Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Chef, restaurateur never forgot Sinatra’s advice
His parent’s Miami restaurant Carmela’s on Southwest Eighth Street was his home away from home, and it was there that Frank Sinatra influenced little Domenic Demuro’s future with this advice: “Learn from your momma, kid, and you’ll be the best there is.”
An exemplary Italian chef, who went on to manage and operate a number of five-star restaurants in South Florida, including Pappagalo’s in Palmetto Bay and Peppy’s in Coral Gables, Demuro, 59, of Sunrise, died Sept. 26.
He made his salad dressing and cannolis from scratch. He mastered Veal Francaise. His spaghetti sauce recipe was passed down over three generations. And his Chicken Vesuvio, a concoction of mushrooms, garlic, hot sausage and pepperoncini — was so named because “it tasted like it explodes in your mouth,” said Demuro’s sister, Cathy Beguiristain, of Sunrise.
“He prepared every dish like a signature dish,” she said. “Even if it was spaghetti and meatballs that you had a hundred times, if you ate his, it was like you never had it before.”
It was 1967, Sinatra was filming the movie “Tony Rome” in Miami Beach and every night he and his movie crew would order out from Carmela’s.
Beguiristain said she and her brother never forgot the night Sinatra came to the restaurant in a limousine with an entourage of nine men in black suits to praise her mother’s cooking. It was during that encounter that Sinatra advised young Demuro to follow in his mother’s footsteps.
“That’s exactly what he did,” Beguiristain said. “His biggest joy was watching you enjoy a meal he’d prepared.”
Demuro is survived by a brother, Joseph Demuro, of Pittston, Pa., two sisters, Beguiristain and Dolly Cambeletta, of Advance, N.C., four nieces and three nephews.
A Mass and burial is scheduled for 11 a.m. Dec. 5 at the Chapel of Consolation, Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Cemetery, 11411 NW 25th St., Doral.