Baking my bread is like raising a child!

HOW YEARS OF LEARNING HIS CRAFT PAID OFF FOR DEDICATED CARMINE

- By DANNY GUTMANN

N the last few years, there has been a sudden influx of bakeries popping up all over the city, serving everything from sourdough bread to traditional French croissants.

However, few can claim to deliver the authenticity and dedication that can be seen in Carmine Italian Bakery.

It's a favourite spot for sourdough or a delicious focaccia sandwich, and the story behind Carmine Italian Bakery can be traced all the way back to the small Italian city of Potenza.

Working as a pizza maker at the only pizzeria in the village at 13 years old, Carmine Cillo's love of baking was first ignited.

After years of honing his craft across various different eateries, at 21 he started his studies at the school of Italian Pizzeria. As his love for the food industry, and more specifically for baking, grew and grew, he decided to take a huge leap of faith and moved to Liverpool where he began baking sourdough and various other Italian bakes for his brothers, Paolo and Donato, in their P&D cafe (now Gran Caffe) on Tarleton Street.

After sharing a slice of Italy with the people of Liverpool from his brothers' city centre cafe for years, in 2023 he decided to open his own venue, Carmine's Italian Bakery on Jesse Hartley Way at the waterfront.

Since then, he and his team have been serving up a vast array of authentic Italian focaccia sandwiches and sourdough loaves.

While the bakery opens its doors to the public for eight hours a day, when the doors shut at 4pm, Carmine and his committed army of employees are still hard at work as they work to meet demands.