Oh, we love Luca Doro: pizza and love in Macerata Campania (but now also near Udine!)

Macerata Campania is in the province of Caserta and not in Caiazzo. There are happier provinces than others, let’s admit it. And it is for this reason that Luca Doro is so fascinating: for his tenacity, simply for his art of knowing how to work, day after day, always better. He currently has the honour and duty of being one of the Ambasciatori del Gusto, the association born to give value to our food and wine culture. In his early forty, he’s continuing the family pizza tradition (though in between, he’s acquired a varied and prestigious experience which has allowed him to acquire skill and visibility). His spontaneity is charming, he’s a master of dough and research, in a region like Campania that has its limiting boundaries: Luca has shown courage in his looking beyond. Some pizzas are traditional, others are cooked in the pan, others on the peel or on the “ruoto”, following his grandmother’s tradition. A deep passion for wholewheat flour which he tames what with preferments and some extra kneading. On the leavened disc, one can find a strong sense of cuisine that leads him to create toppings worthy of an expert chef. The selection of ingredients is as accurate as his managing of ripening and baking techniques.

Despite his grandmother-muse, Luca bakes contemporary highly-hydrated pizzas, with long and complicated processes, soft and with a large and friable edge. And super easy to digest. We returned to his pizzeria recently during the village festival: for Sant’Antonio Abate, protector of animals, fire and pizzaioli. On that occasion, we tasted Pizzellessa: it celebrated winter in Caserta, with boiled Roccamonfina Igp chetsnuts, provola from noble milk, pork jowl from the Casertana breed, peperone crusco from Senise Igp and Conciato romano, th most ancient cheese in the world, a Slow Food Presidium. It’s a joy to go through made in Italy thanks to Luca.

He’s a professional who has always shown the courage to take on difficult tasks: he’s grown with the equation “you reap what you sew”. His mother, smiling and welcoming, is his number one fan, «welcome to our pizzeria». Awards, praise from the media... One often focuses on the finale, ignoring the steps in between. But without those steps, there’s no goal and Luca Doro, who has made pizzas all over the world, adds some precious pawns to his pizzeria in a small town that has now become a mandatory destination for the travelling pizza lover. Luca thanks them with obsessive attention to detail. In his restaurant, you won’t find just any cheese, any cured meat, any vegetable. Goodness and storytelling come together. His pizzas are a triumph, in terms of appearance and taste. And in the immediacy of a Marinara with garlic from Nubia and mountain oregano, or a Margherita seasoned with cannellino flegreo tomatoes. And then there’s Carmnella, dedicated to his aunt. With raw endive, olives from Caiazzo and anchovies.

A beautiful story to listen to, including the happy meeting with Farina Petra and the embrace of a company that welcomes him without any without reservation: Luca’s work is of the highest level. He’s proud of his Campanian identity, but he can be at ease everywhere. This is proven by his pizzas, and all those who make this miracle possible. «Identity? Easy. I didn’t have to study it, it was already in my blood, running since my great-grandparents. My life is a constant multiplication of old and new, moment after moment, pizza after pizza».

But there’s more coming up. The volcanic pizzaiolo from Campania is about to open a new pizzeria called Impronta Doro in Cervignano in the province of Udine. Eight-hundred km from Macerata Campania, close to the airport of Trieste, Aquileia and the Lagoon of Marano, but with the usual fine quality: fried pizza, Neapolitan tradition, in the pan, nomen est omen, the “impronta”, the trademark, is unquestionable. Luca Doro is happy, grateful to his beloved family for their support, and to the farsightedness of his business partners who will support him in this new adventure in Friuli. «I hold this city dear because I completed the military service there, - he says. – Besides my partners are two friends from Macerata Campania who have been living there for 30 years». We could call it a story of redemption, from take away to table service, up to a new opening far away from his homeland (Via della Ferrovia 5, inside the shopping centre in Cervignano del Friuli, Udine. Website: improntadoro.it).

Translated into English by Slawka G. Scarso