Pizza in Its Purest Form: The Story of Lucali | Food Skills

I really wasn't planning on making

pizza

. She really didn't know what she wanted to do. She was in the construction business. He used to do marble and granite manufacturing. He didn't cook much. You know, I let my grandmother do everything. she was amazing in the kitchen, she ate a lot, she didn't cook much until today, when I see the crowd gathering outside, I can't believe it, it's still surreal, these people are lining up to eat my

pizza

, how was this? It happens and then the anxiety kicks in and I'm waiting for the orders like you know it's the quiet before the storm and then I just suck it up and hit the takeout orders and then you know the place fills up with 30 people at a time. time. and the orders stop coming and then the chaos starts, excuse me, look at the pose, I was like, what is that noise?

My name is Mark Iacono and this is my pizzeria Luke Alleys and Carroll Gardens Brooklyn, this was an old candy store that I hung out at Kid, my parents hung out here when they were kids, they may have even met here and one day I go out for a cup of coffee and I run into Rosemarie, who owned this door, and an X about what was going on with the store, you know every time I walk in. go there, it's closed and she told me they were renting the space and like a light bulb went off and she really wanted to save it and you know, the rest is hi

story

, three days later, I'm signing a lease, not that it's important. eating a pizza in Carroll Gardens it's just this is my neighborhood this is where I love being here I want to be here I don't want to be anywhere else there were still people here with it I was in kindergarten with it I still see it every day, but for the most part, almost everyone is gone and it's like everything else in life, everything changes.

Carroll Gardens was an amazing little neighborhood that not many people know about and it had amazing restaurants here and there, there are still a small handful of places left I mean you have Fernando's Esposito's Deli Missoula's Bakery Caputo's Bakery and Caputo's Deli other than that I don't think there is much fresh wood-fired bread left, it's in the old front of the neighborhood, I give it to the girls, thank you very much, this bread made with log salami and a lot of black pepper, my brother called our attention to something and said that flying is table was like playing in a minefield and we didn't realize all the things that were going on and how it was unsafe, but at the same time it was super safe, so this is Carole Park, this is where the whole neighborhood would come, this was like Yankee Stadium in Carroll Gardens, some pretty crazy games were played here, now they fenced everything off, but we all used to hang out here at the entrance when we were younger and you know, that was like where we all gathered and hung out, You know, on hot summer nights and that's where I smoked my first cigarette right there, kissed my first girl - on the steps of the library, are you doing this until I know I'm showing you man?

Do you want some cute guys there? This used to be Leonardo's pizzeria, but before that it was Café del Suit, it was a well-known social club, an Italian café. but then Joel, the owner of the cafe, decided to turn it into a pizzeria to feed his son. Then it was Leonardo's and Joe was one of the guys who taught me how to make pizza. Now it's a Dunkin Donuts every time I go. Even in my favorite places to eat pizza there were certain things that said that if they made it like this it would be much better if they just added a little more salt, a little less oil, it would be much better one of the places I went were the ferries and I saw how this old man took pizza to another level and how what I thought I loved now I loved it even more there is also a chef in New York Mario Mario Carbone from Cabo ins restaurant and I watched what he did with classic Italian dishes and It took it to another level, you know, and then, you know, I started thinking, you know what can be better, you have to make sure that the flavors don't overpower each other, the crust, the sauce, the cheese. the flavor of the dough has more to do with the proportion than anything else, it has to be consistent and that's one of the interesting things about making pizza, having it come out of the oven the same way over and over again, there are so many variables that I take into account.

Excellent pizza, it's a combination of many things, we don't use a lot of water in our dough which tends to make it a little crispier and it keeps better, the only problem is that we have to roll the dough. Then from there we have fresh tomatoes that we cooked for four hours while eating pizza, these guys just throw tomato sauce out of the can, that was one of the things I always wanted to change because my grandmother always made great sauce. and I was like why not cook it why not give it a little bit of flavor give it a little bit of character and then we top it off with three cheeses which is something that I got from Demarco de Ferris you know we use a little bit of moisture and what is it.

Oh a buffalo mozzarella and then we top it off with Ruggiano and then a little bit of basil, a lot of basil, one of the things I'm proud of, they always mention us for pizza margherita in its

purest

form

and I really want to Sometimes remove ingredients off the menu and just makes simple cakes. My grandmother didn't have a huge arsenal of recipes, but the few things she did make were made by spectacular people, as you know, we only make pizza and call it zonal like that, that's all I know. How to let you know, but I'm going to do it very well. 20 and a half years to build the space.

You know, I signed the lease with $5,000 in my name, so you know after my nine to five I would come here to work at night. and on the weekends I pretty much built the place by myself, you know, I'll never forget the day I opened, made a couple of pies and gave them to my neighbors and they said, "wow, this is pretty good." Do this, I have to open. You know, it's been two and a half years. People thought he was crazy. They wonder: what is he doing there? Do you know when it will open? and I removed the paper from the windows.

I prepared my table. You know, and I opened in two hours, all the tables were occupied. I'm going to this customer served everything well with pizza. You enjoy everything that boys like. Listen. Is it okay if I take your number and call you tomorrow? I'd like to do it. in an interview, I'm like you know this guy is probably trying to get something for you, Adam, you know and you know how great you are. My says, you know, we'll call it, you know what magazines do, it's like a New York magazine, I was like Okay, no big deal, like I said, the only thing I knew about restaurants and the restaurant industry was that I used to eat at them and that's how it all started and then Jay Z and Beyoncé came along and you know, that was like it wasn't at all. one level had to get us a goalkeeper at the beginning.

I didn't really know what he was doing and I was having panic attacks. Yeah, you know, people broke down the door to get in here and every time. I get nervous and nervous. I would just like to look at grandma's picture and like you know just call me and like you know I would restart. One of the best things about having this place is when people come back to the neighborhood. They come here and I get to see them again a lot of the old days. You know, the people that I've looked up to walking were very proud of what you did here and it gives me a really good feeling and you know I love Carroll.

Gardens I will never leave this neighborhood and I love making pizza here.