Pizza&core International n 120

n.120

JUNE

2022

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editorials

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ummer 2022 will be a great summer for the pizza world. The tourist forecasts are giving excellent signals and consumers are eager to go back out, despite the awareness that problems and worries are still in the air (Covid still circulating, conflict, high prices, lack of personnel). But optimism is there despite everything, a desire to leave the wellknown critical issues behind. There is optimism also because pizza is and remains the most consumed dish in the world, since besides being a simple dish, its versatility also means that it can satisfy the different tastes of every consumer in every corner of the planet.

A versatility that also allows for a variety in the choice of beverage in the different moments of consumption.

It is known that 7 out of 10 adult consumers ask for a beer to accompany their pizza, but wine lovers

are also growing. And that’ s not all, another drink is peeping out next to a good pizza: the cocktail or mixed drink. There are in fact more and more connoisseurs who appreciate cocktails, in their countless variations, with pizza in a gourmet version. In fact, in many Italian venues, - which are almost turning from pizzerias into lounge bars - the pairing of pizza, often in different flavour slices, and cocktails is becoming more and more glamorous. It is a perfect pairing for the summer that is just about to begin, when pizza will certainly continue to be a favourite among consumers, who will, however, be able to enjoy it while sipping a spritz. Happy summer to all pizza gourmets and good work to the pizza makers who will now also be a bit of a bartender.

Giuseppe Rotolo 3

a cura del Direttore Giuseppe Rotolo

Good pizza is also in Kiev

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and it will be back

ood pizza in Kiev is the title of this article, with the hope that this absurd war will end as soon as possible, that peace will return and with peace the opportunity to go back to eating good pizza with serenity in Kiev too. Without doubt, this is the wish of many, and it is even more the wish of Enzo Coccia, who in Kiev has many friends and a piece of his heart.

It was in fact this Neapolitan master who directed and trained a team of Ukrainian pizza makers.

A consultancy job carried out for the Lespio Group, the first and very popular supermarket chain in Ukraine, which decided to open a pizzeria in Kiev in 2016.

The pizzeria is called Positano and recalls the culture and tradition of Neapolitan pizza.

«With my company Pizza Consulting, - Enzo Coccia tells us, - we carried out a one-year consultancy with my longtime collaborator Davide Bruno. We took care of both the training of pizza chefs and the design and selection of raw materials.

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It was a highly rewarding work experience and also an exciting human one. We met people keen on Neapolitan pizza who fully embraced our culture. Positano’s chef Marco Cervetti is from Venice and together we have started a wonderful collaboration resulting in an intense friendship. The first two pizza chefs, Olex and Victor, were selected because they already had experience in baking.

Pizzeria Positano has achieved a truly excellent final result and has already been included in the 50 Top Pizza Europe in 2019.

We are proud of this success!

What remains is the unforgettable memory, - Enzo concludes, - of the beautiful evenings spent in Kiev drinking wine together after a day of intense work. Memories of a true friendship that now hurt even more when thinking of what is happening in that country and what those people are suffering.

We hope bombing will stop and good pizza will soon be back to make happy the people of Kiev».

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Spunti of view by the Director Giuseppe Rotolo

A whole other story

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Around the world, - fortunately not in Italy - there are “monsters made of iron and sensors” that can make pizza. Robots that roll out dough balls, shoot tomato sauce and assorted toppings, then bake, churn and deliver, between a beep and a ding. We must admit, it is a little scary to see them at work: soulless monsters making a food that, in our opinion, does have a soul. We are talking about the industrialisation of processes, especially in those American-style chains (1,000, 2,000, 10,000 all alike premises), where robotic pizza makers work, so to speak.

And so the question is: will pizza endure its craftsmanship in the future, or will it be swallowed up by robotics? What will happen to the art of pizza, based on the knowledge of dough and leavening, on the ancient gestures of the hands from which this food is born, and that has become famous and appre-

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ciated throughout the world exactly because of the art of the pizza maker?

In order to answer these questions, we have called on three friends, sector operators. We start with Marco D’Annibale, CEO of Gi.Metal, a Tuscan company that works all over the world. Let’s hear what Marco has to say: is there really a risk that robotics will gain the upper hand over the manual skills of the pizza maker and the artisan pizza?

«I don’t believe that technology will kill the artisan pizzeria. Let’s think of what happened in the past years, when frozen pizza entered every home and became a food consumed by everyone. This, however, has not prevented the traditional pizzeria from

Spunti of view

growing and continuing to thrive; so, technology will expand in the world of pizzerias, industrialisation will undoubtedly grow, but artisanal pizza will always play a predominant role, because going out to eat a pizza is a special experience, an experience of relating with others; artisanal pizza is a unique creation every time, unlike industrial pizza that is always the same, and so is the excitement of sharing this experience with the people with whom you live it, so I am absolutely convinced that thanks to the commitment of pizza makers in continuing to create the conditions for an excellent customer experience, there will certainly be a bright future for the artisanal pizzeria».

So Marco sees pink, his distinction between the excitement of an artisanal pizza and the coldness of an industrial one is beautiful, and he spoke of the commitment of pizza makers to protect this product. But if machines are increasingly taking over, is it not because there is a shortage of pizza makers?

Is it a profession no longer appealing? Here is what Francesco Matellicani, master pizza maker and teacher at a pizza training school in Calabria, tells us.

«The shortage of personnel is a real problem not only for seasonal and year-round pizza makers: there are 180,000 vacancies. I think one of the main reasons is related to the citizenship income: people prefer an illegal work one, two times a week rather than sacrifice themselves with gruelling shifts.

In the last two years we have witnessed a total change in lifestyle; the pandemic has brought many people to discover the value of spending time with

their families, and we know that our work does not allow for that, as it is too demanding. Besides, there is also the problem that they are not well paid - just think that a worker costs a company about EUR 26,000 a year, while he or she only gets EUR 16,000.

Trade unions and the government should meet at a table to review and ensure that wages for employees grow more and the tax burden on companies decreases.

In my humble opinion, we need to focus more on training young people, on educating them about human sustainability, we need to return to valuing jobs and we need to offer young people a sustainable existence. In order to do this, I believe it is necessary to adapt to modern times and guarantee a job and a dignified life.

Young people must understand that it is possible to be a pizza maker and at the same time enjoy their hobbies and their family.

Institutions and schools should and could also give more encouragement to this profession, which, as we know, still has no official recognition».

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and so it is an absolutely important aspect. In the same way, there is also an effort to improve our productivity, because this often means improving the quality of our products as well as our efficiency and therefore also the cost management, to the benefit of the pizza makers and their work».

You heard, the profession of pizza maker still has no official recognition from a legislative point of view, it’s something of a ghost, and even though the art of the Neapolitan pizza maker is recognised by UNESCO as an intangible asset of humanity, something doesn’t add up. As a punishment, I would make our rulers eat only pizzas baked by robot.

Let’s go back to Marco D’Annibale to understand what must be the balance between man and machine, between man and equipment in the world of pizza. The objective is to help the pizza maker in his/her work while preserving the necessary craftsmanship: let’s listen to how an equipment manufacturer pursues it.

«The creation of a new tool or the improvement of an existing one is always an exciting and very challenging moment.

Most ideas clearly come from the pizza maker’s suggestion because nobody knows better than the pizza makers what they need. Sometimes we also try to think outside the box by imagining something that goes even beyond expectations. Our greatest ambition is to create something that really can revolutionise the world of pizzerias. But the pizza maker has been and will always remain at the centre of our interest, of our needs, of our analysis. Productivity is fundamental also for pizza makers because a welldesigned tool helps to improve their productivity

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To the benefit of the pizza makers and their work, pizza made by human hands is an entirely different story. Speaking of hands and pizza made by humans, we conclude this column with a special interview with Davide Civitiello.

Davide, but how many pizzas have you done with your own hands?

«Imagine an average of 600-700 pizzas a day for over 25 years, you can take it from there!

«6/700 a day for... let’s say 340 days a year, (I’ll let him have some holidays) for 25 years, that’s a grand total of 5,525,000 pizzas… » But Davide, to make a good pizza you need skilled hands or a warm heart, passion? « You need both, and then you have to connect to the mind…»

Connecting the heart to the hands and the mind, that’s it: a superlative and unforgettable pizza comes from here and not from the cold sensors and iron arms of a robot. In short, pizza made with the hands of a pizza maker is a whole other story.

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company

EACH TO HIS PEEL

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A list of tips for choosing the perfect peel from Gi.Metal!

he pizza peel is one of the symbolic tools the collective imagination associates with the pizza maker. Over time, it has become an extension of the pizza maker’s arm, undergoing a real evolution: from the manual spreading of the disc of dough on stone, during the Roman Empire, through the first wooden peels, to the present day, with a thousand combinations available to the pizza maker.

Gi.Metal wants to provide you with a list of fixed points to use in selecting the next pizza peel to buy.

We are aware that the pizza maker has to prepare hundreds of pizzas every day and, in order to maintain a high standard, he must not waste time or strain himself to excess. The peels must therefore be practical, ergonomic and allowing to shove the pizza into the oven with natural movements.

“Over the years we have listened to the Pizza Makers’ voices and their needs, and they have shown us the way to create the hundreds of variants we offer today. A hard work, rewarded by a daily confirmation of trust; an inexhaustible drive to insist on improvement.!”

Marco D’Annibale

Find out more by visiting www.gimetal.it 10

PIZZA PEELS FEATURES MATERIALS: The choice of the material is crucial. Gi.Metal’s anodised aluminium heads are light and flexible, allowing for a spatula effect, thus facilitating the picking up of the pizza. The structure of the peel makes them strong and durable and they are lighter in weight than the traditional and nowadays less used steel and wooden ones.

PERFORATED OR SOLID?: Peels can be either perforated or solid. The perforated peel, an innovation introduced by Gi.Metal at the beginning of the 1990s, has the advantage of allowing the pizza to slide more smoothly over the surface, but above all it allows to drain extra flour. This helps preventing burnt pizza bottoms and excess flour deposited on the cooking surface from burning, with no smoke given off and no need to frequently clean the surface itself.

THE SHAPE: When shopping for a peel, shape and size also matter. The shape can be rectangular or round. The rectangular pizza peel has a larger contact surface with the pizza, making it easy to shove. On the other hand, the round peel allows pizzas to be placed perfectly next to those already in the oven, and the lack of edges makes it easier to handle when the oven is ‘crowded’. On the other hand, the point of contact is more limited and therefore requires ‘training’ before getting used to it.

THE SIZE: The size of the pizza peel head and the size of the handle chosen result in handiness and ergonomics. The former is generally chosen on the basis of the size of the pizza to be made, while the size of the handle is determined by the depth of the oven being used: a too-short handle means excessive exposure to the heat of the oven, a too-long handle is an obstacle in narrow working spaces. Gi.Metal boasts a wide range of sizes to suit all needs, as well as innovations, such as the handle sliding insulator, which guarantees perfect insulation of the hands from the heat.

Trova la tua combinazione di pala perfetta

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Naples is ready to celebrate the 10th

anniversary From 17 to 26 June, the international event that promotes the city and the region through pizza is back. An event increasingly devoted to culture.

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aples is ready to celebrate the 10th edition of Pizza Village, scheduled from 17 to 26 June on the Neapolitan seafront. The event, a celebration of the social rebirth and the resumption of city life, marks the restart of major events in the city thanks to a fellow feeling between the organisers of Oramata Grandi Eventi, the administration of Mayor Gaetano Manfredi and the Campania Regional Government.

The ten-day kermesse formula has been renewed, with its multiple pizza workstations ready to welcome the top players among the master pizza chefs, the ‘Pizza Tales - Racconti di pizza’ area reserved for thematic meetings on food and wine with a host of guests and VIPs who will discuss and experience future developments in the sector, and, of course, lots of music and entertainment.

The Caputo Pizza Village stage will be the village’s ‘meeting square’, with music and guests being broadcast live on RTL 102.5 radio for around 14 hours a day, with minute-by-minute coverage of the Caputo Pizza Village

and its many nuances, whilst also recounting the city and its magnificence.

The 10th anniversary of Caputo Pizza Village Napoli marks a milestone in time, but this year’s edition also represents the starting point of a new mission for the organisers. In fact, the event will increasingly become an opportunity to promote the cultural roots of the Neapolitan capital, the region and its major performers, without abandoning its national-popular matrix.

From art to culture, passing through music, theatre, cinema to sport, fashion to economics, without forgetting innovation, entrepreneurial and industrial development. The Caracciolo seafront will also host a special event, on the evening of 21 June, the summer solstice day, to celebrate the launch of this new project, aimed at paying tribute to the city, the region and its inhabitants.

In the meantime the organisation, with just over a month to go before the start (17 June), is at full speed in defining the details of the many events, including the World Pizza Championship - Trofeo Caputo.

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recipes

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