He looks like a gladiator: enormous, muscular, full of strength and vehemence. But Gabriele Bonci, the great roman pizza maker, becomes poetic when he speaks about dough and yeast, about pizza.
He talks about it as a matter both intellectual as well as emotional and, yes, political. His gastronomic masterpieces have provided work for many small artisans, brave farmers who save nearly extinct vegetables. And he’s also recuperated same spelt that the ancient Romans used as a base for their pizzas.
He tops it with experimental, high-quality products – rare and precious condiments that he finds from small producers and uses to create bold concoctions: pizza al mojito, for example, with rum-soaked zucchini, lime and mint. In a single year, he’s created 1,500 different pizzas and he hasn’t stopped experimenting with yeasts and flours.
He talks about the planetaria dough mixer as if its rotation was the universe itself, bringing together a primordial batter from which all life begins. He looks enchanted when he talks about yeast as a living creature that eats, breathes and transforms. But why stop at his words when you can taste his creations and understand in silence.
Gabriele Bonci's Pizzarium
Via della Meloria, 43
Rome - Italy