The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
GAME TIME FOR PIZZA MAKER
New co-owner of Pasta Avest in Guilford shows off his skills at Super Bowl
GUILFORD — Neco Lopez isn’t a fan of American football. But when the master pizza maker from Pasta Avest was cooking at Super Bowl LVII, he couldn’t help getting caught up in the excitement.
“I was like, whoa, this is crazy,” the soccer fan said. It suddenly hit him that this was not just a “regular game of football” but the Super Bowl.
At the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., Lopez slammed out Neapolitan pies, along with a crew of 14 other chefs, baking four-dozen pizzas at a time for 90 seconds apiece in 700-degree ovens.
This is not New Havenstyle pie, often known for its crispy, charred crust that comes from coal-fired ovens, but rather authentic Neapolitan pizza, known by its light, moist and tender crust, cooked in a super-hot, wood-fired oven, according to Lopez.
The pizza makers represented high-end, ovenmaker Marra Forni, who built two giant, woodfired ovens in the Club 57 VIP food tent at the Super Bowl.
They made about 5,000 pies during pre-game in the distinctive domeshaped ovens that coincidentally resembled football helmets, with team logos displayed on the sides.
Lopez had done several stadium-size events affiliated with the upscale Italian oven-maker in the past. But none like the “once in a lifetime” experience cooking at the Super Bowl.
“So when I was invited to the Super Bowl, it was one of those things that you’re like, ‘What? For real?’” he said.
The tent was hosted by On Location, a high-ticket event management company.
The pizzaiola was proud to work alongside the “godfather” of Neapolitan pizza, Chris Bianco, a James Beard Award-winning chef. Also leading the team was “world champion Neapolitan pizza master” Daniele Gagliotta.
Lopez also loved feeding the crowd of hungry fans, his pizza peel flying.
“I was enjoying myself by cooking all those pizzas and listening to these people just looking at me and saying, ‘Amazing job,’ ‘Oh my God, you guys are crazy,’ ‘Cannot believe it.’ All those kind of things make you move a little faster . ... I’m just having a lot of fun,” Lopez said.
Lopez, originally from El Salvador, is a “huge” FC Barcelona fan, and he wasn’t expecting to feel thrilled from watching the big game on the field where the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Philadelphia Eagles, 38-35.
But, “when I went in there and I went in the stadium I actually felt like excited, because you know, it looks just like a soccer field,” he said, grinning.
“And you see these people running,” Lopez said, starting to laugh, “And I was like, wow ... I can’t believe the vibe in that place. The people were just happy.”
His wife, Sarah, who co-owns Pasta Avest, said the days leading up to the Super Bowl were hectic, but exciting, too.
“I told them that they
should have made a reality show of it,” she said.
“We actually were living together for four days and we get up together, we cook together, we prep together,” Lopez recalled.
Friday before the big game, “We prepped all the cheese for 5,000 pizzas,” he said. “We hand-cut fresh mozzarella. We puree up all the tomatoes ourselves.”
The new restaurant
Now, life is back to normal as Lopez is back home at Pasta Avest.
The couple bought the eatery during the pandemic about a year-and-ahalf ago. They had moved to Guilford, his wife’s hometown, from Washington, D.C., with their two children, Benny, 5, and Luca, 3, during the shutdown.
The pair took over Pasta Avest without any fanfare and are working to make the place their own. Both had worked at the famous 2 Amys restaurant in D.C., DOC certified for serving authentic Neapolitan pizza, according to
Sarah Lopez.
At the small Guilford eatery they serve what they call “neo-Neapolitan” pizzas because the woodburning oven that came with the place does not get to the desired temperature of 700 degrees; it goes up to 550. The couple is saving to buy a Marra Forni oven.
They do a traditional Connecticut-style pizza, but do it their own way.
What makes their pizza unique is “the way he treats the dough,” which has four simple ingredients: water, salt, yeast and flour. Then he lets the dough rest for 48 hours, his wife said.
Their pizza is “a nod to the Neapolitan — it’s a lighter, fluffier crust” that is “very, very thin” and is cooked for “maybe 60 seconds” in a super hot oven, she described.
Most of their pizza business is takeout, she noted.
However, Pasta Avest does offer a small number of more-authentic Neapolitan pizzas with premium toppings such as fig and prosciutto, which they suggest customers eat at the restaurant as they are best served right out of the wood-burning oven.
The traditional, Connecticut-style pizza travels just fine, they said.
And the pizza is winning over customers, as well as other menu items.
Patron Tina Silidker is a big fan. “Anyone I’ve sent there to give it a try comes back with rave reviews and becomes a regular,” she said.
In addition to pizza, “being a vegetarian, my faves are anything eggplant, but especially the eggplant panini,” she said. “Their caponata is the best I’ve ever had. There’s always a container in my fridge.”
Sarah and Neco Lopez met 18 years ago while both working in restaurants.
“I mean it’s our life — we live and breathe and sleep it,” she said. “I’ve worked in restaurants since I was 14; he worked in restaurants since he came to America.”
At 2 Amys, she recalled, “he was doing about 1,000 pizzas a day.”
The restaurant did not take reservations, “people would wait 2, 2-1/2 hours,” she said.
Politicians and pizza
There, they made pizzas for then-Vice President Joe Biden; the Obama daughters, Malia and Sasha; President George W. Bush; and Sonia Sotomayor, associate justice of the Supreme Court, according to Sarah Lopez.
Before a presidential visit, the Secret Service and the White House chef would visit a week before.
While Lopez was making the pizza, “Oh, they were in the kitchen with me,” he said, “There was the chef next to me, with the Secret Service guy next to me,” The White House chef was there “to “make sure that we were doing everything right for the president.”
At 2 Amys, “very famous chefs used to come in all the time and just praise him and his dough,” his wife recalled.
Michelin-starred chef Jose Andres used to come in weekly, she said, and would ask for “Neco to make his garlic knots for him.”
“He was a big deal when it came to pizza right in the city,” she said about her husband, noting that Marra Forni “used to take him to pizza expos in Vegas.”
Lopez also worked for “Pizza University” pizzauniversity.org, doing private parties.
When they bought Pasta Avest, “We put everything we had into purchasing it and it’s a scary thing,” she said. “We’re not millionaires.”
They thought, “We can slide into this business that already had the customers coming in. Show what we can do you, you know, earn people’s trust. Improve everything,” she said.
She hopes in the next year to do a “nice rebrand and relaunch as ourselves.”
About their pies, she said, “We just want to make good pizza.”