Sorbillo will do it

A person from Milan who truly loves pizza knows this. It has always been difficult to eat a good one in town, as if a sort of malign curse was lingering. While the recent opening of a place such as Dry offered a quality choice, though distant from Neapolitan tradition, the arrival in Milan of Franco Pepe, which soon turned out to be a bad experience, especially for the pizza chef from Caserta, seemed to confirm a strange curse.

Since a few days ago, however, Milanese people who are faithful to pizza can smile, jut like Gino Sorbillo always does in the photos people take of him. The story of the Sorbillo family begins in Via dei Tribunali: there, in the Thirties, his grandfather Luigi opened a small pizzeria. Of his twenty-one children, one daughter grew especially passionate about the art of dough-making. She’s called Esterina and worked in the restaurant for sixty-three years. Nephew Gino learnt everything from her, first by observing her, then working by her side. And then again running the pizzeria himself, renewing it and enlarging it, increasing its popularity in an exponential way.

Today Gino Sorbillo, forty, has two pizzerias in Naples: the historic one in Via dei Tribunali and the more recent one, Lievito Madre al Mare, by the seaside, in Via Partenope. It is indeed following the format of this second one that since October 16th he has exported in Milan Lievito Madre al Duomo, officially opened last night in Largo Corsia dei Servi. The curse, at one point, seemed to persecute this arrival too, but Sorbillo’s smile, and most of all his tenacity, won over it.

«It took us almost one year – says Gino – to open. We first had to solve the problem of the landscape limits that were present in the area, then we were forced to wait for the creation of an exhaust pipe, which was more complicated than expected. During these months we continued to pay the rent, convinced that we would reach our goal.»

Gino was not alone facing these difficulties: his brother Antonio is on his side, he will personally run the Milanese location, where the older brother will come twice a month. And then there’s wife Loredana, defined as «the real motivator in all my actions».

The team of pizza-makers is guided by Gennaro Salvo, from Portici, and is also formed by guys selected in London, at Pilgrims, a place that in a short time conquered the British capital. They are in charge of the special oven, the true heart of any pizzeria that is worthy of this name. «It was the first thing we built in this place – Gino Sorbillo confirms – and I trusted the work of Michele Strazzullo with whom I had already worked for the oven in Via Partenope in Naples.»

The menu is focused on number 7, but Sorbillo always cheats a little with pizzas, and always to the advantage of the guests, offering seven... plus four more! The dough is made with a mix of 85% “0” flour plus 15% whole-wheat flour, both organic. This is a new choice for Sorbillo, who says he’s very satisfied with it: «this mixture gives more flavour to the dough and pushes the leavening further, you need to control it a little but I like the result very much». The use of these flours was also included in the restaurant in Via Partenope, where mother yeast is also used, unlike the historic place in Via dei Tribunali. But even there, as of October 26th, organic flour and an equally organic extra virgin olive oil from Umbria (produced by Gradassi) will be introduced, with no increase in the prices.

The ingredients for the toppings of the pizzas are of course of the highest quality, with many Slow Food Presidia. One of these pizzas is called in fact Alleanza dei Presidi [Presidia Allegiance] and offers a delicious meeting of San Marzano Dop tomatoes, Red Sausage from Castelpoto and Cacioricotta di Capra Cilentana (beside the Fiordilatte cheese from Fattoria Il Casolare). The Margherita Gialla is also splendid, with yellow “Lucariello” cherry tomatoes, provola and Conciato Romano, but the Calabrese with 'nduja di Spilinga or the pizza with Pesto genovese by Roberto Panizza are also remarkable.

The extreme attention to the dough and the ingredients have led Gino Sorbillo to make a drastic choice: «in this restaurant we will only serve 400 pizzas per day, between lunch and dinner. My pizzas in Naples often exceed 1000, but here we cannot do this. Only yesterday we had to say no to around one hundred people: it’s the only way we have to guarantee the highest quality».

On which Sorbillo promises he will continue to work, both with new restaurants (he’s thinking of two locations dedicated to fried pizza, first in Naples and then in Milan, but also some pizza-points in some international airporss) and with the arrival of new products in the menu of Lievito Madre al Duomo. For instance, as for cakes, a collaboration with Gianluca Fusto is being examined which could become concrete in the next few months.

Lievito Madre al Duomo
Largo Corsia dei Servi
+39.02.45375930
Always open, for lunch and supper
Average price for the pizzas 9 euros