DO: You’re known as a New Yorker, specifically the Bronx. Did people wonder why you chose Baltimore for the restaurant?
CP: Yes, that’s the first thing they ask, and then I tell them story I just told you and then they understand.
DO: Did you put anything on the menu that harkens back to your mother’s cooking?
CP: A lot of stuff. Yeah. Well, not only the [recipes] on the menu, but the way it was prepared and cooked. It was important to me. I said look, `If we’re gonna bring the Bronx style food that I had growing up in the 50s and 60s, we have to do it like that.’
It has to be a coal fired oven. It’s hard and expensive to use–you have to get people who really know what they’re doing and you have to buy the oven.
The oven is 900 degrees, it cooks a pizza in 90 second. When you cook it like that, it’s charred on the bottom, soft in the center and the cheese is caramelized on the top. It’s just delicious. We even brought in Enrico from Naples, where they invented the Margherita pizza, to cook our pizzas. We wanted to make it really authentic and right.
DO: Who are your suppliers?
CP: The tomatoes are picked from a special farm and immediately put right into the can so the acid taste is not there. We mix the tomatoes so you get a better overall taste. The wheat and yeast is from Naples. We get our fresh mozzarella and burrata cheese straight from Italy–it’s handmade specifically for the restaurant. Burrata cheese is my favorite. … it’s like a soft pillow in the middle surrounded by a thicker rich and creamy outer layer.
DO: Do you have any menu favorites?
CP: I love the Margherita pizza. It’s simple cheese, sauce, and bread with a little basil on top. People also like the white pizza, the pepperoni and the prosciutto, which is my son’s favorite. But it all comes from the dough. It starts with the great dough.
