Elective affinities for Campanian Luigi Acciaio, born in 1969 in Castellamare di Stabia, and Jessica Tomaino, born in 81 in Castellamonte, husband and wife who are also united by their work.
Luigi was born with good food in his eyes and in his blood: he started to work with his grandfather at 8, in the family delicatessen called Lucullus in Torre Annunziata. He later refined his culinary knowledge thanks to his father Giuseppe, a big expert of culinary excellences and owner of GMA Import Specialità in Pompei. Luigi specialised in pizza and dough, which is increasingly light and easy to digest. He became a pizzaiolo, offering his consultancy to restaurants opening all around Europe, as well as promoting courses for «housewives who want to learn how to make a good pizza at home».
In the past few years, together with his father, he registered the Pizzeria Gourmet® format where they only use high quality raw materials and processes that follow ancient traditions. Moreover, in order to safeguard these principles, he created the Associazione Pizza Napoletana Gourmet, whose regulations offer the guidelines to be followed by Pizzaioli Gourmet.
After attending the School of Art, Jessica Tomaino arrived in the restaurant industry by chance. In 2002 she met Luigi Acciaio in a famous pizzeria in the province of Torino, where they were both working at the time and where Luigi was supporting the launch. After loosing sight of each other for a decade, they met again and this time, not only did they start a professional partnership but they fell in love too. This resulted in a child… and lots of professional projects, some of which are runnind already, while others are in progress.
Luigi Acciaio and wife Jessica offer training courses, also with the support of Fip (Federazione Italiana Pizzaioli nel Mondo). In 2016 they opened their first Pizzeria Gourmet®, called Com’era... È in Moncalieri (To). They offer dough with whole-wheat flour and whole wheat seeds from Molino Quaglia, 75/90% hydration and at least 36 hours of leavening. Here Luigi presented and tested his patented kneading processor “AT” (which stands for the initials of their surnames, Acciaio and Tomaino). It offers “assisted” hand kneading, simulating hand kneading with the help of a moving container, thanks to which they can make large quantities of dough (up to 30 kg per time) in very few minutes and with a hydration that would be impossible to handle in a traditional kneading processor or by hand on a flat surface.