Can pizza be called a haute cuisine dish? Certainly yes, first of all because it is one of the most ingenious culinary inventions in the history of food, and then when to interpret pizza is a creative genius like Simone Padoan's, pizza undoubtedly becomes a dish of the highest organoleptic and tasting quality.
Son "of art," coming from a large family of pizza makers, it took him quite some time to find his way and completely renew this sector, becoming, as a Venetian, the best Italian pizza maker. Would you like to tell us a little bit about how your culinary evolution from a traditional pizzaiolo to the present happened?
In 1994 I opened my own place, a traditional-style pizzeria. Even then we tried to use quality raw material and no canned products. In '99 I had a period of crisis: in our areas restaurants - pizzerias of a certain chain were depopulating, they were offering menus with the philosophy large quantities low cost. I was no longer okay with that...This was not the future of my pizzeria, or rather, I did not want to make these compromises. I wanted to change the type of business but, I focused on my life's passion, cooking and, together with a restaurateur friend who opened the doors of his kitchen to me, I tried to better refine cooking techniques; I went to a baker friend in my town and, at night I would go and help him to better understand types of flours and dough reactions and from this point on I introduced a new type of pizza. A pizza and a system of working that I changed and reciprocated over time, the use of certain flours, hours of rising to give a product first of all healthy and digestible as well as good.
I know that you are not afraid of being copied, that you don't keep your secrets to yourself, on the contrary that you love that others can learn from you, it is a clear sign of intelligence and also of confidence in your talent, but it is also a way to be emulated and so I ask you if in your democraticness, there is also a pinch of healthy narcissism ?
It is not narcissism, on the contrary, it is really a desire to make all pizza makers understand that you can work better, you can make a product that does well...Enough with the pizzerias that offer poorly leavened doughs that only hurt our stomachs, do not make us sleep well because they lead us to ingest quantities of water to quench the thirst that invariably comes after eating a pizza. That's what I fight every day.
Let's talk a little bit about raw materials, the quality of which is so important for a great chef like you are and for the best result of a dish as essential and therefore complex as pizza. How do you make your choices? Do you have fixed suppliers you trust, or do you modify your purchasing criteria according to recipes? Where do you prefer to source your supplies? Directly from producers, in markets? In short, how is this aspect of your work organized?
Our watchword is SEASONALITY, the menu changes with the seasons, and so our purchasing choices are based on that. For fruits and vegetables we rely on a greengrocer who knows us and knows what a stickler we are for choosing raw materials. For other ingredients we rely on chains like Longino & Cardenal or Gran Chef. For fish we have a supplier from Sardinia who goes to the market every morning and delivers everything fresh the same day. The same for dairy products and the fiordilatte we use. For meat, we rely on the experience of the Damini brothers' butcher shop in Arzignano....In short, a range of quality products that we try to choose in the best possible way also based on the appreciations of our customers.
And asfor equipment, what do you think? Does using quality equipment, improve and simplify your work, or is it irrelevant?
Equipment is essential in a place that wants to work seriously and technically. Blast chillers, cold rooms, mixers and other technologies cannot be lacking, then it always depends on the type of cooking you do and the ingredient preparation needs you have.
Are you also one of those geniuses who live by "periods "and when they fall in love with an ingredient they study it and propose it to maniacal exhaustion, or are your proposals more tied to the seasonality of the products or what other criteria do you follow?
As already mentioned we are tied to the seasonality of the products so you always want to use what the given period gives whether from fruits and vegetables or from the sea. There is no shortage of experimentation with certain types of ingredients which, however, I don't think I have ever treated to exhaustion...Or at least I hope so!
When the great French writer George Simenon, it was pointed out that a great writer like him, was considered a "mystery writer" and was asked, "but doesn't it seem to you that to call you a "mystery writer," is reductive, given your greatness?" it seems that he replied "No, it is not reductive, in fact it is an accrescitive." I would like to understand if the parallel can fit for you: when you are called a pizzaiolo and not a chef, how do you feel? Do you consider it a reductive term for your work or do you consider pizzaiolo to be an accrescitive term?
That's a good question: being called a pizzaiolo is the right word for what I am. Beyond those who call me a chef, I started out as a pizzaiolo and always will be. I just want to say that the many who call themselves pizzaiolos need to see if they are really worthy of being called that. Word to the wise in short.
What are the golden rules for a great dough base and perfect baking? And what are the most common mistakes you run into when making pizza?
Golden rules do not exist, everyone works with their own techniques and based on their dough experiences. I can say, for my part, that a good dough is achieved after many hours of rising, beyond whether you use natural or compressed yeast, with proper rising you will also have a more homogeneous baking of the pizza. The mistakes that are mostly made are precisely these: quick doughs that are kept in the refrigerator, which end the leavening in the customers' stomachs.
You are called to kermesses that see you side by side with the best names in Italian and international catering, your restaurant (I Tigli in San Bonifacio VR ) is considered the one where you eat the best pizza in Italy, you are the protagonist of a successful book (L'arte della pizza by Simone Padoan - Gribaudo) and so on, it would seem that you have already achieved a lot of really important goals. Do you still have any unexpressed desires, any goals to achieve? Do you cherish any new dreams in your drawer?
So manythings have happened since I left...To date I have no desires: just in these days I am finalizing the realization of the new restaurant. A dream I have had for years and which is finally now coming true. After many sacrifices I have managed to make the right suit to the product I make. a place that will allow me to expand my offerings because I now have the right space to do so. After this, for me, it is a second rebirth, a new road, all uphill, ready to be tackled with new energy and enthusiasm!!!
I know that you love Vasco Rossi, so I will ask you one last, slightly more frivolous question using a phrase from Vasco: "Feel what a nice wind..." What are the moments when you too feel a nice wind...when a client compliments you? When you achieve a prestigious professional goal? When you fine-tune an extraordinary new recipe...what really gives you pleasure?
Freedom of expression in all its forms...That gives me pleasure.
If blog-goers would like to be able to contact you, how can you be reached?
From our email info@pizzeriaitigli.it or on fabook Simone Padoan.
Interview by Monica Palla
