But several decades on, Manfredi, 67, says he's happy to be "going back to [his] roots".
"It was always a thing amongst all of us schoolkids to get out of Blacktown, to leave … so it's a bit ironic that I've got a restaurant out there, but it feels great," Manfredi tells 9Honey, laughing.
Three years after it opened, Manfredi's Pizzaperta, inside the West HQ entertainment complex, was officially launched this week.
Like so many businesses, it suffered numerous closures due to coronavirus lockdowns meaning it never got the proper opening, and fanfare, it deserved – until now.
And it's already making waves. Big ones.
Last weekend Pizzaperta sold more than 1100 pizzas over just two days, the biggest weekend seen so far at the venue in Rooty Hill, near Blacktown.
"It's absolutely wonderful – it's like we've been training for the past two or so years," he says.
Pizzaperta is in good company at West HQ, which now houses a selection of some of the biggest names in Australian dining, including Steak & Co by Sean Connolly, Chur Burger, Gelatissimo and New Town Thai Street Food.
Chu Restaurant by China Doll is another big drawcard having, too, recently reopened after COVID-19 forced closures.
Pizzaperta is Manfredi's 16th restaurant over the past 40 years but his first pizzeria.
He's looking forward to families making it their new local and welcoming those coming to West HQ from outside the area, including his own granddaughter Mina, one, who got to sample her grandfather's magic on Wednesday accompanied by her mum Isabella.
"That's what restaurants do, they are the creator of memories," Manfredi says.
"We already have lots of people, whether they are adults or kids or families returning to have the pizzas because their standard has been upped," he adds, laughing.
"[Western Sydney] has this vibrancy which I don't think the city has at the moment. It's the vibrancy of the new because everything is developing in the western suburbs and it's is kind of a new experience for a lot of people to have good restaurants.
"Having said that, it's always had the best food because all the migrants moved to the satellite suburbs of the city and they take their food with them.
"I always joke with my friends who are in the eastern suburbs that we have the best food out west.
"The west has really come into its own."
Manfredi would know. He moved to Blacktown when he was six with his family, who had recently arrived from Italy.
They spent several months in the Bonegilla Migrant Camp in 1961, the largest and longest operating reception centre in the post-war era, with most of those originating from non-English speaking European countries.
After that, the Manfredis moved to Melbourne before relocating to Blacktown, now a 40-minute drive west of Sydney's CBD. It's also 15 minutes away from Sydney's second CBD, Parramatta.
Manfredi went to Blacktown Boys' High School and has fond memories of growing up in a migrant-rich area, which he says had a huge influence on the region's present-day food culture.
"When we first moved out there, we lived among Greeks and Maltese and they all had gardens. All the Italians had gardens, vegetable gardens and rose gardens, so they grew a lot of their own food and kept their food culture going through their gardens.
"The first and second generation of kids who grew up in that way were very influenced by their original culture, and I think that's what's really driving the food culture out west."
But Manfredi is aiming to give families like his something they didn't have when he was growing up.
"While we didn't have the money to go out to restaurants, the restaurant culture back then was not really [big]. I think the first restaurant I ever went to was a Chinese restaurant," he says.
"The restaurant culture here now is really developing – you can see it with cafes, with the cheap and cheerful, takeaways and now you have the really interesting pizza restaurants like Pizzaperta that are doing things in a way that's different from your basic Neapolitan style pizza."
Read the full article>
Natalie olivieri
source: https://kitchen.nine.com.au/latest/stefano-manfredi-pizzaperta-pizzeria-opening-west-hq-western-sydney-dining/0d4ab3bf-2cc5-4842-8739-2ee0d5de3e8e
The pizzas are made with Petra flours (nd)
Photo by Studio La Tessa
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