The Italian behind the best pizza in the world on why you can eat his creations three times a week
- Franco Pepe is the pizzaiolo behind Pepe in Grani, in Caiazzo, Italy, which was named the best pizzeria in the world in 2017 and 2018 by 50 Top Pizza
- He recently opened his new restaurant, Kytaly, in Hong Kong
As a third-generation pizzaiolo, what did you learn from your family? “My grandfather and father made bread until 1950, and then they started making pizzas, well before I was born, in 1961. They taught me to understand the dough, through touching, tasting and smelling it. With their knowledge, I can control the temperature of the wood oven with my eyes – I don’t need a thermometer because I can tell the temperature by the colour of the bricks in the oven.
“I also listen to the oven. When I was young, I used a stainless-steel peel to put the pizza in the oven. We left the peel in the oven and when you heard ‘ding ding ding’ from the peel, it meant the oven was cold. If it made a ‘dong dong dong’ sound, then you knew the pizza was cooked because the peel was very hot.”
How have you helped pizza evolve? “I’ve created fried pizzas that elevate pizza to a new level. Crisommola is a sweet pizza, with apricot jam, ricotta, lime, toasted hazelnut, mint and powdered olives. It was named best pizza in 2017 and 2018. It was the first time restaurant guide Gambero Rosso awarded the prize to a sweet pizza. My intention is to make pizza fine dining.”
How? “I can express myself through the dough and the pizza because I create something nobody has done before. When I make the pizza and toppings, it’s the maximum expression of myself. In other pizzerias, you find the same pizzas, but here it’s completely different. We have a history and story behind the pizzas.
Did you always work in your family’s pizzeria? “For 15 years, I coached a team of mountain bikers during the day, and then helped make pizzas at night. I focused on developing young riders. Because they were competing at a high level, I studied nutrition as well as fitness. Then I brought all my knowledge about nutrition to pizzas. Twenty-three years ago, my father passed away the same day my son, Stefano, was born. I had to make a choice and decided to work full time in the family business.”