DOHA, Qatar — It was a mid-September evening in southern Spain. A chair was pulled aside in the dining room where the United States men’s national team was eating. Everyone stopped to watch. A rite of passage was at hand.
The rule is clear: You must sing. Players, coaches, staff — no matter the position, every incoming member of the U.S. Soccer program must do it. And so Giulio Caccamo, the ever-smiling and energetic new executive chef for the Americans, clambered up on the chair and prepared to serenade the crowd.
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“Everyone had told me the same advice, just get up there and sing an old Italian song that no one understands and then you can sit down,” said Caccamo, who grew up among the canals of Venice. “I said, ‘No way!’ I’m not going to do that.”
He laughed. “So I sang Elvis.”
The players cheered, and Caccamo beamed. Theirs is an unlikely connection. Caccamo was raised in Italy, and he spent much of his professional career working internationally in restaurants from the Middle East to South America.
How, then, did he end up cooking for the U.S.? The short answer, as you might expect, is simple: They liked his food.
Caccamo was working at the Intercontinental Hotel in San Salvador last fall when the U.S. played El Salvador in World Cup qualifying. U.S. Soccer doesn’t typically have a full-time chef; they generally just work with the chef at whatever hotel they’re staying at while on the road to set up their meals. But in El Salvador, federation staff, including coach Gregg Berhalter, were impressed by Caccamo’s efficiency and attention to detail during preparations for their visit.
Then, more importantly, everyone loved what he made.
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Conversations were had. An agreement was reached. Caccamo began working on menus and connecting with the team’s nutritionists over email, then joined the U.S. for their September training camp ahead of the World Cup. That was where Caccamo went through the singing ritual, and also where he strengthened his relationships with the players and staff. Berhalter, a noted foodie, had a very specific subject he wanted to discuss: What are the intricacies that go into making a proper and authentic amatriciana?
“As an Italian, those are conversations I love,” Caccamo said with pride.
