Naples chefs take sides in the ultra pizza wars

Level 3

Advanced

1 Warmer
Are there any traditional or speciality foods or dishes in your area? What food specialities do you associate with Italy?

2 Find the information

Scan the article to find the information. 1. Find three words at the beginning of the article and one word at the end that link pizza-making to religion. ______________________________________ ______________________________________ _______________________________________ _______________________________________

2. Find the names of two traditional Neapolitan pizzas. ______________________________________ _______________________________________

3. In which paragraph can you find a recipe for a patented pizza? 4. Find the names of: a. a gourmet pizza chef ______________________________________ b. two traditional pizza makers ___________________________ c. a food expert ______________________________________ d. a film star ______________________________________ ___________________________

Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2012 NEWS LESSONS / Naples chefs take sides in the ultra pizza wars / Advanced

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Naples chefs take sides in the ultra pizza wars

Level 3

Advanced
6 In a country that normally prizes simple ingredients and traditional recipes, pizzaioli are now attempting stilton and port pizzas as well as shrimp, saffron and liquorice pizzas. 7 For Coccia, the economic downturn means more chefs are colonizing the poor mans food. As the crisis makes people want to spend less on eating well, two-starred chefs I know are rushing to install wood-fired pizza ovens, while I am being considered a chef instead of just a pizzaiolo, he said. 8 What makes Coccia different is that he has dared to open for business in the town where pizza was first popularized and where, in 1889, a pizzaiolo named his new mozzarella, tomato and basil pizza mimicking the white, red and green of the Italian flag after Margherita of Savoy. 9 Napless staple got a further boost from the 1954 Italian comedy, The Gold of Naples, where Sofia Loren plays a pizzaiola in the working-class district of Materdei. Five decades on, Starita, the local restaurant which prepared her for the role, is still pulling in the crowds. 10 I am dead against these gourmet pizzas a pizza restaurant must be quick and cheap and turn out at least 400 pizzas a night, said Antonio Starita, 70, whose grandfather opened the restaurant in 1901. 11 I have seen cream being used, and it doesnt get worse than that, he added, while pounding dough beneath the obligatory photos of the Pope and former Napoli footballer Diego Maradona. 12 At Di Matteo on Via Dei Tribunali in the heart of Naples, where 600 pizzas are served a day and a margherita costs 3, the owner, Salvatore di Matteo, dismissed the ultra-pizza trend as just like a cold, by which I mean it should pass. 13 For me, he added, gourmet means talking about what you eat. 14 A third of Di Matteos business is folded and fried pizzas typically stuffed with ricotta, provola cheese and cicoli, a local type of pancetta. For Neapolitans, he said, it is even more of a tradition than the margherita. Fried pizza was bigger than oven-baked pizza in Naples until the
N T O FR BE C O DO O M W P W N IA EB LO B SI A L TE DE E D

Naples chefs take sides in the ultra pizza wars

Naples gave birth to the margherita, but now passions run high over the addition of stilton, port and even liquorice Tom Kington 20 May, 2012 1 Enzo Coccia has an evangelical air as he discusses his spring pizza piled with asparagus, buffalo mozzarella, sheeps cheese, lard and beans. They may say I am a heretic, but I just want to experiment, says the controversial exponent of the Italian trend for what are being dubbed gourmet or ultra pizzas. 2 The fashion for ultra pizzas has spread throughout Italy. But as Coccia is constantly being reminded, this is Naples, the home of the tomato and mozzarella margherita. Since opening in 2010, Coccias restaurant, La Notizia, has whipped up an almighty row, provoking an army of growling traditionalists to voice their contempt for Coccias daring combination of salt cod with mozzarella, his use of figs and pesto and his 25 truffle oil pizza. His innovative some would say sacrilegious approach has divided a city. 3 There is no such thing as gourmet pizza. We are not OK with this, said Sergio Miccu, head of the Neapolitan Association of Pizza Makers, which has secured EU certification for the margherita and another Neapolitan standard, the tomato, garlic and oregano marinara. 4 Pizza was born as a food for the poor and any complicated pizza loses its identity, he added. To prove his point, Miccu listed off the elements that make up the perfect and now Brusselspatented margherita: a 33cm diameter, 2-3cm high crust, San Marzano tomatoes, cows milk mozzarella from the region of Campania and olive oil, all cooked in a wood oven after the dough has risen for nine hours. 5 But a growing number of pizzaioli, or pizza makers, up and down Italy, are pushing beyond that, taking their lead from a Rome restaurant, La Gatta Mangiona, which has tried out duck and asparagus, and steamed chestnut and mushroom pizzas.
Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2012

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NEWS LESSONS / Naples chefs take sides in the ultra pizza wars / Advanced

Naples chefs take sides in the ultra pizza wars

Level 3

Advanced
and temperature for raising dough, before he sketches out the perfect proportions for a pizza oven on a napkin. This hasnt changed much since the Greeks, but we are always looking to improve on things, he said. 17 At a second restaurant on the same street his menu is strictly traditional. As for the ingredients at his gourmet venture, some may be unorthodox but all are rigorously local. 18 I did a fried pizza with mussels and pancetta based on my grandmothers skewers of mussels and pancetta, dipped in egg and breadcrumbs then fried, he said. If I am innovating, it is only because I know the traditions.
Guardian News & Media 2011 First published in The Observer, 20/05/12

1950s. It needs good oil and a pizzaiolo who can tell the oils temperature just by looking at it its such a hard technique that it hasnt caught on outside Naples, he said. 15 For food expert Davide Paolini, the new gourmet pizzas can be great, but its no longer pizza. He did, however, praise the work of the new wave of pizza chefs in perfecting the dough base. Gourmet pizzaioli are doing serious research on flours and methods of raising the dough, particularly Enzo Coccia, he said. 16 While his ingredients may be raising eyebrows in Naples, Coccias light, perfectly baked pizza bases thanks to his fanatical attention to detail are winning plaudits from his peers. After a long nights baking, he still has the energy to describe the perfect mix of humidity, volume

3 Comprehension check
Answer the questions according to the information in the article. 1. What is an ultra pizza? 2. What is a pizzaioli? 3. How did the margherita get its name? 4. What is the connection between Sophia Loren and pizzas? 5. Who is Antonio Starita and what does he say about gourmet pizzas? 6. How many pizzas do the Starita and Di Matteo restaurants expect to sell per day or night? 7. While Enzo Coccia has many critics, in which area do traditionalists concede that he excels?

4 Expressions
Find the following phrases in the text. 1. be the place where something first began (subtitle) _______________________________________________ 2. cause a lot of arguments and discussions (para 2) _______________________________________________ 3. express your disapproval (para 2) _______________________________________________ 4. does not exist (para 3) _______________________________________________ 5. attract a large number of customers (para 9) _______________________________________________ 6. paying enthusiastic and very careful attention to the small things (para 16) _______________________________________________ 7. gain praise from people in the same profession (para 16) _______________________________________________
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Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2012 NEWS LESSONS / Naples chefs take sides in the ultra pizza wars / Advanced

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Naples chefs take sides in the ultra pizza wars

Level 3

Advanced

5 Ingredients
Find all the pizza ingredients mentioned in the article, decide whether they are belong on traditional or non-traditional pizzas (or both) and write them into the corresponding parts of the circles.

non-traditional

both

traditional

6 Discussion
When it comes to food, are you more of a traditionalist or are you someone who likes to try new and exotic culinary creations?

7 Group work
Sales figures at Paolas Pizzas have been falling steadily. Paola is willing to pay a large sum of money to the team of consultants that comes up with the best ideas for a range of new and innovative pizzas as well as clever ways of marketing them. Work in groups. Present your ideas to Paola and try to win the contract.

Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2012 NEWS LESSONS / Naples chefs take sides in the ultra pizza wars / Advanced

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N T O FR BE C O DO O M W P W N IA EB LO B SI A L TE DE E D

Naples chefs take sides in the ultra pizza wars

Level 3 KEY

Advanced

2 Find the information

1. 2. 3. 4. evangelical, heretic, sacrilegious, unorthodox margherita, marinara paragraph 4 a. Enzo Coccia b. Antonio Starita, Salvatore di Matteo c. Davide Paolini d. Sophia Loren

5 Ingredients
Teachers note: There may be an element of disagreement in this task, which could lead to some interesting discussions amongst the students. Traditional ingredients tomato, garlic, oregano, olive oil, basil, ricotta, provola cheese, cicoli (a kind of pancetta) Non-traditional ingredients lard, asparagus, buffalo mozzarella, sheeps cheese, beans, salt cod, figs, pesto, truffle oil, duck, steamed chestnut, stilton, port, shrimp, saffron, liquorice, cream, mussels, egg, breadcrumbs, mushrooms Both cows milk mozzarella, flour, pancetta

3 Comprehension check
1. a pizza topped with an innovative, non-traditional mix of ingredients 2. a pizza maker 3. It is named after Margherita of Savoy. 4. She played a pizzaiola in the 1954 film The Gold of Naples. 5. He runs a traditional pizza restaurant. He is completely against gourmet pizzas. 6. the Starita restaurant at least 400 pizzas a night; the Di Matteo restaurant 600 pizzas a day 7. He has perfected the dough base.

4 Expressions
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. give birth to whip up an almighty row voice your contempt there is no such thing as ... pull in the crowds fanatical attention to detail win plaudits from your peers

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NEWS LESSONS / Naples chefs take sides in the ultra pizza wars / Advanced

O FR BE C O DO O M W P W N IA EB LO B SI A L TE DE E D