This section must necessarily begin with a statement: "it seems easy to make a pizza, but we guarantee 101% that it is not like that at all", how do we affirm this, the question is absolutely right and the right answer to give is, everything lies in personal experience and insights made over time.
Like everyone else, we started our journey out of passion as simple customers, maybe a little different because we have had the opportunity to travel a lot, both as tourists and for work in different countries of Europe, in the U.S. and Eastern Europe for the moment, but this fact is not very relevant because 70% of the world's biodiversity resides, fortunately, in Italy. So we are spoiled by the quality of the real flavors of the planet.
The most important thing is that we had the good fortune to do it with both a lot of money and a little, enough to travel by hitchhiking, when we were very young of course, this allows us a very wide vision of the subject.
Practically we have eaten in restaurants of all kinds, from those with one-two-three Michelin stars and in simple trattorias, but also in fast food and of course in pizzerias in different countries because I personally am a great fan of pizza since I was a child.
That's why I am perfectly aware that "pizza" is enjoyed by every child in the world.
Consequently I think that if something is recognized it is unquestionable that it is respected seriously by everyone, especially if it represents one of the first bases of the palate of every "contemporary sapiens".
Flour, water, salt, yeast, oil and tomato.
It is therefore in 1993 that the idea of making a Restaurant Guide was born thanks to the intuition of a Milanese chef, Simone Rizzi, son of one of the greatest Italian advertising men in history "Michele" my colleague and friend for some years, obviously influenced by the activity of his father, whose work represented the vanguard of Italian advertising creativity for many years.
He immediately understood the potentialities of "Internet", the most powerful means of communication invented by man till now, I did not even imagine he was a cook and that he had even attended the "Alto Palato" school of Toni Sarcina that, thanks to the suggestions of the "master of masters" Gualtiero Marchesi, represents the first pivot on which is based the contemporary awareness of the great value of the Italian eno-gastronomic heritage.
That evening in Milan, I was simply trying to explain myself as I had just returned after the 1 year spent between New York and Miami Beach that I had lived and to follow the first client of my newly born advertising agency Art Director's Factory Inc. and Advertising Factory Inc.
The first web agency on the planet.
At the time many people around the world were trying to figure out what to do in this new media and be successful, many even thought it would never become a real media because of the computer.
As always great revolutions create discordant opinions. The very serious problem for us became how to provide authoritative and credible information? We quickly realized that the most important thing on the web was to provide quality information.
Another excellent intuition came about, thanks to the travels made over the years, to make an agreement with the major international publishing guides: "the Michelin Guide, the Espresso Guide, the Gambero Rosso Guide, the Relais Châteaux Guide, the Slow Food Guide, the Accademia Italiana della Cucina Guide.
Said and done, the first agreement was made with the Michelin Guide, I called the international director from New York. I remember that when we put our portals on the Internet, it was September 24, 1994, (the date of the signing of the agreement) just think that the results in the search engines of that time to the question "restaurants" gave just 7-9 responses.
Practically nobody was there! We were the first in the world so we became the true pioneers of the web then, all the portals born after us have imitated us but, even if they did, they remain always and only telephone directories accompanied by photographs, as were the Yellow Pages in Italy at one time.
No one, fortunately, can emulate our marketing positioning because industry culture is not mineral water. Expertise is a very expensive source of information, publishers make significant investments every year by sending their inspectors to restaurants to evaluate them, to give you an idea the Michelin Guide invests 3 million euros a year, only in Italy.
There is a saying in Italy that goes: "between saying and doing there is the sea" which I have changed to "sometimes even the ocean", why do you ask, the answer is simple, you can be very good but without a little culture the strength is not enough "to become a real star" you also need a little brain or someone who uses it for you.
After six years spent with pizza makers, I can say it is thanks to them, all European or world champions, that I have become an expert on "pizza" juror in international competitions, held at the mercy of two associations of pizza makers, started and won, the war of wood-fired ovens, obtaining certifications from BBC webwise Television, the European Community and the Italian Official Gazette in 2014.
We are talking about pizza, so I would like to add that Simone, in his intuition, said something fundamental: "I would divide a Guide to restaurants by type of cuisine", a perfect consideration, at that time no Guide was organized in this way, we were the absolute pioneers in the restaurant sector, but we needed to reinforce this gastronomic specialty, that's why we registered the trademark "Pizza.it" during the creation of this initiative.
So here is how we will make an authoritative guide that establishes with real competence and a pinch of passion, Where to go to eat a good pizza, the other sections explain what we will do to properly communicate the existence of our guide.
In the pages of the Regions will be reported the pizzerias with the highest ratings of the guides of the sector, in the pages of the cities will be reported the opinions of the various guides mentioned above and our Guide Pizza.it :), each new visit will be accompanied by our report on major social networks, in which we will also report the opinions of many pizza lovers who will be pleased to write their opinions, the publication of content on our portals will obviously be carefully evaluated by our editorial staff.
It is better to make it very clear, right from the start, we will not give any discount to anyone, if the opinion deserves an 8 the vote will be 8 and if it deserves a 4 the vote will be 4.
Our collaborators do not appreciate smart people, superficial people and people in bad faith. Instead they love the smile and the atmosphere that can create, of course, a good pizza.
We are confident that we will do a good job, because we are seriously motivated.
