Pizza? It is not simply a physical experience, but it must also be a mental experience: to speak is Denis Lovatell, visionary pizza maker immersed with his feet and heart in the beauty of the Belluno mountains, one of the most important Italian pizza makers: Three segments in the Gambero Rosso guide of pizzerias conquered for years and always maintained; top position in the Top 50 pizza ranking; first pizza maker to take the stage at Food On The Edge, the international cooking symposium held in Galway, Ireland, which has seen gigantic names such as Albert Adrià, Alex Atala, Andoni Luis Aduriz, Bo Bech or Leonor Espinosa.
Lovatell went up on that stage to explain his philosophy as a pizza chef which is based on seasonality and respect for the environment, the reduction of waste through the use of processing waste, the reduction in the consumption of animal proteins, and increasing the consumption of vegetable proteins in such a way as to reduce intensive farming and CO2 emissions; the use of vegetables from organic and natural cultivation; the use of ingredients that they reward local producers, in support of the local economy and the dissemination of agricultural and artisanal dairy traditions, the use of cured meats from well-kept farms attentive to animal welfare, as well as the use of fish products resulting from sustainable fishing.
All in the belief that the pizzeria must become a place of destination like the restaurant and not a food of passage, a message addressed above all to the younger generations so that pizza becomes an instrument of a new language of gastronomic awareness.
Ideas that are starting to make headway today but that when he started more than forty years ago could have seemed crazy.
The passion for the world of cooking has always attracted him, his father Ezio Lovatell had worked as a chef in the restaurants of important hotels but even more, he was attracted by the curiosity for the world of pizza and for all that this world could express again . until in 1977 in Alano di Piave (Belluno) the Pizzeria Da Ezio came to life, the only one of its kind in the whole area.
Father and son, side by side with Denis who carries on his all too clear ideas: pizza, yes, but which has something to express, which experiments with new paths which proposes new solutions, based on the concept of ethical gastronomy in the broadest sense of a term that embraces nutritionism and the territory, the environment and respect for the seasons with a constant eye on maintaining biodiversity
“We – says Denis Lovatell – for the realization of our pizzas have a sort of handbook: in our dough we have reduced the consumption of salt by replacing it with dried mountain spices which compensate for the tanginess, many pizzas come studied with the collaboration of a nutritionist because pizza can become a complete and protein meal. We get a lower carbohydrate intake than traditional pizzas due to the weight of a very low loaf without affecting the taste. Furthermore, we use flours from an integrated grinding patented by a mill that uses the healthy parts of the grain while maintaining its protein values and taste unaltered".
The classic that made him known and appreciated in the world of pizzerias is the "crunch", an onomatopoeia that alone contains all the essence of his pizza: crunchy, light, digestible, fragrant. "For the dough we use a particular technique developed by us in 1977 which requires over 52 hours of leavening" and has always remained the same since then "and today it is a source of pride and success for our restaurant "Pizzeria Ezio" .
"Crunch" was the basis on which to develop the fantasy of a topping and to conceive the pizzas as a plateau on which to place quality ingredients, choosing from the best local delicacies and those from all over Italy from small artisan realities, with an eye to the Slow Food presidia.
Thus were born the Radic with fiordilatte from Agerola, fontina cheese from the pastures, grilled radicchio from Treviso, blown amaranth; Vermouth with Agerola fiordilatte, DOP gorgonzola, baked onion, toasted almonds, artisanal Vermouth sauce; Zaba with Agerola fiordilatte, toasted sausage, sautéed black cabbage, salted zabaglione, Patata bravas with Gargano tomato, Agerola fiordilatte, sautéed black cabbage, baked potatoes, DOP pecorino cheese fondue, smoked paprika. And, again, the Intense winter pizza with Gargano tomato, Agerola fiordilatte, sautéed black cabbage, roasted sausage, fried leek, DOP pecorino cheese fondue; the scent of mountain with Fiordilatte di Agerola, gorgonzola DOP, forest fruit chutney, puffed amaranth, mixed salad, green apple vinaigrette or the Amaro Dolce Salato with Gargano tomato, fiordilatte from Agerola, pumpkin confit cream, crispy bacon Nero dei Nebrodi, grilled Treviso radicchio, flakes of goat's cacioricotta. And then the latest additions: the Dolomitica, with fiordilatte, heart of burrata, green apple, lightly smoked whipped char and marinated beetroot, or the Ladina, tomato base with fiordilatte, alpine stracchino, sautéed mushrooms, mountain speck and thyme wild.
But the love for nature and for the mountains is smoldering under the ashes of the pizza oven in Alano di Piave. With the aim of trying to replace animal proteins as much as possible, veering more and more towards a vegetarian menu” above all towards the scents and flavors of the mountain and its herbs. A need for "ethical" cooking that derives from an accident that happened to him years ago when he was stuck on a rock face for a few days waiting for help. "The weather conditions were terrible, the helicopter couldn't reach us and I was risking hypothermia: that event, from which I fortunately escaped unharmed, strongly marked my life, my approach to the mountains and to nature", In those moments of great solitude Denis started a profound dialogue with the mountain of whose culture he felt an integral part as of its silences but also of its so rich nature, a nature on which to draw for his cuisine for an inner and outer well-being of pleasantness and taste with its wild herbs, edible flowers, fruits, mushrooms.
“The message we want to convey – says Daniel Lovatell – is that the Pizza must be an instrument of knowledge of the great heritage of biodiversity that characterizes Italy, a unique country for its wealth, for its immense food and wine culture, its cuisine known all over the world with a heritage of enviable traditions".
And Pizza can be its ambassador.
