Italy
Speaker
Franco Pepe
Pizzaiolo at Pepe's in Grani (Caiazzo, Campania, Italy)
Franco Pepe is the third generation of his family to work in the bakery trade.
Pepe in Grani, a pizzeria in Caiazzo, a small town of 5,000 inhabitants a few kilometres from the province of Caserta, is the place where Franco Pepe welcomes 400 customers and prepares 800 pizzas a day. Since 2014, when Jonathan Gold declared in Food & Wine magazine that "it's probably the best pizza in the world", to the latest recognition by The Best Chef Awards as "Best Pizza Chef" in 2021, his project has experienced exponential growth, attracting people from all over the world.
His pizzas are based on innovation, but they are also based on tradition. He enhances the dough with a special blend of flours made especially for him, an essential part of his preparation. He is meticulous in his choice of local ingredients. His aim is to share the flavours and stories of his land with the world through his pizzas.