PIZZA YAH MON

We are off to a running start with much to be excited about.  I have just returned from New York where Roberto Caporuscio and Antonio Starita are now opening Pizzeria Don Antonio on West 50th Street in Manhattan.

In March master pizzaiuolo Franco Pepe of Caiazzo, Italy arrives to work with us at Spacca Napoli.  We will then travel on to Las Vegas for the International Pizza Expo.  Franco will do a presentation on dough making by hand, I will be a judge for the second time in the international pizza competition.

(Click here to read more about Franco Pepe)

BaconFest, Dining Out for Life and a fund raiser at Spacca introducing and promoting Ground UP, a new organization supporting local farmers, are also on the books.  The ever popular BaconFest supports the Chicago Food Depository, one of the nation’s greatest anti-hunger organizations (www.baconfestchicago.com).  The 19th Annual Dining Out for Life event on Thursday, April 26th, 2012, is North America’s largest HIV/AIDS fundraiser (www.edgealliance.org).  Though I took some time off in January, I was never far away in spirit from my beloved pizza.  With a coffee roaster as an oven, we made pizza on the Lime Tree Farm coffee plantation high up in the Blue Mountains in Jamaica (www.limetreefarm.com).  I trust we were one of the first to introduce Neapolitan Pizza in the area.

As we approach our sixth anniversary on Valentine’s Day, I am so thankful that we continue to be supported by all of you.  My commitment to quality and community remains strong, and I look forward to all that we will do in the coming year to bring joy to all of us.

THANKS FOR A GREAT YEAR

The year is coming to an end. We have so much to be thankful for. We continue to enjoy our work and all of you who come in to dine.Thanks to Roberto Caporuscio of Keste in New York, my pizzaiuoli friends in Naples, and Arthur Schwartz of Brooklyn for your inspirations and celebrations of southern Italian cuisines that you share so openly. We are grateful for this food community. We continue to evolve. Four years into our business, the interesting and healthy debate concerning Neapolitan pizza continues. What makes a pizza great? What is authentic? What is tradition? Though I always have something to say about this topic, I would never venture forth and give an absolute about myself or the pizza we make. All I can tell you is that we try our best, that we try to honor the tradition and the joy of cooking that brings us all together. We are doing longer, more gentle rises with our dough. Our hands are more delicate. We are never at a loss for new treats to serve when a cookbook is opened.

I am thankful for all of our friends in Italy, I miss them terribly. It is now over twenty years since my family and I first moved to Florence and our lives changes forever. Italy, Chicago, it is all of a piece now. Do I make the best pizza? I'm not sure that's what it is all about. Of course we want to put something good, even great , on the table, and we always want it to be better. More important I think for all of us here at Spacca Napoli is to be proud of what we do, to enjoy ourselves and all of you. What makes a restaurant great? Maybe a better question is what makes us thrive - and in closing this year I would say it is sitting at the table with friends, with those you love - what could be better?

Happy New Year!