Today we’d like to introduce you to Eddie Giardina.
Hi Eddie, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I am a long-time art & design professor and social practice artist. Making physical things, organizing socially-engaged things, and teaching others how to make things, has been the center of my life pretty much since childhood. Several years ago, I re-engaged with pizza. I joke that it took me getting an MFA degree and 25 years as a practicing artist to realize that my pizza is what everyone wants from me. Having worked for two years at a pizza place when I was in college gave me a solid starting point. Over the years, I gleefully made pizza for Denise, Lucca and Stella, my wife and daughters. My daughters loved to watch me spin the pizza in the air. In recent years, I became obsessed with figuring out how to make better dough, trying every recipe that I could get my hands on. I also realized pretty quickly that our oven in the kitchen wasn’t hot enough…which led me to buy my first small oven, which I immediately modified, then traded up to better and hotter ones.
At this point, I think I have owned seven different pizza ovens. Eventually, I settled on Neapolitan-style pizza and eventually enrolled in a professional course at VPN Americas. They are the US delegation representing Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana. A non-profit organization that was founded in June 1984 in Naples, Italy. Their mission is to promote and protect the true Neapolitan pizza (verace pizza napoletana). UNESCO recognized their specific pizza mission and tradition as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2017. I am currently a small scrappy catering insurgency following these traditions. I do small events in Los Angeles and Orange County. I am sharpening my pizzaiolo skills and want to get my official certification from AVPN and get a food truck on the road in the next year or so, and eventually a brick-and-mortar pizzeria. I love the idea of a creative practice that helps people gather and be nourished physically and emotionally.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
My friends have been watching me for a few years now, trying to figure out what I am doing. To be honest, I didn’t have a specific plan at first. I did learn a few things very quickly. For example, It is hard getting into the culinary world as a 50 years old. I lack the years of specific experience that others working in a kitchen might have at my age. It is also hard physical work. There is so much hidden labor. Secondly, I have so much to learn about food, its safety, its traditions, and its impact. Also starting a small business is also incredibly hard. Finally, the actual prepping and cooking on the go is hard. Every gig is in a new environment with unique challenges. Just like every batch of dough is unique. So many factors to consider. So many things that can go wrong when you are making dough. Also, cooking for other people….makes me fret about every single pizza. Does it look good? Does it taste good? Are people happy? But I also love every single aspect of the process. It is the last thing I think of as I go to sleep (exhausted) and the first thing I think of when waking up (sore). I usually jump out of bed on event days and run to check on what the dough has been doing while I was sleeping. The payoff? I am invited to prepare a meal for people celebrating milestones like birthdays and retirements, or the opening of an exhibition or the beginning of a new nonprofit…or in the Covid era, a way to celebrate being alive, on someone’s driveway, eating slices and drinking cold beers, 6 feet apart. Making the food is the challenge but it is also the reward.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a traveling pizzaiolo dedicated to the “true” Neapolitan tradition. We primarily cater parties. People love my pizza crust and I always say that is only because I finally learned how to follow recipes and how to properly weigh things. I am inspired by traditional Neapolitan pizza recipes and by my family and their southern Italian history and traditions. Growing up, my dad taught me how to cook, sew, and take care of others…the bedrock of my entire creative life, whether in the studio, in the classroom, or on someone’s driveway making pizza.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
Curiosity, empathy, passion and discipline…
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.eddiespizzanapoletana.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eddiespizzanap/
Image Credits
Elon Schoenholz & Angel Xotlanihua
