The pizza makers of Naples: how the craft grew in the city's poor quarters, how apprentices learn by watching masters in the bottega, one margherita from dough to oven, and why UNESCO listed the people and not the pizza.
A pizzaiuolo is a pizza maker, and this craft belongs to Naples, the capital of the Campania region, on the Bay of Naples in southern Italy. About 3,000 pizzaiuoli live and work in the city today. UNESCO's record names three kinds of bearer, the master pizzaiuolo, the pizzaiuolo and the baker, and counts Neapolitan families who reproduce the art at home among the bearers too.
The work happens in the bottega, the pizza workshop. UNESCO describes a culinary practice in four phases, from preparing the dough to baking it in a wood-fired oven, and singles out a turning motion by the baker. The pizzaiuolo stands at the centre of the bottega sharing the art with the people watching, and the record says the practice takes on something of the spectacular. The committee that listed it counted gestures and songs among its parts, along with facial expressions and Neapolitan slang.
From the poor quarters to written rules
The craft grew up in the poor neighbourhoods of Naples. The city already had pizzerias in the 1700s, and late in that century its poorest people were known as the lazzaroni. Pizza fed the working poor, and by the 1800s, with tomato among the toppings, it was the popular food of ordinary Neapolitans. Within Italy, pizza spread beyond Naples only after the Second World War, and from there around the world.
Treccani, the Italian encyclopedia, defines Neapolitan pizza as dough worked by hand and baked in a wood-fired oven after rising twice. In 2010 the European Union registered Pizza Napoletana as a traditional speciality with a written specification. It names two classic pizzas, the marinara, with tomato, garlic, oregano and olive oil, and the margherita, with tomato, mozzarella and basil, and it rules out a rolling pin or mechanical press. A Naples association, the True Neapolitan Pizza Association, keeps its own strict rules for members.
Learning by watching
The craft is passed on mainly in the bottega, where young apprentices watch the masters and pick up every key phase, and also in family kitchens. Every year the Association of Neapolitan Pizzaiuoli runs courses on the history, instruments and techniques of the art. UNESCO's decision also names an Academy of Young Pizzaiuoli, a project to collect the oral histories of master pizzaiuoli, and an International Exhibition of the Neapolitan Pizzaiuolo held every year since 2002.
The push for the world list came from the pizza makers themselves. According to UNESCO's decision, their association started the nomination in 2010, a petition gathered one million signatures from Neapolitans, and children's drawings showing consent were attached to the file.
One margherita, start to finish
It begins with flour, water, salt and yeast: for every litre of water, up to about 1.8 kilos of flour, around 50 grams of salt and only a few grams of fresh yeast. The salt is dissolved in the water first and the flour added gradually, and everything is kneaded into a single compact mass. It rests on the work table, covered so no crust forms. Then the pizzaiuolo cuts portions and shapes balls by hand, around 200 grams each, which rise again in boxes for several more hours.
To shape a pizza, the pizzaiuolo presses a ball from the centre outwards with the fingers of both hands, turning it over again and again. The middle ends up less than half a centimetre thick, with a raised rim of one to two centimetres, the cornicione. Crushed peeled tomatoes go on the centre, then sliced mozzarella, which can be buffalo mozzarella from Campania, a few fresh basil leaves, and olive oil poured in a spiral.
The oven's dome and floor are of refractory material, and the wood fire burns on one side, so the heat is uneven; the written rules put it at roughly 430 to 485 degrees Celsius. The pizza goes in through the oven's mouth onto the floor, and the pizzaiuolo lifts its edge with a metal peel and turns it toward the fire so it cooks evenly. Within 60 to 90 seconds it comes out soft and fragrant.
Why it is listed, and what was listed
UNESCO inscribed the art of the Neapolitan pizzaiuolo on its Representative List on 7 December 2017, at the committee's meeting on Jeju Island in the Republic of Korea. It saw a practice that fosters social gatherings and exchange between generations, valued the skills of working the dough and of performing and sharing, and noted a concern with sustainability, from natural ingredients to wood from forests qualified as sustainable habitats. It judged that working flour and water can stimulate children's creativity. It also noted that the nomination came from the community, with the free, prior and informed consent of the bearers.
When the news broke, many headlines said UNESCO had listed Neapolitan pizza. The record lists no dish and no recipe; it lists the people, their skills and how they hand them on. The committee even asked Italy to avoid words like authenticity and counterfeit, and any reference to exclusive ownership. Trying to preserve authenticity, it said, does not fit the spirit of the Convention, because communities constantly recreate their living heritage. The written rules about rims, flour and ovens come from the European Union and the True Neapolitan Pizza Association, not from UNESCO.
A Neapolitan pizza bakes for sixty to ninety seconds, in a wood-fired oven hotter than four hundred and thirty degrees Celsius. Before that, the pizza maker shapes the dough by hand. Under the written rules, even a rolling pin is not allowed.
This is Ours to Keep. I'm Mira, and today: the art of the Neapolitan pizzaiuolo. I'm an AI voice; the facts come from official records and checked sources.
The pizza makers of Naples
A pizzaiuolo is a pizza maker. This craft belongs to Naples, the capital of the Campania region, on the Bay of Naples in southern Italy. The volcano Vesuvius rises above the same bay. The city's ancient name, Neapolis, means new city. The old centre of Naples is a World Heritage site in its own right, listed in 1995, and UNESCO's page for the pizzaiuolo links the two.
About three thousand pizzaiuoli live and work in Naples today. UNESCO's record names three kinds of practitioner: the master pizzaiuolo, the pizzaiuolo and the baker. The record counts one more group among the bearers of the craft: Neapolitan families who make pizza in their own homes.
The work happens in the bottega, the pizza workshop. UNESCO describes it as a culinary practice in four phases, from preparing the dough to baking it in a wood-fired oven. It singles out one movement, a turning motion by the baker. The pizzaiuolo stands at the centre of the bottega and shares the art with the people watching. The record says the practice takes on something of a spectacle.
UNESCO's committee listed gestures and songs among the parts of the craft, along with facial expressions and the local slang of Naples. Some pizzaiuoli also toss the dough into the air as they work.
From the poor quarters
The craft grew up in the poor neighbourhoods of Naples. In the seventeen hundreds, Naples already had shops known as pizzerias. Late in that century, the city's poorest people were known as the lazzaroni. Pizza fed the working poor. By the eighteen hundreds, tomato had become one of the toppings, and pizza had become the popular food of the city's ordinary people.
For a long time it stayed a Naples dish. Across the Atlantic, New York's first pizzeria opened in the early nineteen hundreds, in the city's Italian community. Within Italy, pizza spread beyond Naples only after the Second World War, and from there around the world. As it travelled, Naples kept its own way of making it. Treccani, the Italian encyclopedia, defines that way in a single sentence. The dough is worked by hand, and it is baked in a wood-fired oven after rising twice. In 2010, the European Union registered Pizza Napoletana as a traditional speciality, with a written specification of how it is made.
Those rules name two classic pizzas. The marinara has tomato, garlic, oregano and olive oil. The margherita has tomato, mozzarella and basil. The dough must be shaped by hand, and a rolling pin or a mechanical press is not allowed. The oven must burn wood. These are the European Union's rules. A Naples association, the True Neapolitan Pizza Association, keeps its own strict rules for its members as well.
Learning by watching
The craft is passed on mainly in the bottega. Young apprentices watch the masters at work, and that is how they pick up every key phase of the craft. The family kitchen is another school. UNESCO's record says the art can be learned in Neapolitan homes, where families reproduce it.
There are formal routes too. Every year, the Association of Neapolitan Pizzaiuoli runs courses on the history of the art, its instruments and its techniques. Specialised academies in Naples teach the technical know-how, and UNESCO's decision names an Academy of Young Pizzaiuoli. The same decision describes a project to collect the oral histories of master pizzaiuoli.
The craft also has its own public stage. According to UNESCO's decision, an International Exhibition of the Neapolitan Pizzaiuolo has been held every year since 2002. Italy had already recorded the craft at home before it went to UNESCO. In 2010 it entered a national inventory of artisans and traditional techniques, and in 2012 a national register of traditional knowledge.
The push for the world list came from the pizza makers themselves. According to UNESCO's decision, their association started the nomination in 2010. A petition in support gathered one million signatures from Neapolitans. Children sent in their own drawings to show their consent, and those drawings went into the file. The association itself counts more than two million signatures, but this episode follows UNESCO's record.
One margherita
Here is one margherita, start to finish. It begins with flour, water, salt and yeast. The proportions are written down. For every litre of water, there are up to about one point eight kilos of flour, around fifty grams of salt, and only a few grams of fresh yeast. The salt is dissolved in the water first, and the flour goes in gradually. Everything is kneaded until it comes together as a single compact mass. The dough then rests on the work table, covered, so that no crust forms on its surface.
Next, the pizzaiuolo cuts the dough into portions and shapes each one into a ball by hand. Each ball weighs around two hundred grams. The balls go into boxes and rest again, for several more hours, while they rise. Counting the first rest, the dough has now risen twice.
Then comes the shaping. The pizzaiuolo presses a ball from the centre outwards, with the fingers of both hands, turning it over and around again and again. The middle ends up less than half a centimetre thick. Around the edge, the pressing leaves a raised rim, one to two centimetres thick. This rim is the cornicione. The finished round may be no more than thirty-five centimetres across.
The toppings follow. Peeled tomatoes, crushed, go on the centre of the disc. Slices of mozzarella are spread over them. It can be buffalo mozzarella from Campania. Then come a few fresh basil leaves. Last comes the olive oil, poured in a spiral.
Now the oven. It has a dome and a floor, both of heat-resistant refractory material, and the wood fire burns on one side of that floor. So the heat is uneven. The written rules put its heat at roughly four hundred and thirty to four hundred and eighty-five degrees. The pizza goes in through the mouth of the oven and lands on the hot floor. While the pizza bakes, the pizzaiuolo lifts its edge with a metal peel and turns it toward the fire, so that it cooks evenly all the way round. The rim swells quickly in the heat. Within sixty to ninety seconds, it is done. It comes out soft, with a raised rim, and fragrant.
Why it's on the list
So why is it on the list? UNESCO inscribed the art of the Neapolitan pizzaiuolo on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity on the seventh of December 2017. The committee met that year on Jeju Island, in the Republic of Korea.
It saw a practice that brings people together and links the generations, handed on mainly in the bottega, from master to apprentice. Working the dough is a skill in itself, and so are performing it and sharing it. The committee also noted a concern with sustainability, from natural ingredients to wood taken from forests managed as sustainable habitats. It judged that food traditions are strong markers of identity that a wide audience can reach easily. And it saw how working simple ingredients like flour and water can spark children's creativity. The plans to keep it going include the courses and the Academy of Young Pizzaiuoli, along with research and documentation. Local and national government bodies set aside money to support them. Finally, the committee noted that the nomination came from the community, with the consent of the people who practise the craft.
The surprise
When the news broke in 2017, many headlines said that UNESCO had listed Neapolitan pizza. The record lists no dish and no recipe. It lists the people and their skills, and how they hand them on. Even the name on the list is the art of the pizzaiuolo, not the pizza. The committee also asked Italy to avoid words like authenticity and counterfeit, and any claim that the tradition belongs to one group alone. Trying to preserve authenticity, it said, does not fit the spirit of the Convention, because communities keep recreating their living heritage. The written rules about rims, flour and ovens come from other bodies, not from UNESCO.
Tomorrow, we follow the Bay of Naples to the foot of Vesuvius, and the Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum, buried when the volcano erupted in the year 79.
