Paris aime pizza

I was born in Naples but for over ten years I’ve lived in Paris where I have opened the Parole in Cucina school and where I work as a news correspondent specialised in wine and food. I’ve always thought that a reference book on pizza was missing. Pizza is a beloved and... a much imitated product by the French, who prefer it in a traditional "Italian-style" version, that is to say richer, less refined and rarely with typical French gourmet products (from cheese to cured meat). Beloved all around the world, pizza has crossed frontiers but lost a bit of its soul and has become stodgy. Therefore, I returned to Naples to find, once again, the authenticity of pizza through the savoir-faire of 5 pizza-chefs, 5 great masters. And each one of them, in his own right, has taught me to make pizza: flour, oven, dough, leavening, condiments and baking.

This adventure lasted a year of travels to Naples, of photos and writing, condensed in a 360 pages book that tells all the shades of this common, apparently simple dish that in fact requires extreme care. «Pizza is a serious matter», Enzo Coccia soon pointed out when he invited me to taste his gastronomic pizza. The one his brother Ciro makes, instead, is scugnizza and lazzarona (street urchin and rascal): it’s tasty, huge, cheap and you eat it immediately – while standing, folded into quarters (a portafoglio).

And while Franco Pepe kneads with his hands, just like his father did, and makes a slow pizza, Gino Sorbillo pulls out of the oven more than 600 pizzas in 3 hours, and they’re all delicious. How about Enzo Piccirillo? He’s the king of fried pizza: he makes it with the talent of a starred chef. To me, he was a real discovery as, before writing this book, I only ate oven-baked pizza... And a real discovery also for the readers of the book, because fried pizza is even more typically Neapolitan than the oven-baked one: this pizza remained in Naples, while her “sister” travelled the world.

Some people ask me: of all the pizzas in the book, which one is your favourite? It’s impossible for me to answer because each pizza has its right moment. And I enjoy visiting one or the other of my 5 pizza-chefs according to my mood and desire. This book, defined as «touching» by François-Régis Gaudry (a French culinary critic for L’Express), is thus my declaration of love: for pizza and for Naples. Because eating a good pizza is a bit like understanding this city: its generosity, its captivating beauty, its creative genius.

My dream? That after flipping through this book and following a few recipes, the reader will want to book the first flight to Naples, visit the city and eat pizza “live”.