Franco Pepe: Pizza at Pepe in Grani, Caiazzo

One of Italy's preeminent pizzaioli, Franco Pepe is a modern artisan with an age-old passion for pizza. He shows this lifelong pursuit at his restaurant Pepe in Grani in Caiazzo, a town about an hour northeast of Napoli.

A family of master bakers

Franco's understanding, knowledge and craftsmanship stem from his family of master bakers. Thousands of times over, he observed and learned from his grandfather and father, together with his brothers Antonio and Massimiliano.

Nothing was ever written down, and no recipes or formulas were taught. Learning from this traditional method, Franco has no fixed rules at Pepe in Grani.

Dough that tells you when it is ready

Franco lets his dough develop day by day. He mixes the flour by hand, allows time for proper rising and balances the quantity of sourdough to beer yeast case by case. For him, sensibility rules the process, as the dough itself tells the pizzaiolo when it is ready.

"You cannot impose a single mechanical technique: you have to 'hear' what the dough will suggest, as it is ultimately alive," he says.

Franco's constant attention to his craft lets him translate the knowledge he inherited from his family, his studies and the land into his pizza.