Do your pies follow standard, Neapolitan pizza guidelines, like using 00 flour, San Marzano tomatoes and fresh mozzarella?
In Tiella I don’t do the Neapolitan pizza because I feel that in New York it’s the war of the pizza. I don’t want to be rude, but I’m not a pizzaiolo. I’m a chef. There are many very talented piazzaiolos doing wonderful Neapolitan pizza already, and there is much more, more new food that I can create and introduce to New York for the first time. What’s your favorite thing about cooking in a wood-burning oven? I love it because I worked in a lot of places in Italy with this oven and I know how to work with this oven. It’s 800 degrees and you can cook fast. It’s hard to reach this high temperature with anything else. What I created is like a fast food product with a great quality. You don’t have to wait. It’s so fresh. The flavors come out right there because you eat it right away. Your Risotto All¹Aragosta combines lobster and pink grapefruit. How did you come up with that pairing? I created another risotto a few years ago with orange and lamb and no one ordered it, then a magazine did
