Peppe Miele, Webisode #1, True Napoletana Pizza

We’re back with a new series of webisodes featuring a fascinating conversation with Peppe Miele, the first restaurateur to open a certified Vera Pizza Napoletana pizzeria in the United States. We did this interview a couple of years ago, before he closed his beautiful cafe, Antica Pizzeria, in Marina del Rey, California, due to a massive rent increase (it wasn’t far from the LA Airport — listen carefully and you might hear the planes coming and going). I wondered whatever happened to Peppe, who was so gracious with us, sharing his knowledge of the history of pizza and the “rules” of the Associone’ Verace Napoletana, whose mission is to preserve the authentic method of the Naples style. The good news is that Peppe has since re-emerged as the culinary consultant for a hot new pizza restaurant in LA called MidiCi, which I can’t wait to try (if you’ve been there, please write a comment below and let us know what you think). Looks like this means an inevitable road trip for the Pizza Quest crew but, in the meantime, please enjoy this new segment, which officially re-launches our webisode series (and for newbies, feel free to peruse the Webisode archive to watch the dozens of videos we’ve already posted). We’ll keep sharing these new segments with you over the next weeks and months and, in the meantime, I’m going to track down Peppe and get some more updates from him, which I’ll share with you in upcoming Peter’s Blogs. So here it is, Part One of our interview with Peppe Miele, in which we explore the origins of Napoletana pizza and, in the process, manage to do some pretty serious tasting. Mangia!!