"I am a compulsive pizza maker, passionate about what I consider the simplest and most imaginative plebeian food in the world: pizza. My compulsion lies in the fact that I cannot stop myself from processing it, taking it apart, putting it back together, innovating it, transforming it, changing its dress and creating unexpected recipes." Antonello Cioffi's vision.
The restaurant and the philosophy
Only if you are very knowledgeable and have a good dose of genius can you reach the level of the character that is Antonello Cioffi. If you then consider that he is also a true gaiety, the games are played. “Games Without Borders” is not just the title of the TV show from the 1990s, but the description of what goes on within the walls of La Piedigrotta 50 years after it opened. Technique, imagination, taste, a mind-boggling cellar with a myriad selection of Champagnes (offered to match) and excellent raw material. Whether it's a “normal” round” or the menu experience with which to discover how much the ‘pizza thought’ can leaven in Antonello's head, your point of view about it will never be the same.
Located in the center of Varese, La Piedigrotta, has definitely changed its skin since Antonello's dad took care of it. He took the helm of its journey to become one of the most exciting insignias dedicated to leavening in 2003. Since that year Cioffi and his team, at the forefront his wife Daniela an expert in the many ingredients used here, have been redefining the concept of livitati by offering the many who fall in love with it a journey into the pizza dimension, in addition to the multitude of exquisite discs of dough-“classics,” so to speak. Because after all, one can also come here just to eat a simple pizza (one of the best in Italy), but I would say that it is almost a must to try the “experience menu,” present only on site.
The basics are those of pizza, its constituent elements are studied, revised, rethought to create dishes that are instead always pizza. Don't turn up your nose, even the most purist when it comes to dough will be happily surprised by what Cioffi is able to do. Over the years hundreds have been conceived and made, Antonello thinks by night and creates by day, by now that gift he received is part of him and comes easily to him. Thus are born pizzas that are like “revisited” first courses: pizza tagliatelle or lasagna, pizza “pizzaccheri” or pizza amatriciana, finger & fast food in its own way such as pizza sushi, pizza hamburgers and pizza hot dogs, pizza cappuccino or “transfigured” desserts such as tiramisu, pizza Margherita cheesecake, pizza sfogliatelle or pizza candy.
Odd but true, and besides being an amazing menu, it is a path steeped in technique and flavor. But why? "I am a compulsive pizza maker, passionate about what I consider the simplest and most imaginative plebeian food in the world: pizza. My compulsion lies in the fact that I cannot stop myself from processing it, taking it apart, putting it back together, innovating it, transforming it, changing its dress and creating unexpected recipes. Which I have been doing all these years, moreover always starting from a strict respect for the Neapolitan tradition. That's how my decomposed pizzas were born, that's how I added three-dimensionality to a traditionally two-dimensional dish, a base of dough with a filling of ingredients on top," he says.
The Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, to which he belongs, should probably award him a separate plaque for flair and genius, as it did in 2019 when the most prestigious Champagne maison awarded him the Krug Ambassador distinction, the first pizzeria in the world to be able to boast of such a merit received for the work done using the persuasive bubbles with style and promoting its unique quality through tastings and dizzying pairing paths between pizzas.
This is no small bonus, considering that in addition to Krug, Cioffi owns three cellars where he refines some of the most interesting labels in the wine world, from Champagnes to elegant whites via sumptuous reds from the most vocated areas of the plant (there are over a thousand labels). A veritable heritage that he makes available (judiciously) to customers to accompany his preparations nonchalantly. Do you find it out of place to pair a great Burgundy or an old vintage of Champagne with a pizza? And here's where one could be wrong, because Cioffi pairs, enhances, enchants.
The pizzas
The many raw materials are offered in many pizzas in a deconstructed way with some ingredients served purely (mayonnaise, foam, yellow datterino from Salento, buffalo mozzarella from Campania). The Giardino Fiorito pizza, for example, represents a tasting path that, in its four steps, allows one to appreciate all the nuances of the very classic Neapolitan Margherita, thanks to its four slices to be tasted in sequence. It goes without saying that in an easy way (for Cioffi) you can play on perfect pairings and make even the most daring ones enjoyable.
"Everything is inspiring to me. The world of pizza for me is a lens through which I see and judge reality and move accordingly. Because there is nothing that cannot be traced back to becoming a pizza or, conversely, there is no pizza that cannot be transformed into another dish. In many of my elaborations “appearances can be deceiving”: what the dish appears to be does not correspond to the reality we know, but is a reinterpretation of it, an amusing as well as tasty reworking.
I have taken and reinterpreted in a “pizzeria” key the first dishes of traditional Italian cuisine, those known all over the world, such as Lasagna, Tagliatelle, but also Penne, Paccheri, Gnocchi, Ravioli and Pizzoccheri (Pizzaccheri, in my case). But I have also turned sushi or hot dogs with chips into pizza. Not forgetting my forays into the world of pastry and desserts, from breakfast to dessert, a field of inexhaustible inspiration,” he says. But back to the experience menu, there are three: from 4 (the great classics), 6 (between past and future) or 10 courses (freehand) at 55, 75 and 90 euros.
The longest itinerary is certainly the most exploratory, but be aware that it is also very challenging; it starts with the fried pizza paying homage to Neapolitan street food with baccalà mantecato and chicory powder, a couple of mouthfuls of the highest enjoyability that create a black hole in the stomach of diners ready for the journey. The pizza lasagna with cardoncelli mushrooms, mint, buffalo camembert and cocoa powder demonstrates all of Cioffi's technique between textures and balances, the steamed pizza sandwich with Neapolitan ragu is a grandmother's embrace and moves, but it is the sushi sharing that gives the full picture of the level attainable using pizza (in this case in poppy seed crust with Gargano mozzarella, admire the photo), four tastings: “celebrating the Margherita pizza” with fresh green tomato and green tomato extract with basil, ‘prosciutto and melon’ with Faeto black pork prosciutto and tomato extract, ‘homage to the Orient’ with soy mayo, raw zucchini, raw sea bass and maldon salt (and faux wasabi sauce made with wild arugula), and finally the smoked eggplant with olive powder and faux teriaki sauce from Cola.
This is how pizza rises from being such a popular and democratic element to the highest element of mastery and storytelling, always and in any case to be eaten. In another life, in all likelihood, Antonello Cioffi was an oracle capable of giving semblance to the unknown. Not necessarily in round form.
Contact
La Piedigrotta
Address: Via Gian Domenico Romagnosi, 9, 21100 Varese VA
Phone: 0332 287983
