Cosmo Products Ltd owes much of its success to its unusual history, which spans over four decades. Today the company boasts the unique position in the UK as a medium sized pizza manufacturer with the small pizza maker’s touch. Cosmo Tamburro Senior, the Chairman and Founder of the company, had a humble post war upbringing in Formia, a small town on the west coast of Italy situated between Rome and Naples. Cosmo unleashed his passion for cooking when he became a chef at one of Formia’s renowned hotels for wealthy Italians holidaying on this beautiful coastline.

In 1958 Cosmo brought his skills to Scotland. A few years after arriving in the country he established his own small restaurant in Edinburgh which soon earned the reputation as the place to eat in the capital. His original repertoire was not based on pizza, however, but mainly on fish and shellfish. By the mid 1970s Cosmo had moved to much larger premises and it was here, in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle, that he firmly established his name for cooking. His talent in being able to bring out the true flavour of simple ingredients was widely acclaimed. In the 1970s and 1980s celebrities staying at Edinburgh’s more stately hotels were guided to the Cosmo Ristorante in Castle Street. Cosmo’s clientele included Burt Lancaster, Margaret Lockwood, Ronnie Corbett, Sean Connery, Fanny Craddock, and James Last and His Orchestra.

It was in the basement of the restaurant that manufacturing began. However, Cosmo did not manufacture pizza, but began supplying high quality egg pasta to retailers and food service markets. The poor quality of Italian convenience foods on offer then, especially ready made pasta dishes and pizza, had alarmed Cosmo and he set about producing good quality products. It was also at this time that his son, Cosmo Junior, and son in law Richard Smith, joined the business. In 1986 they branched out to rented property where they continued to produce products for retailers and caterers in the central belt of Scotland. By 1993 the company’s success meant that it had outgrown its existing premises.

Cosmo decided that his time could no longer be divided between his restaurant and the now flourishing manufacturing business. In 1993 Cosmo sold the restaurant and built a new factory in order to expand the manufacturing business. As well as creating Italian dishes, the company was approached to make specialised Gluten Free products, which it does with great success.

In 2003 Cosmo Products Ltd moved to its present location in the old mining town of Newtongrange, just outside Edinburgh. Built from scratch, the 1,200m² building also has a one-acre plot set aside for further expansion. The company has attained British Retail Consortium higher level accreditation and now supplies both chilled and frozen pizza to retail & foodservice throughout the UK. Output has grown – but the methods remain the same.

The Cosmo brand is now firmly established in Scottish supermarkets, schools, universities and other foodservice outlets, continuing to offer consumers a more flavoursome and additive free, healthier pizza. One accolade that the family is proud of is its export business and around half a million pizzas per annum are shipped out to Italy and Germany.

At the age of 75, Cosmo Senior, the company Chairman, astonished his critics by opening a small restaurant in the East Lothian town of North Berwick – the very place where he started out from when he first arrived on these shores in 1958. Today he spends some of his time helping in the busy kitchen restaurant, and also takes an active role in product development at Cosmo Products Ltd.