Former contestant of Miss Italy he chose the fields of his Calabria. This is the thirty-two year old Angela Mandate, who had participated in the edition of the beauty contest in which Miriam Leone won. The young Calabrian has chosen to abandon the world of entertainment to take back a family tradition: the production of cedars and figs. Thus, together with his brother Salvatore and his cousin, the young woman originally from Santa Maria del Cedro, in the province of Cosenza, he founded the company "Workshops of the Cedars”, an artisan workshop strongly anchored in the Cosenza tradition. The municipality is part of the so-called Riviera dei Cedri, an area famous for the production of the precious and rare smooth diamond cedar.
Already during her high school years Angela begins to enter the world of fashion, enrolling at the age of 15 in her first beauty contest: The beauty of Italy, where it finished in second place. The following year the casting for the JOhn Casablancas in Milan: an intensive 3-week course to pursue a modeling career. She turned 18, she participated in the selections for Miss Italy, arriving at the pre-final selections of Salsomaggiore Terme, without however accessing the national finals. Then the transfer to Rome to continue her career in the gilded world of entertainment and despite the participation in various television dramas, Angela decided to accept the proposal of her father Osvaldo: to return to Calabria to manage a farm of two excellent local : cedars and figs. Two products that have become the passport to international markets.
Officine dei Cedri combines tradition and innovation, experimenting with ancient Calabrian recipes and new tastes, including the "panicles” of raisins, the bundle of cedar leaves stuffed with raisins and fresh cedar peels, the figs in honey with chestnuts and rum or those at grape must caramel, fig mustard and finally the cedar liqueur e the bitter citron, where the traditional flavors of the typical herbs of the Tyrrhenian coast meet with the citrus notes of the finest cedar in the world, where its unmistakable aroma prevails with elegance, giving a unique experience thanks to its innovative recipe.
A tiring job, where the products are strictly handmade. And this has resulted in the company getting the Kosher Jewish guarantee certificate, so as to allow it to export them to all the Jewish communities of the world. This is because the cedar, especially the smooth diamond quality typical of this area, is the Holy Grail of Sukkot, one of the most important Jewish holidays. Therefore, the Jews are not satisfied with just any cedar, they only want the one from Santa Maria del Cedro. And this has also made it popular internationally.
An unusual choice, especially for those who have always dreamed of walking the catwalks of high fashion. But Angela, now almost a mother, chose to take on the role of the farmer, leaving behind a world that didn't belong to her.
