If Salento does not go to the mountains, then the mountains must go to Salento. This is, more or less, what happened thanks to the presence of Denis Lovatel, born in Alano di Piave, Belluno, at FoodExp. He brought his “mountain” pizzas and his Dolomite philosophy to Lecce during a highly attended masterclass. After absorbing the rigorous gastronomic traditions of his homeland (and of his father, one of the first pizza makers in the area), Denis successfully blended them with contemporary influences, exporting them first to Milan (across four different locations) and later even to the Bahamas. His pizza is thin, crispy, and features a modest crust, much like the ones he always saw being baked back home. During the masterclass, he prepared a pizza capable of uniting two elements, both staples of "cucina povera" (peasant cooking) but from opposite ends of the world: onion and macambo, a fruit from the Ecuadorian Amazon. In Latin America, indigenous populations have used this fruit as a subsistence food for millennia; choosing it today allows those same communities to support themselves economically. The pizza was finished with chives, pecorino fondue, and orange gel.
