The flavors and fragrances of Puglia are found in the elegant, curated menu of this restaurant nestled among the beauty of candid Ostuni
A restaurant project born out of a passion for cooking and for their land.
Giuseppe De Giovanni, a pizzaiolo by training, has created a place where pizza, meat or fish become an expression of the specialties that a land as rich in aroma and taste as Apulia offers and, through a modern reinterpretation of tradition, conveys its values.
“We opened in 2019,” De Giovanni says, “and after six months we found ourselves in the whirlwind of closures due to the pandemic, but it was not a negative experience; on the contrary, it gave us the opportunity, through the takeaway and the different phases that followed, to calibrate and modulate our work meticulously. The years that followed were positive and provided us with the oxygen to recover: it was almost a testing ground, a preparation for business development, with which we are very satisfied today.”
Pizza is the starting point, then the restaurant slowly transforms into a meat and fish restaurant. Today, in fact, 80 percent of the business concerns the restaurant and 20 percent the pizzeria, which remains, however, an important element. A rich menu, which is renewed with each change of season, welcomes, above all, raw materials and products of the territory, through a careful search for the highest quality that is expressed in traditional dishes and modern culinary interpretations.
Explains Giuseppe De Giovanni, “We have a mixed clientele, locals and tourists, and therefore we have to accommodate everyone’s expectations. Tourists seek, of course, the typicality of traditional Apulian cuisine-the orecchiette, fave and chicory-but regular, local customers, who are accustomed to this cuisine, want to experience more contemporary gastronomic dishes. Therefore, alongside the tradition we offer modern alternatives, recipes that are carefully designed to captivate and tempt with sophistication.”
Local, genuine products form the basis of Operaprima’s culinary art, which is intuited right from the name of the restaurant; a name meant to suggest, almost poetically, how it is precisely from the art and skill of the pizza maker that expressions of noble value are born. The pizzas, more than thirty variations on the menu, are a true specialty: “I make long rising doughs,” Giuseppe explains, “of at least 48 hours but also longer. I generally prepare three types of dough: a classic one, with 00 flours from 5 Stagioni; one with cereals, because it is a variant that is in high demand nowadays; and finally a dough made with a rustic flour from a local mill that has a stronger flavor. For the 7-grain pizza, it is necessary to add a percentage of white flour to ensure the right amount of gluten and allow for the long rising time. I have personally studied the right balance of flours and am able to come up with a rather interesting shortlist of variants precisely because it has alternatives that embrace all customers’ tastes.”
The fillings are also designed to please the best, and the products, quality and especially local, are an indispensable element, chosen according to the season and according to the menu.
“The choice is vast,” De Giovanni explains, “because we have a really wide assortment of specialties. We lack the time to stop and think and study new menus, but I consider it a must. Operaprima is a place that does 200/300 covers every night, I have a staff of 18, and we really work hard. I like to practice very careful control over the raw materials and ingredients we use in the kitchen: visiting companies, testing products, understanding and tasting them before studying new recipes. This is time-consuming but it is a creativity-boosting exercise, I think it is important and I devote a lot of energy to it.”
A continuous search for quality, then, for the originality that comes from knowing every single element that goes to make up the proposal, of pizza or dish it doesn’t matter, because offering the best possible is almost a mission for Giuseppe De Giovanni, to be protected and maintained despite the difficulties encountered along the way.
Indeed, he reflects on current events: “We had to, like many of us, adjust our prices this year because raw material increases have greatly affected the overall budget. We have made choices, for example to include simpler dishes, to give the customer the opportunity to enjoy affordable alternatives. At our place, you can have a full meal at a high level, but you can also decide to dine on a poké or a salad or a simple pizza. The controversy that has been brewing this summer does not affect everyone in the tourism industry, and we want to demonstrate this precisely by welcoming and giving informed choices to all our customers, regardless of their spending power.
Careful planning is needed but quality does not change, it is always first.”
