Chef and pizza, a topic we’ve been analysing in depth. We’ve already written about great Italian chefs (Ugo Alciati, Moreno Cedroni, Nino Di Costanzo, Andrea Mattei, Peter Brunel) who are working with dough and toppings. Today we change point of view and move to Japan, or actually to Milan. Here Japanese chef Nobuya Niimori is at work at Sushi B. He wanted to tell us in his own words (see below) how he approached this unusual world. This happened recently at Ferrowine in Castelfranco Veneto which hosted Italo Bassi, Eugenio Boer, Alba Esteve Ruiz and Francesco Brutto, all at work to create the ideal topping for the crispy base made by pizza chef Denis Lovatel from Da Ezio in Alano di Piave (Belluno). We’re happy to welcome this piece by Niimori. (Carlo Passera)
In the photo, left to right, Michela Ferro of Ferrowine, Italo Bassi, Andrea Valentinetti of d&g patisserie, the other chefs Niimori, Brutto, Boer, Esteve Ruiz, Lovatel and Giovanni Ferro of Ferrowine
«Working with pizza was great fun. I met
Denis Lovatel in the spring, when he had lunch at
Sushi B and he told me about this idea. I tasted his pizza, which is very light and crispy, and enjoyed it very much, so I decided to test myself in a field I had never experimented.
I wanted to add my cuisine to the pizza. The latter, contrary to other Japanese restaurants in Italy, has a strong traditional component. Hence I chose a great classic in Japanese cuisine, teriyaki chicken, cooked in the traditional way. Chicken goes well with a cheese like buffalo milk mozzarella from Paestum and with pizza. I just paired it with mozzarella from Paestum and some seasonal vegetables seasoned with a dressing we often use at my restaurant
Sushi B. The vegetables are blanched, but remain very crispy, so as to remind the crispiness typical of
Denis’s pizza.
Nobuya Niimori at work at Ferrowine
On Monday, the other week, we cooked this pizza together for almost 100 people during a special dinner
Denis organised at
Ferrowine, a beautiful winebar in Castelfranco Veneto. It was a great challenge because Japanese cuisine is also based on absolutely precise cuts and dish aesthetics. And at that moment it was hardly easy. I tried to preserve these characteristics also thanks to the other chefs who participated that night and I believe the guests appreciated our
Tori No Teriyaki very much».
was born in Tokyo in 1973. He was passionate about cooking since childhood and, having completed his studies, he worked as chef for eight years in Italian restaurants in Japan. After arriving to Italy, he worked at Trattoria Donnini in Bagno a Ripoli, then with Moreno Cedroni at Madonnina del Pescatore, Da Franco at Palau, and finally in Milan at restaurant Don Carlos inside the Grand Hotel de Milan, under the consultancy of Alfredo Russo, then at Kiyo and Nobu Armani. He’s now the executive chef at Sushi B
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