Italian pizza makers angry with Formula 1 boss: ‘How dare you!’
Flavio Briatore, a well-known Italian businessman with an impressive career as a manager and team principal in Formula 1, is opening a pizzeria in Naples. It will be called Crazy Pizza. Sounds great, you might think. But the move has not gone down well with Italian pizza makers. ‘As a pizzaiolo, he is worth nothing. He has no pizza.’
Italians are generally rather protective when it comes to their cuisine. They get up in arms if you cook pasta the ‘wrong’ way and go crazy when you think you can get creative with pasta recipes. So what is the problem with Briatore’s new pizzeria? Well, several things.
Ridiculously expensive pizza
First of all, Briatore ‘dares’ to charge € 17 for a Margherita pizza. That is, indeed, the simplest pizza you can generally find. At the same time, a whole Neapolitan history and tradition are tied up in this classic. Paolo Surace, from Pizzeria Mattozzi in central Naples, says that ”a Margherita pizza in Naples is three hundred years of history in one bite and 90 seconds in a wood-fired oven”. He is convinced that Briatore can never convey this to his customers.
Why does Briatore charge € 17 for the pizza? According to him, it is a luxury pizza that you eat in a luxurious setting. You get good service and entertainment with DJs included. Briatore dares to charge considerably more for other pizzas too. His most expensive pizza is the one with Pata Negra from Joselito. That one will cost—hold on tight—€ 65. Cha-ching.
All for show
Paolo Surace finds it scandalous that Briatore charges these prices for his pizzas. According to him, Briatore is not selling pizza, but ”the show, the spectacle, the luxurious location: all things that do not belong to us”. Quality is what matters, and with Neapolitan pizza, that means simplicity and local ingredients. He praises the former Formula 1 bigwig for his entrepreneurial qualities, ”but as a pizza maker, he is truly worth nothing”.
Support
For comparison: a Margherita pizza in Naples costs between € 4.50 and € 8 on average. So Briatore’s € 17 is well above that. Still, he himself does not think it is excessive at all, precisely because you get so much more with it. Fortunately, the businessman is also receiving some support in his opinion. Some people actually think it is a good thing that the same kinds of prices as in pizzerias in Rome or Milan are finally being charged, where they can also be ridiculously high. Briatore has already opened a Crazy Pizza in Milan as well.
Another chef named Rienzi also does not find the high price particularly extraordinary. He points out that the price of a pizza is determined by many factors, such as taxes, raw materials and salaries. What matters, in his view, is that the price on the menu is ultimately correct, and that guests are not surprised when paying the bill.
Well… I would still rather go for a truly good Neapolitan pizza without the frills, fancy extras and luxurious add-ons, at a fantastic price. Just as delicious, and perhaps even better, if I am to believe Paolo Surace.
Read also:
- Pizza Fritta: the Neapolitan pizza you don’t know yet but will want to know
- 25x our favorite Italian recipes
- This is the most, most, most delicious filthy pizza on the menu in Italy
Source: Il Messaggero
