Franco Pepe: taking pizza to a whole new level

A pizza maker located in a small Italian country village (50 kilometers from Naples) and over 30 Italian and International chefs – like Nino di Costanzo (Danì Maison, Ischia) and Josean Alija (Nerua Guggenheim, Bilbao) – will cook together in a series of dinners during 2020. It would be hard to understand why they accepted his invitation if you don’t know the story and the man who made it possible.  

 

In Caiazzo, a village of 5000 people located on the slopes of Vesuvius, maestro Franco Pepe has created a sacred and internationally acclaimed temple of pizza, in just seven years. Here, each month, 14,000 people from 13 different nationalities walk down the narrow alleyway to where Pepe in Grani is located in an eighteenth century palazzo, renovated in contemporary style and transformed to host his ‘concept’: 2 kitchens, 4 dining rooms, 2 chefs engaged exclusively in toppings, impeccable table service and an impressive wine list. Finally, a tiny yet luxurious bed & breakfast establishment to accommodate – whenever required – those who come from afar to taste his pizzas. Pizzas which have topped the 50 Top Pizza charts for three consecutive years, from 2017 to the present date.

Photo Damiano Errico

One of Franco Pepe’s most enthusiastic fans is Pulitzer prize-winner Jonathan Gold, who declared that Franco’s was the world’s number one pizza in 2014. “Many decide to come and see me here, maybe after trying my pizza at Kytaly in Geneva (sixth place in the rating of 50 Top Pizza Europe 2019, editor’s note) or at Kytaly in Hong Kong (Best Asian Pizza for 50 Top Pizza 2019, editor’s note), where I give them the benefit of my advice”, explains the pizza maker in person. Because that’s the way it is for him now: worldwide collaborations, while his heart remains in Caiazzo.

In his creations, Franco Pepe has managed to express the aromas, flavours and history of his land. By studying each detail with minute care, from the incredibly light dough – made from a blend of flours he has perfected himself – to the refined and well balanced combinations of toppings, worthy of a starred chef and, above all, the grooming of a network of small-scale local producers who supply him with ingredients.  All of this amounts to the creation of an authentic local micro economy. 

The challenge

Representing the third generation of a family of bakers, Pepe grew up watching his father at work and helping him in the pizzeria. He began his professional life as a teacher, but never lost touch with the world of pizza. “In early 2000 I often went to Rome, to the restaurant run by chef Antonello Colonna, who hosted up-and-coming chefs every Monday (now starred chefs, ed. note): there I met Massimo Bottura and many others, with whom I rubbed shoulders in the kitchen. It was a bit like going to school: there was no pay and I sometimes went home feeling exhausted at 5 in the morning, but it was really worth it”.

Photo Damiano Errico

That was until 2012, when Pepe decided to put heart and soul into his own project. “I knew some small-scale producers and so I said to myself: why not express this region? It’s so rich in ingredients and expertise, but too often associated with nothing but the Mafia. I am a very headstrong person and went my own way, doing a great deal of research into pizza, ingredients and different types of dough, and then I was really keen to involve small local producers, proper farmers to whom I offered the support of agronomists”.

Roots and wings

His research into the typical food products of the area has inspired some of the most famous toppings of his cult pizzas. “My region has everything, beginning with pomodoro riccio (a deeply ribbed tomato variety) whose seeds have been handed down to us from the 19th century. Fortunately, today, a number of young people are going back to farm the lands their parents had abandoned”, Pepe explains.

Photo Damiano Errico

The riccio tomato is featured in the iconic Margherita Sbagliata, a pizza topped with PDO Campania buffalo mozzarella, a reduction of basil and extra virgin olive oil and of course, a passata of riccio tomatoes which, in this case, is processed cold and added when the pizza is cooked, enabling the tomato to preserve, not only its flavour, but its nutritional properties.

However, other locally sourced ingredients end up on Pepe’s disks of leavened dough: chickpeas, beans, Caiazzo olives, and Alife onions. And then there is his project involving the Crisommola, an ancient variety of apricot growing on the slopes of Vesuvius – a Slow Food presidium - which Pepe has recovered thanks to an intuitive idea to process it. “Until recently, these apricots were no longer used in cooking and had no market. So, I united a few producers to create a preserve”. An extremely sweet apricot cream he uses to fill an original recipe for sweet fried pizza, dubbed Crisommola, with buffalo ricotta aromatized with lemon zest, Vesuvian apricot preserve, toasted hazelnut grains, dried Caiazzo olives, and mint.

Photo Damiano Errico

Pizza as a social and cultural phenomenon

There is no question about it: in his hands, pizza has become a social and cultural phenomenon, a way of redeeming the entire area and, to all intents and purposes, a fine dining affair of international standing.

No wonder, therefore, that so many chefs have accepted his invitation to cook with him in the coziest corner of Pepe in Grani, the ‘Authentica’ room: an oven, a worktop and just eight seats for diners. Here, Pepe and the chefs he has invited will cook together as they chat with customers as if they were all sitting around the table at home, making this a truly exclusive experience. An experience to be repeated throughout the year, according to an event-packed programme.

Photo Damiano Errico

The successes he has achieved are many – including an official award granted by the Italian government for his work – but not all of the pizza maker’s desires have been fulfilled, so far. What’s one of his greatest dreams? “An acknowledgment by the Michelin Guide”. For some years now, much has been said in Italy regarding the awarding of stars to pizzerias, and it really does seem time for it now. If the Red Book ever decided to take a step in this direction, Franco Pepe with his Pepe in Grani, would be an ideal candidate.