PIZZA PARTY
Chow down on Boston’s best pies at Naples-inspired fest
Boston and New York enjoy a number of (mostly) goodnatured rivalries. When it comes to baseball, of course, any New Englander would deem the Sox superior. When it comes to pizza, though — even many lifelong Hub dwellers would hesitate to claim the crown.
They shouldn't, say Giancarlo Natale and Raffaele Scalzi, founders of the inaugural Boston Pizza Festival. The best friends and ardent pizza lovers believe that Bostonarea restaurants, contrary to conventional wisdom (and the opinions of our Yankeeendorsing rivals), turn out tremendous pies that stand up to those in larger cities like slice-happy NYC and deep dish-devoted Chicago. The festival, which will take place in Boston's City Hall Plaza on Saturday and Sunday, has partnered with the foremost pizza-accrediting organization in the world to spotlight two dozen of the strongest local examples of the food — one of which will be voted the event's best by tastetesting attendees and expert judges — and share information on the history and production of pizza through a series of live chef demonstrations.
“I think Boston's pizza is the greatest in the U.S.,” said Natale, staking a bold claim. A professional event coordinator who was raised in Boston's North End, the heart of the city's Italian-American community, where streets are lined with mom and popowned pizzerias, Natale is not shy about his affection for local pies. “Boston has great pizza, right up there with cities like New York and Chicago. We just don't get recognized for it. The world doesn't know what we have to offer, so we're happy to share it through the festival.”
The Boston Pizza Festival was largely inspired by the annual Naples Pizza Village, the largest pizza festival in the world, which Natale has often attended with his family members abroad. While organizing Boston's fest, Natale and Scalzi, owner of the Marblehead restaurant Casa Mia Cucina Italiana, tapped the guidance of the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana. The AVPN is “the only recognized organization that preserves and promotes the history and art of making the mother of all pizzas, the Neapolitan pizza,” said Peppe Miele, president of the outfit's American delegation. Many chefs clamor for accreditation from the 1984-founded international nonprofit, which selectively evaluates pizza-makers based on rigorous ingredient- and production-related standards.
Although Naples is widely regarded as the birthplace of modern pizza, many regional styles, hybrids and even some creative, nontraditional varieties will be reflected among the vendors at the Boston Pizza Festival. (Boston's pizza scene is a “melting pot” of styles, said Natale.) The event organizers expect over 15,000 attendees to ante up $50 for VIP tickets, which include an all-you-can-eat hour, or $15 for general admission, which lets guests sample selections at $2 per slice. Each
vendor will prepare three or four styles, and the festival worked with AVPN to import a full fleet of wood-fired brick ovens handcrafted by Marra Forni, one of the pizza world's most reputable names.
Participating restaurants are looking forward to strutting their stuff for pizza lovers. They include Babbo Pizzeria, the Neapolitanstyle Boston outpost of star restaurateur Mario Batali's brand. The Seaport location's chef, Mario LaPosta, who joins some of the fest chefs hosting live demos, grew up making pies with professional pizzaiolos outside Naples, from where his family hail. He'll prepare for the Boston Pizza Festival a salami and olive pizza, among others.
Naples native Fabio Cecere, pizza chef at Rina's Pizzeria & Cafe in the North End, will include a spicy diavolo pizza in his offerings. And the neighborhood's sibling establishments Bricco and Quattro, which annually send team members to visit some of Naples' oldest pizzerias, will turn out pies topped with fig, arugula and artichoke.
Other spots, like South Boston's Lincoln Tavern & Restaurant, will skew more untraditional. Lincoln will serve festival attendees street corn pizza, barbecue pork pizza and buffalo chicken pizza, said chef Nick Dixon, who has earned a rep for his artisanal Americanized spins that still make use of classic Italian ingredients, such as Caputo flour.
While festival guests nosh across varieties, accompanied by music such as Sinatra-inspired live singers and DJ-spun tunes, they'll be able to vote for their favorite slice. The top three popular vote-getters will then be reviewed by a panel of expert judges: Naples native Paolo Surace, an AVPN Master Pizzaiolo; Chicago's Gino Rago, gluten-free pizza champ from the internationally competing United States Pizza Team; and Cleveland's Michael LaMarca, a four-time national champion with the team.
Co-founder Scalzi says that if the inaugural Boston Pizza Festival is a success, the plan is to make it an annual event and eventually expand to other cities. For now, though, celebrating the Hub is at the heart of the matter.
“We want to promote Boston pizza in all its different kinds,” said Scalzi, whose family owns pizzerias in Calabria; he even has his own wood-fired pizza oven at home. “There's an entire industry of pizza fanatics out there, and we want to share and promote Boston's culture.”