The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
‘I want to give you a story on a plate’
Chef Ciarcia has artistic license to pursue his passions
MIDDLETOWN — Two years ago, Carl Ciarcia III saw his lifelong dream realized when he opened the doors to his first restaurant in the historic Pamecha Jail.
He was eager to show the skills he had honed for nearly a decade — and inject his personality and passions into his American-style menu with Italian influences.
He opened Bread & Water in January 2016, and for 15 months dazzled his customers with culinary masterpieces — so much so he considers each more a friend than patron.
“My customers new and old — we all have a relationship by the time they leave here,” Ciarcia said.
That elation turned to despair in a matter of moments — and shattered his dreams.
Last April, a raging fire destroyed the restaurant he’d been working toward since he was a child. The blaze swiftly moved throughout the dining area, kitchen and apartment above — where
Ciarcia once lived.
He was so traumatized by the fire that he shut down for weeks afterward, trying to grapple with what to do next.
After weeks of depression, bereft of what had become his life’s purpose, and then 10 months of soul-searching, Ciarcia decided to begin the long and arduous process of reopening.
“This is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life,” he said.
Ciarcia has since funneled all his creative energy into crafting plates that tell the story of his life.
Take, for instance, this entree: rack of lamb with a charred fennel forest, roasted baby root vegetables, butternut puree, spiced raspberry gastrique (sweet and sour sauce) and mint oil.
“It represents something so beautiful and so simple: that you can sit in the mid of chaos, in the middle of a fire, and still, if we look closely, there’s a beautiful nest of fennel grass and edible micro orchids,” Ciarcia said. “It symbolizes that no matter how much things get burned, things get upside down or chaotic, there’s always beauty in every dark and deep situation.”
The fire marked a turning point in his life — and career.
“Anyone can put food on a plate. I want to give you a story on a plate,” said the chef, whose customers now tell him: “‘I didn’t even want to touch it. I didn’t want to eat it. I didn’t want to ruin it,’ ” something that pleases him immensely.
About a week ago, Bread & Water’s menu items became a lot more descriptive, a nod to Ciarcia’s long journey to fulfill his destiny, said General Manager Cora Sena, Ciarcia’s elder sister by nine years.
“This menu kind of reminds me of my brother’s childhood,” she said, pointing to the organic lamb rack. “The way he has it set up on the plate is the meat is in the center and he actually peeled parsnips and different root vegetables, and made it look like the bark of a tree and the woods.
“It has the meat running through the vegetables, so it represents an animal running through the woods, which is what Carl really did,” growing up hunting and fishing.
“The final product is truly a reflection of him and who he is,” she said.
Bread & Water is located in a circa 1850 brick building in front of the Alms House, where orphan children and the indigent were given shelter in the 19th century.
For six months every day after the fire, Ciarcia, his sister and staff “would work in dirt and filth to try to clean this place.”
“I’m a crazy chef, but I’m controlled chaos: The worst thing you can do is give someone like that 10 months to sit and think, and take away a lot of things they love,” Ciarcia said.
But he made up his mind, and there was no looking back.
“Everything in his life has led up to this,” said Lee Godburn, the owner of the building, about Ciarcia.
“I learned and watched, and broke down full whitetailed deer and was filleting fish at 7,” Ciarcia said.
“He has a confidence where he’s trying to take himself out of the box, push himself, take himself out of the comfort zone and create new things — whether it is well-received or not, he’s starting to take risks, which is cool,” his sister said.
“I can’t even put into words how much my parents and family have done to support me and make it easier for me to keep going forward,” Ciarcia said.
Now, selections include Plin (duck confit, warm truffled potato foam, shaved black French truffle and duck fat crackle), citrus salad (blood orange, red Russian kale, pickled onions, blood orange jam, sweet pine nuts and honeycomb vinaigrette) and Chilean sea bass (whipped Peruvian potatoes, pickled wild mushrooms, Romesco florets, mushroom gloss and chive grass).
“These dishes aren’t just a menu, they’ve become conversation pieces,” Sena said.
In April, Bread & Water will start offering tasting menus and open an extra day. For two of those, guests will have the option of pairing each course with wine. On the other two, patrons can order of a la carte menu.
He’ll finally have the artistic license to be able to do what he wants to do with his food, Sena said. Bread & Water grew from a 43-seat one-floor restaurant to an 80-seat threefloor one.
“It compares to nothing really that I know of in Connecticut,” Godburn said. “There are places that have similar quality, places that have beautiful-looking dishes, and places that have similar atmospheres and menus — but none of them have all three at the same time.”
The things Ciarcia holds most dear are his family memories, often inextricable from the act of hunting, gathering and creating food.
“My favorite thing to do is to mix pasta dough by hand and roll pasta by hand using a sheeter — not an extruder,” just like his grandparents did while he was a boy, he said.
“I was mesmerized by it, and I would study them, and I would watch how long they cut the noodles, and I would watch how they would treat them with such care, and lay them on a sheet on their bed, and dry them out: like everyone’s Italian grandparents did,” Ciarcia said.
Now, when he makes pasta, and recalls those times, he is truly happy.
“I see them and I think of them, and I wouldn’t be nearly the man I am today if it wasn’t for my family. They created me,” Ciarcia said.
Bread & Water is open Thursday through Saturday. For information, visit breadandwater51.com, the Facebook page, or call 860-852-5944.