«Gelsomina, a contemporary pastry shop where you can have lunch or aperitivo, is my romantic side. Giolina, instead, is my rock side, and was initially born from my whim of combining pizza and cocktails», says Ilaria who participated in Identità di Pizza for the first time, with Danilo Brunetti, pizzaiolo from Giolina.

«Three years ago, when Giolina opened, it had a beautiful bar which, however, we later removed: it's not easy to change the culture of the people of Milan who find it hard to pair cocktails with pizza». 

Now at Giolina they're pairing natural wines with the pizzas signed by Brunetti, a young self-trained man from Calabria who has also become part of this lucky partnership with Puddu.

«I like working with people like Danilo who are always interested in researching: our task as entrepreneurs is to guide those who want to grow. Seeing Danilo at Identità Pizza is the greatest satisfaction because he has shown his value», she says with pride.

«Ilaria inspired me to exit my comfort zone, and being here is an achievement for me», Brunetti pointed out when presenting his Parmigiana al contrario, called Giolina, the signature pizza of this contemporary place.

«Giolina was born with Ilaria who asked me to give a new take to Parmigiana: we used a base of cream of violette aubergines burnt at 110°C and blended, provola from Agerola, semidry cherry tomatoes from Piennolo semidry, aubergines a funghetto and to finish chips of aubergine peel, fried basil and shaved Parmigiano Reggiano 30 months», Danilo explains. For the dough he uses Petra 3 with a small percentage of Special 5063 with 70% hydration and a maturation of 24 to 48 hours. A pizza that was also baked during to lockdown for delivery.

«Our industry was among the ones hit the hardest by the pandemic. We've managed to overcome that phase also thanks to delivery, in which I never really believed but it has helped us to stay on our feet without sending our employees home (350 what with Marghe, Pizzium, Giolina and Gelsomina) using lay-off schemes on rotation. Some, however, gave up», says Puddu who admits there's a labour problem, which was the topic of the Identità Milano congress.

«Our industry doesn't always abide to the rules and workers are not safeguarded: many ask us to be paid under the counter because they get Naspi. The cost of labour is hard, and there's no training. I'm not interested in people who are able to serve 4 dishes, but I want people who want to work with a smile», says Puddu.


Mariella Caruso
source: https://www.identitagolose.it/ermes/newsletter/?id=479

Photo by Brambilla-Serrani

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