Wisconsin Foodie

– Luke: This week on Wisconsin Foodie.

– Gino Fazzari: Yeah, so Milwaukee-style pizza is kind of unique because, believe it or not, it's a combination of two different style of pizzas.

It's a Sicilian style and a Neapolitan style.

So thin, crispy, cut in squares.

Everybody I talked to said, "You're nuts.

"You're gonna put a pizzeria next to an Italian restaurant that has pizza."

And I said, "Yeah."

And they said, "What's the difference?"

I said, "It's Neapolitan pizza."

And nobody understood it.

– Robin Brown: Look, having a wood fire oven and making a pizza in a wood-fired oven does not mean making Neapolitan pizza.

For me, Neapolitan pizza is made with our hands.

So back in the day, the old pizzaiolos would say, "There's the pizza has spirit, has soul inside."

In fact, when you take it outside the oven, you see this, the last breath of steam coming outside the pizzas.

– Gino: All right, Luke, here we go.

– Luke: Oh, do we go Milwaukee first or we go Italy first?

- Tell you what, I think we gotta go Italy first.

- We gotta go Italy first.

- So, yeah, so let's try.

- All right, here we go.

Italy first.

This is amazing.

- Cheers.

That's a good pie.

- That's an understatement.

- That's a good pie.

Real simple; couple of ingredients.

– Luke: Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank the following underwriters.

- The dairy farmers of Wisconsin are proud to underwrite Wisconsin Foodie and remind you that in Wisconsin, we dream in cheese.

[people cheering] Just look for our badge.

It's on everything we make.

- I'm going out to pasture with the cows this morning.

– Announcer: At Organic Valley, we're on a mission to save small family farms.

– Farmer: Tasting pretty good?

– Announcer: And you can join us.

– Farmer: [laughing] Girlfriend's on a mission.

- Organic Valley.

- 20-minute commutes.

Weekends on the lake.

Warm welcomes and exciting career opportunities.

Not to mention all the great food.

There's a lot to look forward to in Wisconsin.

Learn more at inwisconsin.com.

- Employee-owned New Glarus Brewing Company has been brewing and bottling beer for their friends, only in Wisconsin, since 1993.

Just a short drive from Madison, come visit Swiss-consin and see where your beer's made.

- Wisconsin's great outdoors has something for everyone.

Come for the adventure, stay for the memories.

Go wild in Wisconsin.

To build your adventure, visit dnr.wi.gov.

- With additional support coming from The Conscious Carnivore.

From local animal sourcing to on-site, high-quality butchering and packaging, The Conscious Carnivore can ensure organically raised, grass-fed, and healthy meats through its small group of local farmers.

The Conscious Carnivore: Know your farmer, love your butcher.

- Additional support from the following underwriters.

[relaxing music] Also with the support of Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

[upbeat music] We are a collection of the finest farmers, food producers, and chefs on the planet.

We are a merging of cultures and ideas, shaped by this land.

[sizzling] We are a gathering of the waters, and together, we shape a new identity to carry us into the future.

[glasses clinking] We are storytellers.

We are Wisconsin Foodie.

[peaceful music] Americans are no strangers to pizza.

In fact, pizza is the most widely sold item on American menus.

Today, we're on our way to the Calderone Club and San Giorgio, downtown Milwaukee, to meet with Gino, the owner and chef.

And we're gonna hear a little bit on his take of the family and storied tradition of pizza in Milwaukee, but also reinvigorating the classic style of Neapolitan pizza.

- I am Gino Fazzari, and we are at the Calderone Club restaurant in downtown Milwaukee.

I have currently two restaurants, the Calderone Club and San Giorgio Pizzeria Napoletana.

Calderone Club actually has a pretty interesting history.

My father and mother came here in the early '60s from Italy with my oldest brother and oldest sister, and the Caradaro Club, which is actually the first pizza in Milwaukee and, we believe, the state of Wisconsin in 1945 opened up.

So my dad signed a land contract in 1969 for the Caradaro Club, and he bought the building, bought the business, and bought the very famous pizza recipe that we have today.

So my dad had that restaurant from 1969 to 1973.

So four years.

Then we went back to Italy as a family, sold the restaurant to my uncles, came back to the United States again, and my dad's like, "Well, gotta open up a restaurant."

Can't use the Caradaro brand 'cause we sold that.

So we started Calderone Club shortly after that.

We're going on our 40th year that we've been at this location downtown, right off of Kilbourn here.

You'll never find a kitchen this small.

And in the summertime, when we have our outside tables, we go to 140 covers.

You would never think that a kitchen this small with six burners can handle 140 covers, and we'll turn 'em three times some days.

It's a lot of food coming out of a little kitchen.

All right, salt.

The Calderone pizza is actually the original recipe that started in 1945 at the Caradaro Club.

So that recipe was transferred by the original owner to my dad, and my dad transferred it to his sons.

Yeah, so Milwaukee-style pizza is kind of unique because, believe it or not, it's a combination of two different style of pizzas.

It's a Sicilian style and a Neapolitan style.

So thin, crispy, cut in squares.

It's a laminate dough, which means it has to be sheeted through a dough sheeter.

Can't do it by hand, and it's cold fermented.

Those things, those characteristics explain what a Milwaukee-style thin crust pizza is.

[metal scraping] [crust crunching] You hear that crunch when we cut the pizza?

How crunchy that is?

That's a nice crunch.

There's an order of the ingredients, and each pizzeria will use the ingredients, you know, put 'em on to how are they, you know, whatever style of pizza it is.

There's some that'll put, you know, the cheese on last or the tomato sauce on last.

This is how my father was taught when he bought the Caradaro Club, and we've kept that tradition alive now.

And so it's the sauce first, then the cheese, then the sausage, then the pepperoni.

We wanna stay in that order.

And my mom and dad have a 10-acre farm in Mequon not too far from here.

And all kinds of vegetables you can possibly imagine were grown on that 10-acre farm.

And then we would distribute 'em to the restaurants.

So the importance of that quality ingredient is, and the connection to Wisconsin, I think is key.

My mom now co-ops with some other farmers and we still grow, although it's not as abundant as it was when my dad was alive.

But we still grow, you know, staples for the restaurant during the summer, and we use them.

You know, my mom and dad handed us a really good blueprint.

Care about what you're doing, make the best food you can, treat your customers like family, and you always do well.

Here, we got the penne salsiccia.

So Italian sausage.

It's challenging every day, but I thank God every day that I get to do something that I love.

I get to make food.

Every day, I get to come in the kitchen.

I get to either make pizza or pasta or whatever.

This is a tomato basil house sauce.

And when stuff gets kind of crazy, when the world gets really nuts, my phone won't stop ringing, and I shut everything off, I go in the kitchen, turn a couple of burners on, and I just cook.

And it's relaxing.

It's therapeutic, it's grounding.

If you enjoy cooking and you love cooking, that'll never change, and I consider myself one of the luckiest guys in the world.

Okay.

So my middle name is Gino.

My first name is actually Giorgio.

And so St. George is my patron saint.

Everybody I talked to said, "You're nuts.

"You're gonna put a pizzeria next to an Italian restaurant that has pizza."

And I said, "Yeah."

And they said, "What's the difference?"

I said, "It's Neapolitan Pizza."

And nobody understood it.

It's the only certified VPN Neapolitan Pizzeria in Milwaukee, and it's one of four in Wisconsin, and it's, I think, one of 95 in all of North and South America.

We have a lot of pizza in Milwaukee.

You know, you can get any style of pizza you'd like in Milwaukee.

You don't have to go to Detroit; you don't have to go to Chicago.

You don't have to go to New York; you got it all.

You got somebody doing that style of pizza right here.

San Giorgio's completely different.

And the reason, the main reason for that is Chef Robin Brown, who's over there.

And Robin, I've given him the green light to do, you know, that experimentation over there.

You know, he has that energy.

He has that drive.

He has that vision and that passion.

And so I turned him loose, and he's doing things over there that you will not find anywhere, anywhere in Wisconsin and definitely, I would say even the United States.

Part of the charm of San Giorgio is you go in there and there's a standard, you know, there's our standard 10 or 12 pizzas, and there's a couple of pastas.

But Robin is doing a great job always by, you know, there'll be three pizza specials or two or three pasta specials or an appetizer specials.

And they're all authentic Neapolitan traditional items that you'll find in Naples.

- So I'm Robin Brown, executive chef at San Giorgio Pizzeria Napoletana, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

I'm not from Milwaukee.

I'm from Napoli, Italia, Naples, Italy.

Oh, this is smoked mozzarella, fresh smoked mozzarella from Grande Cheese.

So a local producer of cheese, Wisconsin producer.

We call this provola affumicata.

It's our mozzarella.

So that goes on most of our special pizzas, which are gonna be the Americana.

That's our star shape with Neapolitan ragu and ezzo pepperoni and handpicked Italian sausage.

Look, having a wood-fired oven and making a pizza in a wood-fired oven does not mean making Neapolitan pizza.

For me, Neapolitan pizza is made with our hands.

Making Neapolitan pizza, it's more around the process than the final product itself.

So it's the way you proof the dough, the way you manage your oven, the way the toppings are put on the pizza.

So it's all about the process.

You start by taking the dough ball out of the container called tabula, table.

Table of dough.

Then you stretch it our traditional way by pushing the air on the outsides, creating the cornicione, which is the crown.

After that, we stretch it out with our traditional slap method.

Then we top it, being very conscious about the balance of the ingredients, and then we slide it on the peels.

Then it goes in the oven.

Minimum temperature, 850.

Maximum temperature around 900 degrees.

60, 90 seconds.

Really depending on where you're placing your pizza in the oven.

Comes out, needs to be served right away.

So back in the day, the old pizzaiolos would say, "There's the pizza has spirit, has soul inside."

In fact, when you take it outside the oven, you see this, the last breath of steam coming outside the pizzas.

From that point to the customers should take you one minute.

I love pizza in general, so I would lie to say this is the only pizza.

No; pizzas, everyone owns pizza.

You know, it's, that's nice.

There's a lot of democracy when it comes to that.

And it's good, and I love it all.

I love it all.

[cheerful piano music] - Gino: All right, Luke, here we go.

- Oh.

- All right, so here, Luke, we have the large Calderone works, which is Milwaukee, thin crust, square cut, sausage, pepperoni, mushroom, black olive, onion, and green pepper.

- Okay.

- Here we have the San Giorgio Vera Pizza Napoletana, the Margherita pizza, the standard that started it all.

So you have Grande Fior di Latte mozzarella, San Marzano tomato, extra virgin olive oil, a little fresh parmesan.

This is the classic Neapolitan pizza to try any pizzeria.

That's the one where there's nowhere to hide.

- This is the pizza that all other pizzas will be judged against, basically.

Like, this is the essence-- - Correct.

- Of Neapolitan pizza.

- Yeah.

- Oh, that's gorgeous.

I love this.

Do we go Milwaukee first or we go Italy first?

– Gino: Tell you what, I think we gotta go Italy first.

– Luke: We gotta go Italy first.

- So let's try.

- All right, here we go.

Italy first.

- So here's the nice cornicione; you see the leoparding.

- That's gorgeous.

- Fold it for you so you can see the spine.

- Fold.

Oh, thank you, brother.

- You got it, man.

- This is amazing.

- Cheers.

That's a good pie.

- That's an understatement.

- That's a good pie.

Real simple; couple of ingredients.

But you see how each ingredient stands on its own.

They harmonize well, but you can taste the brightness, the acidity in the tomato, the sweetness of the basil, the wonderful mouthfeel of this great Grande, you know, Wisconsin cheese, and that little bit of almost nuttiness at the end.

– Luke: It's almost perfect balance, right?

You do have that acidity.

And you have the richness of that cheese, you have that, a little bit of that sharp sprightliness of the basil, but then the nuttiness of the crust and the sponginess, and it's texturally really, really pleasing and fun.

– Gino: It's pure art, man.

They knew what they were doing when they made this pizza.

- I gotta say, speaking of pure art, while you're talking about all that stuff, I'm getting like, little gentle wafts of mushroom and green pepper.

Tell me about the Milwaukee, the Calderone, like... - Yeah, so.

[Luke laughing] So this is the exact opposite of what we got here.

- Yeah.

There's a lot of stuff here, right?

You got the olives.

You got the green pepper, the onion, the fresh mushrooms, you know, you got two meats, you got sausage, you got pepperoni.

And then we're using the Grande.

Now this is not, this is the Grande mozzarella cheese from Wisconsin, but it's not the Fior di Latte, which means the flower of the milk.

That's a soft mozzarella, not aged.

And that's what we use on the San Giorgio pizza.

Here, we use, it's about a seven-day aged mozzarella.

So it still has a lot of creaminess, but it's got a little bit more sharpness, a little bit, I don't wanna say bite, but it's that sharp cheese.

- Yeah.

- You know what I mean?

- Yeah.

A little bit of age.

- Little bit of age.

Yeah, age, ay.

- Ay.

- Let me give you a slice of this.

- Okay, okay.

I mean like, so is this, when your diners come in, do they normally do this one with a knife and a fork?

Or is this... - You know, I've seen people eat this with a knife and a fork, which is fine.

The slices are small enough where you can eat it, you know.

I mean, so here we'll talk about, this is, here, you can't do this with a Neapolitan, right.

- Yeah, right.

- You know what I mean?

That ain't gonna happen.

That thing is gonna flop on you.

- Oh, man.

- And it's been sitting here now for a couple minutes.

I don't know, five minutes.

So, but it's still nice and crispy.

This is the outside edge, which is gonna be the crispiness, crispiest piece in the pizza.

So again, you gotta, this is a gas fired deck oven.

You can see the leoparding there, but... - That's remarkably different.

Delicious; don't get me wrong.

You get that green pepper, onion, black olive, all that beautiful flavor and richness kinda rounds out.

But man, oh, man.

That crust is something unique and special.

- This has got a lot of things happening, but it balances well.

- Yeah.

- You know, I can taste, you got the crisp texture of the green peppers, right?

They're not overcooked; they're fresh.

And the olives, but then you get the softness of the cheese and of the sausage.

Even, you know, the mushrooms have a little bit of softness to 'em.

So you get that texture.

You got the complement of the flavor.

- What does it mean to you to put this on a plate when you see people line up outside to come in and try, you know, the pizza from San Giorgio or come into Calderone because it's just etched in their memory as a traditional, fantastic place to eat.

What does that do for you?

- Well, it does a lot for me.

Often it's the fuel that keeps me going.

It's passing along what my parents passed to me.

The culture, the heritage, the tradition, the food.

People come here, you know, with their families to gather around a table, and they eat, and I get to see the smiles, and that's something that, you know, we take very serious.

That's something that we try and instill in the staff.

And I think that's something that has to stand the test of time.

– Luke: Totally.

I think it's something that as I've aged in the industry, honoring moments and teaching those of us around us that support these ideas and the traditions to honor the moments of the people that show up there.

And it could be, you know, it could be the 95th birthday.

It could be the 5th birthday.

It could be anything in between, but there's a reason to celebrate every day.

And when you're downtown Milwaukee, this is a reason to celebrate, the OG Milwaukee, Wisconsin pizza and the new G, the beautiful, traditional, fantastic pie here at San Giorgio.

- The irony here is this is the first pizza in Milwaukee, 'cause it dates back to 1945.

But the Neapolitan pizza is actually an older pizza 'cause it dates back, you know, almost, you know, 500 years.

- Yeah.

- So this is actually the older pizza, but it's the newer one to Milwaukee.

But yeah, but who doesn't love pizza?

You know?

- I don't know.

- Who does not love pizza?

You gotta show me who these people are.

You need to bring them to me, Luke, and I need to say, "Sit down, and we have a pizza I think that you'll like."

Whether it's the traditional Milwaukee-style Calderone, square, thin crust pizza, or the Neapolitan, soft, chewy pizza.

I know that there's gonna be a pizza that they'll like.

- I know that there is, and even if they don't like the pie, I'm pretty sure they're gonna like you.

- I hope so.

- Gino, thank you so much for your time.

Thanks for bringing us into your space, sharing your stories, your traditions, and you know, creating a moment for us to honor, too.

- I really appreciate it.

- I enjoyed it; thanks, brother.

- Hey, brother.

- Thank you.

- Appreciate it, chef.

- Thank you.

- That was a great experience, and to be fair, I'm stuffed.

But I think today in working with Robin and Gino, some of the pieces that I really, really were impacted by was the way that Robin cultivated that fire and the way that Gino talked about all those ingredients and the way to make pizza that was absolutely delicious.

So I think it's time for me to take all this information back with me to the Owl Farm, where I have my own wood-fired pizza setup, and put all this theory into practice.

[laid-back, funky music] One of the things I found super inspiring about my time with Gino and Robin was Gino's dedication to putting the best ingredients available on his pizzas.

I thought long and hard about what would make the quintessential Wisconsin Foodie pizza.

And I came up with the following list of ingredients: Nueske's bacon, Uplands Pleasant Ridge Reserve, BelGioioso's bocconcini, aka little mozzarella, herb aioli, a duck egg from my favorite duck and perhaps the happiest duck on the planet, Napkins.

And finally, some arugula from my garden.

Let's give this quintessential Wisconsin Foodie pizza a shot.

So this dough is a dough that we make at the Driftless Caf every day.

And one of the things that I'm noticing about it cooking outside right now is that it's a little cool to the touch.

And if you remember, Robin's dough never cooled, and Gino's dough was cold fermented.

So this is somewhere right in between.

We're gonna use our fingertips, so we get that nice cornicione or the crown on the outside, and I want to stretch this dough so it's evenly dispersed.

That way, we don't have any thick spots in the pie.

We want it to be nice and thin so that way we get that chewy, kind of crispy outside with that really nice, stretchy texture on the inside.

I'm gonna stretch this dough and be able to pull it piece by piece to really stretch those gluten chains.

Next.

Obviously, I've got a flair for the theatrics, so I like to give my pies a toss.

All right, let's get this pie ready for the oven.

We're gonna start with our herb aioli base.

Now, aioli very simply is a mayonnaise base.

In this case, we take eggs, oil, salt, vinegar, sugar, and the herbs of thyme, rosemary, and a little bit of leek.

Just to give this a nice herbal accent.

I'm gonna spread it thin on the pie.

And for those of you who are at home saying, "Ew, mayonnaise on a pizza."

Don't knock it 'til you try it.

I promise you won't be disappointed.

Next, we're gonna add just a little bit of the bocconcini.

Bocconcini is very mild and rich.

One of the amazing parts about BelGioioso is that they source all of their milk within a 30-mile radius of each one of their plants, making sure that that milk is fresh and local and delicious.

Next, this cheese needs almost no introduction.

This is the most awarded cheese in American history, made by our friends, Scott, Liana, Caitlin, and Andy Hatch at Uplands.

It wouldn't be Wisconsin without this delicious cheese.

Now for what is arguably the star of this show, the Nueske's bacon.

Nueske's is nationally renowned as being one of the best bacons in America.

It's cherrywood smoked, and it's cured, which means that I can cut it in relatively large chunks and as long as I get it nice and hot, this thing eats like a meal.

Big chunks of bacon really set the stage for the next ingredient.

And that's an egg from our favorite duck, Napkins.

Mm-hmm.

We're gonna add just a little bit of black pepper and salt, and now we're gonna bring this to the oven and let it cook.

[cheerful piano music] Oh, yeah, that's gorgeous.

This is our pie.

We have that cheetah spotting on this crust, which is exactly what you want from that stone deck.

And now we're gonna hit it with the last ingredient, which is the arugula from my garden.

I can smell the richness of that aioli and that Pleasant Ridge and bocconcini.

Perfect.

And there it is, the quintessential Wisconsin Foodie pie.

Inspired by Gino and Robin at the Calderone Club and San Giorgio, in Milwaukee.

That duck egg gets rich and custardy, kind of like the toast at Grandma's house.

With those perfect over-easy eggs.

It takes this pie with that aioli to a whole new level.

Like Gino said, as long as you're using high-quality ingredients that are fresh, that are forward, and that are full of love, you really can't go wrong.

I tend to think he's a genius.

[cheerful piano music] - Sorry, that was long, but... - Arthur: No, that's great.

- You got me talking about food, Arthur.

I can be here all day talking about food.

Look at me; does it look like I've missed many meals?

My man?

[cheerful folk music] - Caught it!

[Luke beatboxing] Eat the pizza It's a treat-za With the meat-za Eat your pizza Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank the following underwriters.

- The dairy farmers of Wisconsin are proud to underwrite Wisconsin Foodie and remind you that in Wisconsin, we dream in cheese.

[people cheering] Just look for our badge.

It's on everything we make.

- I'm going out to pasture with the cows this morning.

– Announcer: At Organic Valley, we're on a mission to save small family farms.

– Farmer: Tasting pretty good?

– Announcer: And you can join us.

– Farmer: [laughing] Girlfriend's on a mission.

- Organic Valley.

- 20-minute commutes.

Weekends on the lake.

Warm welcomes and exciting career opportunities.

Not to mention all the great food.

There's a lot to look forward to in Wisconsin.

Learn more at inwisconsin.com.

- Employee-owned New Glarus Brewing Company has been brewing and bottling beer for their friends, only in Wisconsin, since 1993.

Just a short drive from Madison, come visit Swiss-consin and see where your beer's made.

- Wisconsin's great outdoors has something for everyone.

Come for the adventure, stay for the memories.

Go wild in Wisconsin.

To build your adventure, visit dnr.wi.gov.

- With additional support coming from The Conscious Carnivore.

From local animal sourcing to on-site, high-quality butchering and packaging, The Conscious Carnivore can ensure organically raised, grass-fed, and healthy meats through its small group of local farmers.

The Conscious Carnivore: Know your farmer, love your butcher.

- Additional support from the following underwriters.

[relaxing music] Also with the support of Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel, where you'll find past episodes and special segments just for you.

[cheerful music]