Massimiliano Prete

Taste, digestibility, structure: these are the keywords for Massimiliano Prete’s work. The first keyword needs no explanation, just think that it’s included in the names of the three restaurants where you can eat his pizza: Il Teatro del Gusto and Gusto Divino in Saluzzo, Gusto Madre in Alba, in partnership with pastry chef Fabio Ciriaci.

Digestibility is a bit of an obsession for Prete, and not just because it’s trendy: his research on fermentation is in constant development. Structure, instead, refers to his experiments with the shape and texture of dough: from classic to soft to the thick “pizzotto”, almost a cloud, to the one without yeast, to the super crunchy, to the Roman focaccia with the aroma of toasted wheat. Everyone can choose their preferred one, or taste them all.

Forty-three, originally from Salento, Massimiliano Prete is a self-trained pizzaiolo. His path from Apulia to Piedmont, and from “traditional” pizza – following the tradition of Tramonti, the first he used at Beppe Francese’s pizzeria in Gavi – to “contemporary” pizza is complicated but follows a meaning. For years he worked with pastry making, and then returned to pizza with a new approach, influenced by the rigour of the sweet world. Thanks to courses and meetings he then refined his technique and worked on topping too, focusing on excellent raw materials often local but without limitations: «We shouldn’t be extremists with 0 km; we will not do without anchovies from the Sea of Cantabria or Pata Negra».

The meeting with chef Enrico Crippa was certainly one of the most significant ones: «I had just opened Gusto Divino and found it hard to make people understand my pizzas. They didn’t appreciate the innovation. A common friend invited him to dine here and he appreciated my work instead, he encouraged me. A nice friendship was born. I’m very inspired by his work and I’m learning from the world of cuisine». A very special pizza resulted from their meeting with the dough created by Prete and the topping by Crippa. They’ll present it at Identità Milano 2017  in a great 4 hands and 2 heads lesson.

In 2018, the new adventure at the Sestogusto in Torino.