Founded by Stefano Vaccara

Subscribe for only $6/Year
  • Login
  • Register

Editor in Chief: Giampaolo Pioli

VNY La Voce di New York

The First Italian English Digital Daily in the US

English Editor: Grace Russo Bullaro

  • English Edition
  • Letters
  • New York
  • U.N.
  • News
  • People
  • Entertainment
  • Arts
  • Lifestyles
  • Food & Wine
  • Travel
  • Sports
  • Italian Edition
No Result
View All Result
VNY
  • English Edition
  • Letters
  • New York
  • U.N.
  • News
  • People
  • Entertainment
  • Arts
  • Lifestyles
  • Food & Wine
  • Travel
  • Sports
  • Italian Edition
No Result
View All Result
VNY La Voce di New York
No Result
View All Result
in
Food & Wine
November 20, 2022
in
Food & Wine
November 20, 2022
0

Pizza in the Home Where it Was Born: Now Radical and Reimagined

Elevated to tasting menu excellence, it goes well with champagne

Amanda JamesbyAmanda James
Pizza in the Home Where it Was Born: Now Radical and Reimagined

Concettina's ai Tre Santi, Naples. Photo: Youtube

Time: 3 mins read

Contrary to what proud Americans will tell you, pizza was not born in Chicago or New York; it was born in Naples, in the region of Campania. And while Wolfgang Puck thought to invigorate and “globalize” it in the 80’s by putting pineapple on it, pizza is still one of the most traditional Italian excellences, revered and respected.

But now tradition is being redefined in the Italian way. Today’s pizzaioli are elevating it to the heady heights of gourmet dining. One of those innovators is Da Concettina ai Tre Santi’s Ciro Oliva, 29, who commandeered his family’s delivery joint with dreams of grandeur when he was just 19. In recent years, Mr. Oliva and other high-flying restaurant owners in Naples and nearby have adopted the tasting menu, that haute-cuisine marker of five-star dining, and applied it to the most common and commonly adored food: pizza.

Ciro Oliva, showing off te pizza that won him an international prize. Youtube

Concettina is located in the Sanità neighborhood of Naples, a rough-and-tumble district centered around a noisy and boisterous market street, that was named one of Time Out’s 51 coolest neighborhoods in the world this year, an upgrade in fortune due in decent part to this local pizzaiolo. Dignitaries and food fans flock to his outpost in this gritty yet evermore vibrant part of Naples.

“A margherita deserves the same respect as any other ‘Made in Italy’ artisan product,” Mr. Oliva said. “It’s like a Loro Piana jacket. But it’s pizza.”

Mr. Oliva has introduced long-leavened doughs and ingredients “all at level 10” he said, snapping his fingers for emphasis. “You have people who order a tasting menu and Champagne,” he said, pointing to a table with a rarefied bottle of Jacques Selosse Extra-Brut, “and people who order a margherita and a Coca-Cola,” which was the case with nearly all of the present guests. This is almost always true in Italy:  the pizzerias offer this high-low balance: excess and accessibility.

Marino Niola, a cultural anthropologist in Naples, explains that “Pizza today has become a culinary excellence but, born as sustenance for the poor, it will always be tied to the concept of food for all.”

The tasting menu, though, is a nod to the Michelin guide, which has become the oracle of destination restaurants for food-obsessed travelers throughout the world.

Maestro Franco Pepe. Youtube

Caiazzo, a tiny hilltop town of 5,000 to Naples’s north, is where you will find another great innovator of the elevated pizza experience at Pepe in Grani. “Pizza has always been considered fast food,” said  Franco Pepe, known to all as Maestro. “But this is slow-food pizza.” Superb raw materials, high-craft cuisine, reconsidered recipes. The once-teenage assistant to his pizzaiolo father, Mr. Pepe took over the pizzeria with his brothers upon his father’s death, but he split from his siblings in 2012, rebuilding an 18th-century Caiazzo ruin as his own restaurant, with his apartment installed directly above it, where he could cultivate his exacting ideology of pizza. “We knew all about dough,” he said. “But we had a lot to learn about ingredients and recipes.”

An official ambassador of the Mediterranean diet, Mr. Pepe stressed the nutrition of his menu, but health food in an Italian context is very flexible. One of his best-sellers is deep-fried and carries a glorious blaze of flavors: a gently cured anchovy of nearly raw intensity, a sunshine-sweet tomato slice, a shimmering note of citrus zest underlined by peperoncino’s slight fire, a worthy example of Mr. Pepe’s doctrine: “Pizza enhanced by the culinary arts,” as he described it, while the young staff stretched fresh pies on the marble countertop in the kitchen. “Where tradition meets creativity and innovation.”

 

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Amanda James

Amanda James

DELLO STESSO AUTORE

Pillole del giorno dagli Stati Uniti

Fox’s Carlson Back to Kissing Trump’s A** After Saying He Hates Him “Passionately”

byAmanda James
Danish Princes Stripped of their Titles: Their Dad Joachim Walks Away in a Huff

Danish Princes Stripped of their Titles: Their Dad Joachim Walks Away in a Huff

byAmanda James

A PROPOSITO DI...

Tags: CaiazzoCampaniaCiro OlivaFranco PepeNaplespizza
Previous Post

Ambasciatore USA a Roma? Pelosi ancora in corsa, ma dietro rispunta Robert

Next Post

Ricordando Ennio Flaiano a 50 anni dalla morte

Discussion about this post

DELLO STESSO AUTORE

Biden incontra Kishida: il Giappone vuole diventare una potenza militare

Dueling Visits as China and Japan Leaders Meet with Putin and Zelensky

byAmanda James
Spring Break in Miami Beach Brings Chaos, Killings, and Curfew

Spring Break in Miami Beach Brings Chaos, Killings, and Curfew

byAmanda James

Latest News

La quarta audizione svela i trucchi di Trump per scambiare i Grandi Elettori

Si allungano i tempi per il rinvio a giudizio di Donald Trump

byMassimo Jaus
“After the wild”: arte contemporanea al Jewish Museum di New York

“After the wild”: arte contemporanea al Jewish Museum di New York

byGianna Pontecorboli

New York

L’FBI gli suona alla porta: uomo minaccia di lanciarsi da un grattacielo di New York

L’FBI gli suona alla porta: uomo minaccia di lanciarsi da un grattacielo di New York

byLa Voce di New York
Comitiva di ragazzi si perde nelle fogne di New York: salvati dai vigili del fuoco

Comitiva di ragazzi si perde nelle fogne di New York: salvati dai vigili del fuoco

byLa Voce di New York

Italiany

La crisi dell’istruzione nel mondo: 2/3 dei bambini non capiscono cosa leggono

Master Fondazione Italia-Usa: altre 200 borse di studio “Next Generation”

byLa Voce di New York
World Pasta Day: negli USA sempre più Made in Italy grazie all’ICE

World Pasta Day: negli USA sempre più Made in Italy grazie all’ICE

byNicola Corradi
Next Post
Ricordando Ennio Flaiano a 50 anni dalla morte

Ricordando Ennio Flaiano a 50 anni dalla morte

La Voce di New York

Editor in Chief:  Giampaolo Pioli   |   English Editor: Grace Russo Bullaro

  • New York
    • Eventi
  • Onu
  • News
    • Primo Piano
    • Politica
    • Voto Estero
    • Economia
    • First Amendment
  • People
    • Nuovo Mondo
  • Arts
    • Arte e Design
    • Spettacolo
    • Musica
    • Libri
    • Lingua Italiana
  • Lifestyles
    • Fashion
    • Scienza e Salute
    • Sport
    • Religioni
  • Food & Wine
  • Travel
    • Italia
  • Mediterraneo
  • English
  • Search/Archive
  • About us
    • Editorial Staff
    • President
    • Administration
    • Advertising

VNY Media La Voce di New York © 2016 - 2022
Main Office: 230 Park Avenue, 21floor, New York, NY 10169 | Editorial Office/Redazione: UN Secretariat Building, International Press Corps S-301, New York, NY 10017

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • New York
  • Onu
  • News
    • Elezioni 2022
    • Primo Piano
    • Politica
    • Economia
    • First Amendment
  • Arts
    • Speciale Venezia
    • Arte e Design
    • Spettacolo
    • Musica
    • Libri
  • Lifestyles
    • Fashion
    • Scienza e Salute
    • Sport
    • Religioni
  • Food & Wine
    • Cucina Italiana
  • Travel
    • Italia
  • English
    • Arts
    • Business
    • Entertainment
    • Food & Wine
    • Letters
    • Lifestyles
    • Mediterranean
    • New York
    • News
  • Subscribe for only $6/Year

© 2016/2022 VNY Media La Voce di New York

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms bellow to register

All fields are required. Log In
By clicking on "Create my account" or by registering, you accept the Term of Service and the Privacy Policy.

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
Are you sure want to unlock this post?
Unlock left : 0
Are you sure want to cancel subscription?