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A traveling pizza oven stopped at Villa a Sesta on Friday, February 17 on its trip through Europe. The young Welsh pizzaiolo, Phill Lewis, founder of the Dusty Knuckle pizzeria in Cardiff, and member of Slow Food South East Wales, left for an adventurous voyage from Cardiff to Naples.

On the way, he prepared his pizza, considered the best in Wales and among the first 10 in the entire United Kingdom. Traveling together with him was Tom.

With their hand made wood burning oven, mounted on a trailer, Phill and Tom crossed Europe, leaving with only a sack of flour, a can of tomatoes and a bag of cheese, cooking in a different place every evening and enriching the pizza with local products from slow food producers.

The pair plans on collecting funds to promote local teaching initiatives which help people and their communities to choose food and production techniques in a knowledgeable way. The tour was organized over 3000 km in a three week, passing through the United Kingdom, France, and across the Alps to Italy.

During the trip, they cooked and visited local producers creating a dialogue and reflecting upon food which is cooked today. This stop at villa la Sesta was made on their return trip, after having visited the “mecca of pizza”, Naples.

Why Villa a Sesta? “We didn’t choose the town. The town chose us,” answered Phill. In fact, Giuseppe Pollio, active member of Slow Food Siena, contacted the Arci Club of Villa a Sesta as soon as he knew that its two itinerant pizza makers were passing through Siena.

Paola Valenti, president of the club, immediately propose to organize the event at Villa a Sesta, although she didn’t expect such big participation; 140 pizzas, compared to the 90 made in London, was the record for the voyage.

The pizza is made with dough from mother yeast and enriched by ingredients chosen by the local producers; sausages from the historic butchers of Castelnuovo Berardenga, the Pini brothers, provolone and buffalo mozzarella directly from Naples. The pizza was divine and diners welcomed the pizzaioli with open arms.

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