake. Guzzi said he owes everything to his mom because he would never have taken the leap without her.
After his interview, Guzzi took the Dish with Mary crew fishing on Lake Winnipeg so they could get a real taste of him, his origins, and his home. Guzzi spent all his free time fishing as he grew up, and he still fishes as often as possible. Though they didn’t catch anything that day, Guzzi helped Mammoliti cast for the first time, and he showed them the real Interlake.
“I do this now for the community,” he said. “I’m beyond grateful for the community to be in my corner and to support me. I want to put the Interlake on the map.”
Guzzi will visit Mammoliti’s kitchen in September to cook her signature dish. He’ll create a walleye ceviche, a Peruvian dish that includes raw, marinated fish and citrus. Guzzi is making his with walleye as an ode to home.
“I don’t want you to be able to watch the show and think you have to be a culinary chef in order to put this meal together,” he said. “That’s incorrect. I’m doing it because I want people to understand that you don’t have to be in the culinary world in order to make nice, fine dining.”
Guzzi’s episode of Dish with Mary will air on Feb. 14, 2025.
