World's best pizza chef: Who is Franco Pepe?

You will book Pepe in Grani. Franco Pepe is now Italy's most famous pizza master and half the country is there. First, it is checked to see if your name is on the list. Even if you do, you wait a bit. There is no parking around the restaurant. Leave the car in the public park at the entrance. Whoever you ask will show Pepe; five minutes.

One of Italy's preeminent pizzaioli, Franco Pepe is a modern artisan with an age-old passion for pizza. He showcases this lifelong pursuit at his restaurant Pepe in Grani in Caiazzo, a town located about an hour northeast of Napoli.

Is it worth it? Definitely. The dough of the pizzas is thick, but they don't seem to have any weight. It is as if they deny the law of gravity; They should fly in the sky, not stay on a plate. The list is in both Italian and English. First, we ordered a cone-shaped tasting dish called 'ciro' with pesto sauce in it. Then the fried pizza 'Montanara' that everyone orders. Tomatoes, capers and thyme. Then 'Viandante' is made of buffalo cheese with ricotta and pistachio. Then the classic 'Margarita'. It hurts to think that this pizza coexists on the same planet as the pizzas you've ever eaten. Finally, 'Il Sole nel Piatto', which we tried because it goes well with beer, was on the same level.

Chef Franco Pepe, the owner of Pepe in Grani restaurant in Italy, won the 'Best Pizza Chef' award given by The Best Chef Awards. Receiving his award at The Best Chef Awards 2021 in Amsterdam, Pepe said, “It is very important for me to receive this award. I am proud that my work has been recognized internationally, along with the best chefs in the world.”

His restaurant Pepe in Grani in Caiazzo is a temple for pizza lovers.

The crowd without reservations, waiting desperately in front of this historical building in the middle of a narrow, beautiful, arched street where two people can hardly walk side by side, reminds me of people who came to get healing from fountains and wishing trees, which are considered sacred.

What makes Franco Pepe the best in the world?

Since it opened in 2012, it has been considered Italy's top-of-the-category pizzeria.

A team that works like a bee.

Despite all the intensity, nothing stops.

Nothing is done below perfect.

Franco Pepe is one of the chefs who invested in people. It hires and trains people who are passionate about their job, regardless of their education or background, if it sees the light.

You can feel this spirit in the kitchen and in the living room.

Another feature that makes Pepe great is that he does not see his kitchen as just four walls.

For him, the region is part of the producers' cuisine.

The town of Caiazzo in Caserta, where the Pepe family has been a baker since the 1930s, was an unknown, secluded and secluded place until Pepe transformed the area into a kitchen and research area.

Pepe has worked with the farmers and livestock producers in the region since the early 2000s and transformed Caiazzo into a quality agriculture and livestock region, a town that produces high quality. When there was a showroom like Pepe in Grani, it was inevitable for the regional producer to be known outside the town limits.

Franco Pepe also uses pearl-like dried beans and chickpeas from Mimmo and Lino in his pizzas.

Mimmo is actually an anthropologist. They see their agriculture as a model of resistance. They do not use water in tomato fields.

Tomatoes survive with whatever they find in the clay soil, like a vineyard.

The collected tomatoes are left to absorb their juice on straw for a few days.

Then it turns into a puree and goes to Pepe's kitchen.

Another fan of the Barbiero brothers' products is Gabriele Bonci, the king of cut pizza.

Sisyphus farming, production can only be heard through a name like Pepe, giving the maker an opportunity to survive.

Franco Pepe's contribution to the region's olive cultivation is also endless. He was one of the first to believe in Caietana, the forgotten olive of the region.

Thanks to him, the region's olive oil industry has advanced. He does not use olive oil in his kitchen, except for caietana.

There is no need to describe the delicacy of Franco Pepe's pizzas.

However, I can't help saying "the world aside, fried pizzas aside". It was difficult for me to choose the fried pizzas.

I can't imagine how the fried dough can have such a texture, how it can be so light. The chef's secret to frying is an antioxidant-enhanced oil he developed with the university.

He does not use olive oil in frying. It uses an oil from the seeds of different plants fortified with rosemary oil.

He adds olive oil to his pizza before and after baking. There is also some olive oil in the dough.

He does not see the temperature of the wood oven exceeding 400 degrees as a problem for olive oil. Pepe recommends adding olive oil later, as homemade pizzas take longer to heat.

https://www.greatitalianchefs.com/chefs/franco-pepe

https://www.pepeingrani.it/