After starting out very young in restaurants in Rome, eventually opening his own pizzeria in 1999, Domenico Sancamillo, Roman pizzaiolo of ”Il Mondo della Pizza” in Bellegra, has continued to grow, never stopping.
Driven by a passion for the white art and a desire to get involved, always with the support of his wife, who is constantly by his side. After distinguishing himself last year by winning first place in the ”Pizza in pan” category at the World Pizza Championship in Parma-which marked an important moment in his journey but certainly not a point of arrival-he now continues to offer a pizza that tells the story of the territory, made with carefully chosen ingredients and a vision that looks to sustainability.
Domenico, what changed after last year’s victory? Did you feel the weight of new expectations from customers? Tell me about what was new and how it went this year at the championship instead.
After last year’s victory, many things have changed. The one that makes me most satisfied is the feedback from my clients -old and new- who, with their kind words, make me work more serenely. Walking into the Palaverdi in Parma and reading my name, for the second year in a row, is always a huge thrill. This year I competed in another category, namely Pizza in pala, although it had been years since I had made it. I submitted a dough with 90 percent upper 00 flour 10 percent spelt flour and a hydration of about 80 percent. The pizza I presented was ”My Land,” with cream of pumpkin from our own production, porcini mushrooms and wild asparagus tips picked by me; with the stems, we made the cream, black pork belly from Roberto Cetrone butcher shop, buffalo scamorza, red cow parmesan waffles and tomato flakes, made by bringing the tomato to a boil and using the skin.
What does ”sustainability” mean to you? Have you made particular choices in terms of ingredients, management, relationships?
For the past few years, we have made a choice to bring only and exclusively products from our local area to our restaurant: we get a lot of our produce from my countryside.
Raw materials such as zucchini, eggplant, squash blossoms, cherry tomatoes, yellow squash, potatoes, broccoli, turnip greens and many other varieties. Of course, we enhance the local area by choosing local companies for other products, such as cheeses and cured meats. It is a heartfelt choice that fills me with pride. My pizzas are all made from products from our farms, which are close to me, and, as I told you, most of the products come from my garden, which is tended by my father.
Is there a gesture, a value or a principle that you think today cannot be missing in a pizzeria that really wants to talk about the future?
My pizzeria, almost instinctively, does not and cannot lack a narrative that speaks through the pizza about tradition, seasonality, with a focus on ”sustainable” product selection and use. This means that I often ingenuity to fully reuse the raw material, often with salvaged recipes that take advantage of 100 percent of the topping products
Tell me, Domenico, what is your favorite pizza today and which one would you have me taste compared to last year?
This year my favorite pizza is ”The flavors and aromas of my territory.” A straightforward dough with 00 flour, a percentage of type 2, garnished with knife-edged black pork sausage, Bellegra porcini mushrooms, black pork lard from Roberto Cetrone’s butcher’s store, a buffalo scamorza, the kind and crystals of tomatoes from my garden, and a nice white truffle.
