Neapolitan Daniele Uditi can be defined as the classic self-made man. At the age of 12, he was used to clean the pizza ovens at his family’s bakery before going to school, and nowadays he owns two pizzerias in Los Angeles, named Pizzana and ranked on Los Angeles Times “101 Best Restaurants” list.
The experience in the family pizza bakery, as Daniele explains, was educational and essential for the development of his business.
THE SECRET RECIPE
“For my pizza’s dough – Daniele explains to Italianfood.net – I use the recipe of the bread my aunt served in her bakery”. About that, Daniele Uditi proudly underlines that “My pizza is not exactly the classic Neapolitan pizza served everywhere. I wish to give my personal touch to a great product, to differentiate from my competitors”.
And so, to follow the family’s path Daniele decided not to use machines but knead everything by hand: “We knead the dough every day exclusively by hand. There are six people that prepare the dough and make it rise for 48 hours”.
The secrets for this long raise are “The criscito, a kind of sourdough, still a heritage of my family, and my own blend of strong flours”. Obviously, the blend is closely guarded by Daniele who simply says “It’s a blend of semi-whole strong flours”. Why semi-whole flours and not white ones? Daniele’s explanation is historical and pretty romantic. “White flours were born less than one century ago, while the Neapolitan pizza has a much longer history, doesn’t it?”
EVERYTHING BUT THE BUFALA
Semi-whole flours for pizza are obviously imported from Italy: “We use the flours of Farine Petra, the Fiordilatte Agerola PDO mozzarella and San Marzano Tomatoes PDO. We also import other PDO products from Italy such as Parmigiano Reggiano PDO, Pecorino Romano PDO, Pecorino Toscano PDO, Culatello di Zibello PDO and Prosciutto di Parma PDO” – Uditi says.
Daniele Uditi was born in Naples, but raised in Caserta, in the heart of the production area of Mozzarella di Bufala PDO (Buffalo Mozzarella PDO) towards which he can be defined as a “purist” or, better to say, a “fundamentalist”. “In my opinion, the Buffalo Mozzarella must be served fresh on the plate. That is why I don’t import it and I don’t use it for the pizza. If you want to eat the Buffalo Mozzarella you must go to the production area: Salerno or Caserta in Campania region, that’s it”. When it comes to frozen Buffalo Mozzarella, Daniele believes that “it’s undoubtedly a good product, but it must be frozen in the proper way”.
CHARITY AND DELIVERY
Talking about Covid, the restaurants in LA County can actually work at 25% indoor capacity but, compared to New York, they can take a better advantage by outdoor dining as “We can count on almost 12 months of summer. We struggled as any other business and we feel lucky to have the opportunity to still be here during these challenging times” – says Uditi.
All this didn’t stop Daniele doing well. “We have launched a fund raising campaign in favor of health-care employees. We raised $85,000. We also delivered hundreds of pizzas to all LA hospitals” – he says. Delivery and takeaway services allowed Pizzana to “keep the doors open and survive during these months. I’m pretty optimistic for the near future, as the vaccination campaign is going very well with good feedback from people”.
Antonio Iannone
