It’s no secret that pizza is the national dish of Italy and Naples is the pizza capital. And when it comes to pizza, the bar just keeps getting higher. It all began with some ambitious pizzaioli who started a pizza revolution, and three of the most esteemed are Enzo Coccia, Ciro Salvo, and Gino Sorbillo. Here are their thoughts on their craft.
Enzo Coccia: The Four Pillars of Pizza
According to Enzo Coccia, the owner of the two locations of Pizzaria La Notizia, "Leavening, products, knowledge, and human resources" are the four pillars on which the Neapolitan pizza revolution is built. “Pizzaioli are born in the shop and not at school, but they must be taught not only the trade but also respect for the raw material. Product selection, first of all, but also the best way to treat it. It’s useless to spend more on a packet of San Marzano if I then leave it next to the oven to go bad."
In addition to making Neapolitan pizza known, the media have helped prompt the public to pay attention to it. Still, he believes the pizzaioli should always communicate their work to the customer. Not that “my pizza’s the best,” but rather “my pizza is made this way.”
“Transparency, therefore, to achieve excellence,” says Coccia, for whom there is no gourmet pizza, but “at most a pizza that is suitable for the palate of a gourmet.”
Enzo Coccia's Margherita (courtesy of press office)
Ciro Salvo: the skills of the pizzaiolo first and foremost
For Ciro Salvo of 50 Kalò, "Pizza is more than a revolution. It’s a movement, driven by some famous pizzaioli, although you have to be wary of those who pose as ‘gourmet,’ and do so only to follow the wave. "This movement is the answer to the downward curve that Neapolitan pizza experienced in the 80s and 90s that brought some of the worst raw materials to the table. Now we are witnessing the opposite phenomenon, with growing attention to the product.”
For Ciro Salvo, the skills of the pizzaiolo are fundamental: sensitivity, professionalism, and managerial. Because a good pizzaiolo “is also the one who knows how to manage the place in the best way,” he says.
The 45 employees of his pizzeria in Piazza Sannazzaro churn out 7,000 pizzas a week. We asked him how much the improvement of raw materials affects the overall budget, and it said it was 2-3%, with most of the costs going toward human resources and taxes.
In 2018, he opened an outpost in London.
Ciro Salvo's 50 Kalò Marinara (courtesy of press office)
Gino Sorbillo: Innovating Tradition
Of the three, Gino Sorbillo’s the best known in Italy due to his television appearances. In pre-Covid days, his pizzeria on Via dei Tribunali was impossible to miss – recognizable by a long line and the sound of the customers’ names blaring from the megaphone.
Sorbillo always has one eye on the continuous search for ingredients and the other on his memory, with constant devotion to his family and roots. His grandmother had given birth to 21 children, and the eldest, his Zia Esterina, raised him and his father. His fried pizza shops in Naples and Milan bear her name. He named the pizzeria’s private room i quattro tavoli (the four tables), the nickname for the (tiny) family restaurant where he earned his pizzaiolo stripes. Even though he has opened Lievito Madre in several major Italian cities, New York, Miami, and Tokyo, the Via dei Tribunali location means everything to him, most notably due to his specific way of making pizza. “It’s the pizza that has set the school in the world, which stands out from the others also for its generous size." Sorbillo's also on a mission to feed everyone who enters his house. “The poor and the rich, the downtrodden and the unemployed all come to my pizzeria.”
A warning, however: “It's okay to respect pizza’s 300-year history, but be careful not to consolidate mistakes.” For Sorbillo, the real challenge is “innovating tradition.”
Gino Sorbillo's Margherita (courtesy of press office)