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Where the Pizza Margherita Was Born |
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The most famous pizzeria in Italy, and maybe in the world, is hidden on a narrow alley in S.Anna, in the heart of the old Naples. Nearby the entrance, just a plaque with the symbol of Savoia (the ancient royal family of Italy) that testify the historical event: “Here 100 years ago the Pizza Margherita was born.” Two dates: 1899-1999 and one name: Brandi.
Tourists come from all over the world, take pictures and taste one of the 22 excellent pizzas from the best Naples doc tradition.
Named on the major tourist guides as “where the pizza is a piece of history”, Brandi of Naples is absolutely the pizza temple (“lunch for the poor, fancy for the riches” as the saying goes concerning the pizza). The quality? Here is fabulous but what makes the difference is that everybody stops at the Brandi pizzeria: common people, famous people and very famous people (just to name some: Pavarotti, different Italian presidents, Ami Stewart, King Albert of Monaco, Mitterand, Berlusconi, Bill Clinton…).
If still today Brandi is a famous name we should thank Cavalier Vincenzo Pagnani, the actual owner of the pizzeria who says: “I just wanted to preserve and enhance an historical and gastronomical heritage that run the risk to be lived down.” Mr. Pagnani was hired in the pizzeria Brandi in 1948, when he was 15 years old, as pizzaiolo helper (and he discovered to be allergic to the flour), so he was put on the street as a “pizza caller,” which is to say he was the person in charge to invite in the people on the street. Mr. Pagnani grew, and he started his public relation with the Naples’s VIP (people from the TV, journalists, politicians, etc.) and when he got the chance he took over the pizzeria, without changing its name and setting off its historical authenticity.
Today Pizzeria Brandi is a modern and functional pizzeria, small, just 80 places, but the quality has its home here: the dough proofs for 12 hours, only San Marzano tomato, bufala mozzarella cheese, an oil which is even lighter than the extra virgin, very fresh basil…maybe the price is not so popular, but even the history has its value!
The pizza that made the history….
One day in June 1889, a royal emissary invited Mr. Raffaele Esposito to bake pizza to Capodimonte palace, the summer residence of the Italian King Umberto I and Queen Margherita. Don Raffaele and his wife went to the palace with all the ingredients requested to prepare three different kinds of pizza. The Queen really enjoyed the one with tomato, mozzarella cheese and fresh basil (which were the colors of the Italian flag) and Don Raffaele decided to dedicate this pizza to her and give it her name, Margherita.
Camillo Galli, the chief of the table services of the Royal Family, sent a letter to Don Raffaele, saying, “The pizzas baked for her Majesty the Queen were delicious.” Don Raffaele put the letter in a frame in his pizzeria and introduced in his menu the new “Pizza Magherita.”