Lorenzo is the head chef at “Dry Milano”, where he leads the kitchen’s innovative approach to pizza making. Under his guidance, the restaurant has been singled out as one of the top 100 Italian “eccellenze” by Forbes in 2020. He has also achieved individual milestones such as being named 50 Top Pizza’s ‘Young Pizza Chef of 2019’.
How did your relationship with food develop?
As a kid, you could always find me in my grandma’s kitchen, playing with ingredients and helping them making dinner for our family. After graduating from high school my passion for food grew incessantly and led me to attend an intensive baking course in Rome. I would spend 8 hours a day studying both the theory behind the best kinds of flour and practicing constantly to ultimately get the perfect dough for pizza, bread and baked products. When I would come back home, I would go straight to the supermarket to get different types of flour to keep experimenting and learning by doing.
What was your path to become a “pizzaiolo” (pizza chef)?
My first job was in a traditional Neapolitan Pizzeria in Ischia, where after burning and piercing hundreds of pizzas I understood the exact temperature at which to cook pizza, by learning how to identify the different kinds of wood and how to best manage a wood oven. Nevertheless, the experience that was fundamental for my professional growth was the time spent at “Pizzeria la Notizia” in Naples, owned and managed by the mastro pizzaiolo Enzo Coccia, who taught me the art and values of being a “pizzaiolo”. Since 2019 I have taken up the role of head chef at “Dry Milano”, a modern pizzeria in Milan where we combine exciting cocktails and innovative kinds of pizza.
What is the pizza that best represents you?
I am emotionally attached to many types of pizza, due to the memories that they evoke in me. However, one type that we developed at Dry in Milan is the “pizza Cassouela”, which is inspired by a traditional Lombard dish made with pork stew and cabbage.
What does quality mean to you?
To make a good quality pizza you don’t only need high quality products (otherwise it would be too easy!) but also a deep and precise knowledge of the raw materials and how to enhance their flavour best by using the adequate equipment and following the correct cooking times. If you have the best quality mozzarella from Campania but you put it into a meat grinder or a mixer, you will destroy the raw material and end up with an inferior product. It is fundamental to educate your staff and ensure they are skilled in every duty.
How did the role of “pizzaiolo” change in the past few years?
Until not long ago the role of the “pizzaiolo” was not seen as favourably as that of the chef – rather, it usually was meant for someone that took this specific path by chance, perhaps to avoid studying too hard. Fortunately, in the past few years this figure has transitioned away from being perceived as simply someone who “beats up” the dough and spreads tomato sauce on it. Today a “pizzaiolo” not only is knowledgeable about the art of making pizza but also is continuously studying and researching new raw materials and techniques to surprise and satisfy his or her customers. Until a few years ago “mastri pizzaioli” would bring chefs to their events in order to inspire their fellow community members; recently the opposite has also been increasingly true, with several chefs drawing inspiration from pizza chefs and perceiving them as professionals to learn from.
How do you integrate tradition and innovation?
The modern pizzeria is a combination of tradition and innovation. To keep tradition alive, you need to adapt it to society, by using seasonal and local ingredients and also new equipment to ultimately unravel new horizons for modern cuisine!