QUEST FOR PERFECTION- My Interview w/Jeffrey Varasano

PIE IN THE SKY- JEFFREY VARASANO’S QUEST TO CREATE THE PERFECT PIZZA

By Bret Love

 

Growing up in the Bronx, Jeffrey Varasano loved watching his grandmother make traditional Italian fare. As an adult working as a computer programmer, he craved the New York-style pizza he’d grown up on, and embarked upon a Quixotic quest to craft the perfect recipe. The result was a 22,000-word manifesto that ultimately went viral, making him an Internet star and the subject of profiles in the New York Times and on NPR. Last March he opened his first restaurant, Varasano’s Pizzeria, which earned rave reviews. Here, he opens up about his pizza obsession, the elements of a great pie, and why he hopes his software days are behind him for good.

 

 

When and why did you first become obsessed with pizza?

 

The minute I moved to Atlanta, I started suffering from pizza withdrawal. I tried zillions of local places, but nothing was like the pizza I grew up with. I discovered that sprinkled among the 2000 corner shops in NYC there were 7 or 8 making really superior old school pizza, and I became fascinated with Patsy's Pizza in Harlem. It was founded in 1933, and the first time I went it looked like it was closed down. But when I tasted the pizza it blew me away. It was unlike anything I'd ever eaten, and I was hooked.

 

What do you consider the essential elements of a great pizza?

 

The primary thing is that the pizza must be memorable. There's no one style that's THE best. Coal fired or wood fired, Neapolitan style or New Haven style… any of these can be amazing or horrible. Having said that, they do have things in common. Most great pizza is baked in a very hot oven for a short time, slightly crispy on the outside but light and airy inside. The sauce should be very simple, just crushed tomatoes with a little seasoning.

 

How did your pizza recipe develop into such an Internet phenomenon?

 

I think I just struck a chord. People are very passionate about food, and pizza is one of the most popular foods, yet it's really hard to do right. When I started my research nearly every recipe was the same. It seemed like there was an exclusive club of great pizza makers, and no one running the chains or publishing recipes really knew what they were doing. Meanwhile there are zillions of people who have sampled great pizza before, but can't get it where they live. My site is not a simple set of instructions, but really delves into the artistry involved. For people who've been looking for a long time, finding my site is like the culmination of a quest. I've had several restaurant patrons actually cry because [the pizza] brought back memories of their childhood.

 

What convinced you it was finally time to open your own restaurant? 

 

The timing was perfect. A long software project was ending with me in burnout, and the pizza website went viral. I started to get literally thousands of letters, and that's when I knew I could build a business out of it.

 

What have been the biggest challenges and rewards thus far?

 

There are challenges in all areas, such as the construction taking longer than it should, financing, marketing and hiring. But the biggest challenge has been dough consistency. The tiniest change in timing, temperature or moisture can radically alter the dough. We've had whole batches ruined, and it takes a day or more to fix.  That's not fun when you have customers showing up whether the dough is right or not. The biggest reward is meeting lots of people. Compared to software engineering, which I did for 13 years, this is just plain fun!

THAT'S ITALIAN!- Antico Pizza Napoletana

Antico Pizza Napoletana

1093 Hemphill Ave

404.724.2333

www.anticopizza.it

 

With the foodie feeding frenzy that’s gripped the ATL in recent years, where a new hotspot opens every week and you can’t swing a stick without hitting someone who’s appeared on Top Chef, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for new restauranteurs to distinguish themselves. After all, how do you stand out in a field overcrowded with culinary standouts? In the case of Giovanni Di Palma, you do it by swimming directly against the current, ignoring trends in favor of tradition.

 

Antico, his labor of love that opened in October to gushing reviews, is like no other 5-star restaurant in town. There’s no valet parking, no fancy interior design, not even a proper seating area to speak of. There are 12 non-dessert items on the menu– nine pizzas and three calzones– and you order at the counter. You can take it out or huddle around a rustic communal table originally intended for dough preparation. But despite the complete lack of bells and whistles Antico has emerged as Atlanta’s hottest new restaurant, and the reasons can be traced to Naples, Italy.

 

Five years ago Di Palma (who grew up in New York, the grandson of a life-long Pizzaiolo) made a pilgrimage to his ancestral Italian village to make a donation to preserve the ancient basilica in which his grandparents had gotten married. While there he was introduced to the owner of a local flour mill, who took Di Palma to the Centro Storia neighborhood’s legendary restaurant, Il Presidente Pizzeria, which has provided pies for everyone from Bill Clinton to the Pope. It was there that he learned to make Pizza Napoletana in the Verace Artigianale (True Artisan) style, hand-kneading dough crafted in small batches and adding nothing but sea salt and fresh water. He learned to cook them to a perfect char in Sorrento stone ovens heated to 900º by hardwood fires. Ask Di Palma the secret of his success and he confesses, “This pizza doesn’t belong to me, but to the craftsmen who created it. I’m just a messenger.”

 

That may be true, but the message he’s delivering tastes like the culmination of hundreds of years of culinary refinement. Antico is authentic to the extreme, adhering to strict guidelines: Di Palma imports flour, San Marzano tomatoes and fresh mozzarella di bufala from the Campania region of Italy every week, and cooks every pizza in 10,000 pound ovens hand-made in Naples. The result is a perfect balance of crispy and chewy, bursting with robust, earthy flavors. Whether you get the deceptively simple Margherita D.O.P. or the Cappricciosa, which is loaded with savory mushrooms, artichokes and prosciutto cotto, Di Palma’s passion for the craft comes through in every bite.

 

The gregarious Di Palma seems as surprised as anyone by the glowing reception his debut entrepreneurial effort has received, but Antico (which was originally takeout-only) is already planning to add family-style seating, an outdoor terrace and perhaps even a rooftop patio in the coming year. At an average price of $19 per pizza, it’s easily the most affordable trip to Italy your mouth will ever take. –BRET LOVE

(originally appeared in Jezebel)