The southern memories of Boer and Rizzo

Eugenio Boer was born in Liguria to Dutch father and Sicilian mother and it was in Sicily that he started to work in the restaurant industry and stopped there for a few years. Giuseppe Rizzo of Pizzeria dell’Angolo in Vittuone (Milan), instead, comes from a family originally from Campania who moved to Milan in the Sixties. There is every premise to speak about building new memories, of mixing and blending cultures and traditions. Indeed, the two joined forces after Rizzo dined at Bu:r and their new collaboration, they reassure, will be a long one.

The two leavened products presented during Identità di Pane e Pizza, are the result of their personal stories. Whole wheat focaccia with fennel salad is the result of a distant (in time) inspiration: as a kid Boer, as soon as he arrived in Palermo, near the Vucciria market he came across an aroma he knew from childhood. When walking around the stands, he realised it was herrings, a must in the sandwiches his father would make for breakfast, something Sicily shares with northern Europe in terms of food.

The whole wheat focaccia is made with Petra 9 flour, a small portion of Petra Evolutiva and a mix of flax, sunflower and pumpkin seeds («This to remind Eugenio of the northern bread he’d eat as a child»). The high-hydration dough, for which Rizzo used mother yeast, was made from a poolish that matured for 18-22 hours and was kneaded the following day.