Once again, the Spanish pizzeria chain Grosso Napoletano brings the best of Naples to Spain to bet on unique, creative, innovative and traditional recipes, and, once again, it does so through a collaboration with the recently named "Best Pizzaiolo in the World" by 50 Top Pizza, the prestigious international guide of the sector.
This is the young Neapolitan chef Diego Vitagliano (38), passionate about football (and Maradona, that's where his name comes from), but above all a lover of artisan and traditional pizzas with which he has managed to place his restaurant in the centre of Naples, 10 Pizzeria Diego Vitagliano, in the global spotlight. Vitagliano presented this week in Madrid the new limited edition premium pizza that, for a month (from October 20 to November 20), will be served in all the premises of Grosso Napoletano, a benchmark for Neapolitan pizza in Spain, which has just opened its 40th restaurant in our country.
The pizza in question is called Il Dieci, and it's actually a calzone inspired by a recipe for fresh tortellini pasta that his grandmother made for him when he was little. Together with Fabrizio Polacco, product manager at Grosso Napoletano, he has created this bite with the traditional Neapolitan dough filled with Parmesan cream, cooked pork shoulder, butter and sage (price: €17.90 and €19.90, if gluten-free).
Diego Vitagliano and Fabrizio Polacco, product manager of Grosso Napoletano, preparing the calzone in Madrid.
Why a pair of underwear? "Because, historically, it is one of the traditional types of pizza in Naples, the cradle of this food. Pizza was born there as street food and it had to be something that could be easily picked up and put in the mouth. The calzone, being a closed stuffed dough, was easy to eat," says Diego.
The Perfect Contemporary Pizza
The best pizzaiolo in the world belongs to the new generation of pizza makers who take care of every last detail to make a gourmet, quality product, but at the same time that everyone can enjoy. Diego assures that the previous generation still made the dough in the same way as 300 years ago, without paying attention to flour and hydration. "Now, however, hydration, mixing the flours to make dough, yeast and fermentation hours, up to 36 hours, are essential to make this food less heavy on digestion," says Diego. In his case, he's spent a lot of time studying the chemical reactions of the ingredients, he's changed the size of the pizza (it's smaller now), and the dough is crispier, softer, and more digestive, with perfectly cooked bread.
Il Dieci, Diego Vitagliano's limited edition calzone.
For the chef, the perfect pizza must have a dough made indirectly, that is, with water, flour and yeast, to which salt is only added after having fermented for 16 hours. Then, in addition to the salt, more hydration is added and left to rest for more hours (up to 36 in total). "That's how you make a super soft, digestible pizza." Her favorite is the Margarita, which has provolone cheese (similar to mozzarella, but smoked) and black pepper. "It's actually inspired by traditional Neapolitan pasta, which is made with this cheese and potatoes. In Italy it is said that this is the pizza maker's pizza, which they eat when the service is finished," Diego clarifies.
Queues of an hour and a half for a 'Margarita'
The Margarita is not only Diego Vitagliano's favorite, but also that of the thousands of customers who crowd his restaurants daily, two in Naples and one in Rome, as well as another in Doha. In the first three, they ship 10,000 pizzas a week, about a thousand a day. Of those, about six thousand are Margarita and Marinara, to choose between three different types of dough: contemporary, crispy and Roman (very thin). "Customers can wait up to an hour and a half in line to enter our premises every day, because you can only book for the first shift of the night, at 19:30 p.m.," according to Diego.
Passionate about football and an unconditional fan of the Argentinian Diego Armando Maradona, who played for the Napoli team for several seasons, Diego had his first contact with pizzas at the age of 14, when he left school and had to go to work in the century-old Pizzeria Carmnella, one of the most renowned in the city. Here he developed his other passion and decided to train with the best pizzaioli masters in the country and start experimenting with different techniques to find the perfect pizza. In 2016, Diego managed to open his first restaurant 10 Pizzeria Diego Vitagliano on the seafront of Pozzuoli and the following year he opened the second in the center of Naples, in the Bagnoli neighborhood.
The young pizza maker says that, when he is in his hometown, he makes the pizzas himself, something he is passionate about. Although he likes to experiment with flavors, he admits that it is closely linked to the concept of the traditional pizzeria, which is what the customer demands the most. "I make a product that is easy to understand and easy to eat. In fact, I'm one of the few left who makes pizzas for children, which are tasty and with natural and traditional ingredients."
But, lately he has not appeared much in his stores, because he is managing with his team the expansion plans of his business in Italy (one of his goals is to also open stores in Madrid and Barcelona). In addition, having been recognized as the best pizza maker in the world has him traveling halfway around the world giving talks and master classes on the history of pizza, even at universities. He assures that he always gets something positive out of his travels. "Now is a good time for pizza around the world. There are many restaurants making good and quality products. I've just been to Argentina and I've tried some really good ones," he says and concludes by saying that the good things he tastes (and many ideas) he takes home to, why not, introduce them into some of his innovative recipes.