A Life Worth Eating

271 Bleecker Street, New York, Official Website

Slowly but surely, New York’s quest for authenticity is improving the quality of pizza in the city. The legends of New York-style pizza: DiFara, Patsy’s, Lombardi’s, Grimaldi’s, are facing a wave of new comers bringing traditional Neopolitan-style pies to the Big Apple. Instead of extra large crispy pies overloaded with mozzarella and globs of olive oil, which make no mistake are still delicious, Neapolitan pies are more restrained: smaller, lighter, elastic, and sparse with cheese and saucing. Fork and knife are required. Unfortunately, there aren’t too many places in the city that serve an authentic Naples pie. Kesté is one of them, and it serves the best.

Roberto Caporuscio, chef and co-owner of Kesté Pizza & Vino, is a pizza master. Chef Caporuscio comes from Pontinia, Italy just over an hour north of Naples, the putative birthplace of pizza. After several years of training in Napoli he ventured to the United States to share this traditional style of pizza without compromise. New York-style pizza wasn’t for him. Despite being the president of the Associazione Pizzaiuoli Napoletani, he is rarely found outside of the kitchen. And if he is, his hands are always covered in white dust. Roberto’s enthusiasm for making the perfect pie can be seen almost immediately by watching his slow precise hands working the dough, his eyes almost never straying from the pie.

1424 Avenue J, Brooklyn, NY

New Yorkers take their pizza seriously. Perhaps that’s because of New York’s Italian roots, considering 30% of Italy immigrated to New York at the turn of the 20th century. The majority of these immigrants emigrated from the south, from areas such as Naples and Sicily, carrying with them recipes, traditions, and skill to turn mere flour and water into one of the most delicious foods ever created. It is no coincidence, then, that New York has been labeled by many as the pizza capital of the world. But is it really?

Truth be told, a visitor to America’s pizza home may not feel the same way. While great pizza in this city can be found, the majority of pizzerias serve mass-produced pies lacking any sort of character or flavor. With the viral growth of chains like Sbarro, Famiglia, and “CPK,” most of the city’s great pizza has moved from an Italian artisan craft to the product of a big city assembly line. A relatively mundane mix of ingredients, in theory, pizza should be simple. But simple ingredients lend to complex preparation intricacies that, if left to the wrong hands, can result in a pizza that tastes terrible. Let alone soulless. A lack of skill, care and quality ingredients can lead to soggy crust, excessively salty cheese, oily residue, and a frown. Great pizza is no easy task.

Corrientes, Av. 1368, Tribunales, Buenos Aires

Several guide books had suggested Guerrín as having the “best pizza” in Buenos Aires.  Granted, pizza style is something very personal with many different varieties: thin crust, thick crust, brick oven, and even a la parilla (grilled!) to name a few. Coming from New York, a place which in my humble opinion has the best [...]

Libertad 1078, Recoleta, 

Many medialunas and a full stomach after my first lunch at Café Tortoni, I stopped by Piola for a second lunch with somefriends around 3pm. Piola was recommended by one of our guidebooks for having some top-notch semi-thin non-parilla pizza. And as a New Yorker, a considerably strong craving for pizza comes once about, oh, [...]

Báez 260, Las Cañitas, 

This place had a really nice pizza. It was the first slice I’d eaten since arriving here and it could compete against NY thin crust slices any-day (similar to Otto). A little pricey for a pizzeria; but then again, it’s more of a sit-down restaurant that happens to have good pizzas. Unlike traditional pizzerias, Morelia [...]