Pizza - Gabriele Bonci

[bunniefuu]

[woman on TV, in Italian]
We'll visit Gabriele Bonci

because he's going to teach us
how to make homemade pizza.

He's the king of the pizza.
Let's go see him.

-[upbeat theme song plays]
-♪ Bonci, Bonci, bon-bon-bon ♪

♪ Bonci, Bonci, bon-bon-bon … ♪

[theme song continues]

[Gabriele] TV is wonderful.

The spotlights are on.

[menacing music playing]

[Gabriele] And your life changes.

Gabriele Bonci!

[Gabriele] The applause.

[woman] And his marvellous pizza,
that now everyone will try…

[Gabriele] It gives you confidence.

[TV audience applauds]

And slowly, as the years pass,

you create this character.

Gabriele Bonci,
aka the Michelangelo of pizza…

[Gabriele] But then at some point,

it's very difficult
to keep it all straight.

Gabriele Bonci! [voice distorts]

[Gabriele] Either you're an actor,

or you're a baker.

Either you take care of the character,

or…

you go crazy.

[menacing music intensifies]

[Gabriele] You descend into
absolute madness.

And…

And it only feels good
when you're onstage,

but horrible when you're offstage.

[Vivaldi's "Winter" concerto playing]

[woman, in English] When a lot of people
hear the word "slice,"

they're thinking of
a triangular piece of pizza

that's cut from a big, round New York pie.

But in Rome, we have pizza in teglia.

[soft piano music playing]

[Katie] And pizza in teglia
is ubiquitous fast food.

Something that almost everyone can afford.

[indistinct chatter]

[Katie] At Pizzarium, Gabriele Bonci
operates on a different plane.

[in Italian] Gabriele has led
three great revolutions.

Before Gabriele,
Roman pizza was considered junk food.

He gave a real dignity to Roman pizza.

The second revolution
was using natural ingredients.

This was unheard of at the time.

And finally,

he went beyond the idea
of pizza as basic, simple food.

He'd put anything on a pizza.

So you'd have fancy pizza, gourmet pizza,

and it's safe to say that he invented it.

[Katie, in English] From the first day
I met Gabriele,

"revolution" has been
the constant word in his vocabulary.

He's making people think about
where their food comes from,

think about nature,

think about farmers.

And in this urgent need
to create a revolution,

he starts appearing on television.

Oh! The carbonara!

And he just becomes
this incredible celebrity.

[in English] Three ingredients.
One, two, three. One, two, three.

-One? No more?
-You're a [bleep]. Did you know?

[Katie] Everywhere Gabriele goes,
people recognize him.

He has to embody
this larger-than-life character,

twenty-four seven.

And it becomes, ultimately, unsustainable.

[music fades out]

[animals braying]

[Gabriele, in Italian] Here they are.
Look. Holy hell, look at that herd.

[whistles]

[Gabriele] What breed are these?

[man] They are Comisana breed.

At first, we had Sopravissana,
which is a wool breed,

but Comisana has a milk-fat ratio

that is ideal for our business.

[Gabriele] Sure.

[sheep braying]

[Gabriele] I am not a pizza chef.

I farm.

[gentle string music playing]

[Gabriele] In every bite of my pizza,

there are hectares of cultivated land.

There is a call

to become ethical
and thoughtful people when we consume.

When we consume,
we can change many things.

Something wonderful can happen.

An enormous revolution.

I created an agricultural network,

which revolves only
around small producers.

Farmers keep rearing animals.

My tomato suppliers keep growing tomatoes.

Beekeepers keep looking after their bees.

I don't really care about pizza itself.

The pizza is just a means.

A means to reach an idea.

Eating is an agricultural act. Period.

[braying]

[music fades out]

[Gabriele] In Rome,
pizza is eaten in two ways.

It's either the round one,
flattened by a rolling pin,

or the queen.

The best pizza in the world,

pizza in teglia.

[pensive string music playing]

[Gabriele] Pizza in teglia
is all about creating.

You touch the dough.

Every time you touch it,

every gesture brings an idea.

That's when you start to imagine

how the pizza will come out.

When I make a pizza,

I make it instinctively.

When I get some delicious vegetables,

or marvelous cheese,

or when I get some meat
from animals that have lived well,

I enter a world of my own.

I feel a duty

to communicate what
our planet Earth has given us.

[indistinct chatter]

[Gabriele] Our pizzas,
the most visionary ones,

are all finished off
by the counter assistants.

They finish it off with a drop of oil.

They finish it off with some herbs.

They finish it with a sauce.

The gesture draws
the attention to the ingredients.

But people still only do one thing.

They take a bite.

That is the moment when you perceive
the power of your pizza.

It's maybe that crunch,

that texture, that people
will remember for the rest of their lives.

With pizza, you always win. End of story.

[music fades out]

You know what we're gonna make?
Potatoes and pork belly pizza.

Of course. You can't come to Fiumicino
and not eat potatoes and pork belly.

Seriously. This pizza is an icon.

It's part of pizza in teglia history,
you know.

[Gabriele] In my house,
food was always a big tradition.

I was a very big child. [chuckles]
Big and round. Beautifully round.

I was totally obsessed with food.

[soft piano music playing]

[Gabriele] Every day,
on the way home from school,

I had to stop and eat
a supplì and a slice of tomato pizza.

I still remember
the best pizza of my childhood.

Sancho.

Their pizza was something immoral.
Terribly delicious.

For me, it was a vice.

When I was , I started to cook.

From the afternoon
until the night, I cooked.

And for me, it was amazing
to satisfy my curiosity and grow up.

And from that moment, I understood
that my main ambition was cooking.

To be in the food.

I never wanted anything else.

Never.

[indistinct chatter]

[music fades out]

[bell tolling]

[Katie, in English] Pizza in Rome
is never a single-dish situation.

Generally, if you go to
a pizza-by-the-slice joint,

you're gonna start with fried things.

Supplì are essentially
tomato-meat sauce risotto

packed around a mozzarella heart,

and then that's breaded and fried.
That's what everyone expects.

At Pizzarium, Gabriele really elevates it.

Substituting pasta for rice,
and that makes it really special.

[light mandolin music playing]

[Gabriele, in Italian]
I remember one Sunday,

my mom made lasagna at home,

and she brought me some.

I took a piece of lasagna.

I breaded it and fried it.

At the first bite, I saw the future.

[sizzling]

[Gabriele] So I started creating
new fried food,

like fried carbonara.

Because the cream of carbonara
is the climax of Roman cuisine.

The egg has to be creamy but warm.

It has to taste like carbonara but fried.

That's what you'd never do with pasta.

You double the amount of sauce,

and you let it cool down.

The egg.

The pecorino cheese.

The guanciale.

And the fryer.

[imitates sizzling oil]

That was the dawn of a new era.

[in English] When you break open
the carbonara supplì,

this luscious sauce oozes and drips.

Little bits of guanciale
are studded throughout.

It is really special.

[Gabriele, in Italian] I didn't know this
fried food could change our traditions.

It was just something I made
and wanted to share with my customers.

At some point,
everyone started making fried pasta.

And that was amazing.

Fried pasta, I invented it.

[music fades out]

[woman ] Ah, see?

[overlapping chatter]

[woman ] Good morning. How are you?

-[woman ] Good morning. Good morning.
-[Gabriele] Good morning.

[Gabriele] My first job
was in this pizza restaurant.

I worked with bread and tomatoes.

I washed the vegetables and the dishes.

So since I was ,

I've always eaten
standing up in front of a pan.

[pensive string music playing]

[Gabriele] I went to catering school.

I did some internships.

At some point,
I started working at Simposio,

a gourmet restaurant in Rome.

I was fascinated
and looking at everything.

I started to work with great chefs,
side by side.

It was during those internships
that I learned well. I met some chefs.

I learned how to combine
the best ingredients.

We started making things
I had never done before.

When we served our dishes,

people would say, "Wow!
How is it so delicious?"

After a few years,

I became the chef at Simposio.

I won several important prizes.

People started to notice me.

They started to understand my idea.

That was my cuisine.

[music fades out]

God. This one is amazing!

Really? This too.

My gosh.

LIBERATI BUTCHER

-Hey, Robi.
-Come and see.

Very beautiful.

[Robi murmurs]

Incredible.

-What kind of beast is this, Robi?
-This is the brown cattle.

Bred in the winter at , meters,

and in the summer at , meters.

-From , meters to , ?
-Yep.

-Meaning it only grazed.
-Correct.

-Only grazing.
-Only grazing.

[Gabriele] I worked as a chef
for a few years,

until I was years old.

[speaking Italian]

[Gabriele] At that point,

I started working
with Roberto Liberati, the butcher.

Incredible.

[pensive string music playing]

[Gabriele] At that point,
cooking was surreal.

Chicken was nothing but a drumstick.

Guinea fowl was nothing but a breast.

Liver was nothing but foie gras.

Roberto Liberati taught me

thoroughly the importance
of life and death of an animal.

If I want to make a chicken-heart skewer,

I don't need a supplier.

I need to have a chicken.

I learned it's the responsibility of those
working in food to send this message.

Food must be bought on the field.

From the farmer.

So you can be just a cog
in the wheel of agriculture.

[Gabriele exclaims]

I could no longer understand
why I was in a kitchen.

I wanted to educate people
to consume ethically.

Working in gourmet restaurants,
I couldn't do that.

At some point, I just quit.

[music fades out]

[Gabriele] In Rome, pizza is everywhere.

Pizza is the most eaten food in the world.

So I decided
that pizza was going to be my w*apon.

I can put a revolution on it.

Pow!

[bright string music playing]

[Gabriele] When I started making pizza,

the whole process was very industrial.

I started to work with
stone-ground wholemeal flours

using natural ingredients.

It's a bit like remaking
Coca-Cola in an artisanal way.

[door whirring]

[Gabriele] When I opened Pizzarium,

I started using toppings
that nobody had ever used before.

From foie gras to roasted chicken.

From French cheese to octopus.

Things never put on a pizza before.

But people came in
and wouldn't see my product as pizza.

They'd look at the counter and leave.

I had to throw it all out.

To make ends meet,

I made precooked dough
for other pizzerias.

Every night, I went to bed at one o'clock.

I woke up at four o'clock every morning.

And that went on for years.

It was a big sacrifice.

I felt awful.

[music fades out]

[Elisia] I remember people saying
there's a crazy guy making Roman pizza.

FORBIDDEN TO COMPARE

[Elisia] I went there one morning.

Gabriele was sleeping
on some flour bags, inside his pizzeria.

We started to talk.
He was super passionate.

He had a pure instinct.

And we became friends immediately.

[pensive string music playing]

[Elisia] No one believed in Gabriele.

His pizzas were expensive.

For a Roman, this wasn't acceptable.

He asked for my help with that
and to build a brand.

And we spread the news
to various journalists

and to all the guides…

Gabriele has totally changed
the concept of Roman pizza.

Textures, colors, plating…

He's an artist.

[Gabriele] Some attentive people
started noticing me.

And then there was this article that said,

"Gabriele Bonci,
the Michelangelo of pizza."

Fantastic.

Little by little,
I started to have a bit of success.

One night, I was in a restaurant in Rome.

I was the one who made
the logo of the big flour man.

He looked at it and said,
"That's our logo."

[Gabriele] And that was the start
of a new thought.

The start of a new strategy. A character.

The character Bonci.

[music fades out]

I was invited to appear
on a cooking show, La prova del cuoco.

[Italian theme music playing]

[Gabriele]
It was a big opportunity for me.

When he first went on national TV, RAI,
on the most famous cooking show,

that put Gabriele
in front of a new audience.

So Gabriele Bonci has been named
"Michelangelo of pizza" by Vogue America…

[Elisia] He'd arrive looking like
a truck driver. I mean, grubby.

Today we're learning how to make pizza
at home from the king of pizza.

The most important thing

for a good pizza is to use your hands…

[Elisia] He would make the dough
and leave it all rough.

He'd say, "Don't worry."

"Even if it's not perfect,
you can leave it."

Natural yeast.
The best thing in the world…

[Elisia] That made him human.

I've chosen turnip tops
because they're marvellous…

[in English] His physical presence
and his charisma on set were undeniable.

It was very difficult to not watch him.

[Elisia, in Italian] People were shocked.

This crazy joker, mad about pizza,

could communicate
so much just with his body.

[Gabriele] Spectacular. If you can smell
the aroma, you can smell everything.

The history of turnip tops.
The best inflorescence…

[Gabriele] I had an audience
of millions of viewers,

and I managed to spread my ideas.

My beliefs became my marketing.

[music fades out]

[Gabriele] I was the first one to bring
the dough and pizzas on TV.

It was meant to be just one episode,

but it was so great,

that I ended up staying.

Bonci, Bonci, Bonci, bon!

-[theme music plays]
-♪ Bonci, Bonci, bon-bon-bon ♪

♪ Bonci, Bonci, bon-bon-bon… ♪

[Gabriele] They created a song.

♪ Bonci, Bonci, bon-bon-bon ♪

Thanks to TV, thanks to that stage,
lots of people came to eat my pizza.

[gentle piano music playing]

[Elisia] It hit us like a wave,

like a tsunami of press about Pizzarium
from all over the world.

We are outside Gabriele Bonci's Pizzarium…

[Gabriele] Television made me famous.

-[in English] Maestro.
-[Gabriele] Hey, Tony.

[Anthony Bourdain]
Pizzarium, Bonci's place,

is a departure from the classics.

I worked with Anthony Bourdain.

[in English] You want it. You want it bad.

[Gabriele] I loved it.

-[theme music plays]
-♪ Bonci, Bonci, bon-bon-bon ♪

[Gabriele, in Italian] The Bonci character
was my greatest creation.

When he came onstage,
people were impressed by his size.

[audience applauding]

[Gabriele] He was fattened
by so much applause.

[cheering]

[Gabriele] He ate it all up.

The character was getting beautifully fat.

He showed his large shoulders,
his big belly.

He was worth his weight.

The heavier he was,
the more famous he became.

He was worth his weight in gold.

[music fades out]

Of course. Come on.

[woman laughs]

[Katie, in English] During Gabriele's
pretty rapid rise to fame,

there are all of these opportunities.

Consulting, events…

Television. So much television.

[heavy drums playing]

[hard rock music playing]

[Gabriele, in Italian] Pizza Hero.
My own TV program.

THE CHALLENGE OF THE OVENS

The hero of pizza.

It's like saying Superman.

Mother Rome.

My house.

[TV announcer]
On every episode of Pizza Hero,

Gabriele Bonci travels
to a different Italian city.

The indisputable hero.

[Gabriele] We were starting to film
in all the cities in Italy.

CLOSED FOR BONCI FILMING

The character Bonci preached his beliefs.

[somber instrumental music playing]

[Gabriele] Agriculture.

Family.

Love.

But underneath,

underneath there was this person who…

NATURALLY BONCI
SINCE

[Elisia] I think the idea people
have of him as a TV personality

is that of a big, friendly flour giant.

But sometimes he struggled.

He felt drained
by the character he had created.

He'd say,
"I can't take it anymore. Enough."

I think he was running away from himself.

[music fades out]

[ominous string music playing]

[Gabriele] Fame is a double-edged sword.

You are no longer a person.

You're a drawing, a fragment.

I didn't understand
who the character was, and who I was.

-[theme music plays]
-♪ Bonci, Bonci, bon-bon-bon ♪

-♪ Bonci, Bonci, bon-bon-bon ♪
-[theme melody fades]

-♪ Bonci, Bonci, bon-bon-bon ♪
-[ominous music swells]

♪ Bonci, Bonci, Bonci, bon-bon-bon ♪

I'm in my clown costume.

That jingle is the red nose.

You can never take it off.

I still haven't managed this fame.

It makes you feel good
when you're onstage…

[ominous music continues]

And it destroys you when you're offstage.

And I started a self-destruction.

[ominous music intensifies]

[Gabriele] Alcohol.

dr*gs.

Vices.

I got lost in so many things.

You fall into temptation.

You fall into desperation.

You become delusional.

I destroyed my family.

My friendships.

My reputation.

It was total chaos.

[ominous music swells]

[music fades out]

[Gabriele] I was basically a dead man.

I moved to the mountains.

I was alone.

[somber string music playing]

[Gabriele] Everyone wants to be Bonci.

But I…

I don't want him anymore.

And to survive,

I had to k*ll the character.

[female TV host] Gabriele Bonci!

[audience applauding]

Good morning!

[dialogue fades out]

[Gabriele] My character was a big man,

weighing almost kg.

Eating without reason.
Eating without awareness.

I had to lose weight.

[music intensifies]

[Gabriele] I decided to have a surgery,
called "sleeve."

They practically removed half my stomach.

The doctors told me

that my stomach was so expanded

that it could have been
of someone weighing kg.

The battle between Gabriele
and Bonci was a total fight.

You start to lose weight,

to take dr*gs out of your life,

to take that monster figure away…

And you replace it with that
of a husband, a baker, and a father.

The moment I woke up

in an intensive care unit,

I got out of bed,

and I started laughing like a clown.

Laughing.

Because I already knew
that by changing my image,

the character wouldn't exist anymore.

It was gone.

I k*lled him.

[imitates g*nsh*t]

[music fades out]

[Gabriele] From the moment
I k*lled my character,

I started living again.

In a private way, by design.

Today, I am still on that path
to fix everything.

But I'm starting to feel okay.

It wasn't immediate.

But I'm starting to feel okay.

[pensive string music playing]

[Elisia] I think he's focusing
more on his inner side.

He's changing,
and he's accepting his new self.

But I think he has
some unfinished business in cooking.

[Gabriele] Pizzarium will turn soon.

Twenty years of history.

It's always been on the crest of the wave.

Always.

I am now years old. I'm a…

My life has always been my work.

I believe deeply in what I do.

And I'm not finished yet.

[pensive string music continues]

[music intensifies]

[music fades out]

[Gabriele] When you are ethical,
you have to be % ethical.

From salt to water,

to flour, to grain,

to how you live.

[emotional instrumental music playing]

[Gabriele] I used to think I got wasted
because no one understood me.

I did dr*gs because this life is sh*t.

Good girl.

I went crazy because I was on TV.

They're only alibis.

I'm the one who did it. Period.

[sizzling]

[Gabriele] I lived in an awful way.

You have so many regrets.

Especially when it comes to
the people you've hurt.

[speaking Italian]

[Gabriele] Today, I'm no longer a showman.

[Gabriele] Want some pecorino?

-Yes.
-Dad'll do it.

Wait. I'll put some pepper on.

[Gabriele] Today, I am just a man.

And I'm expecting a different future.

[music fades out]

[woman , in English]
When I decided to make pizza, I just said,

"f*ck it. I'm gonna do things my way."

[man] She serves pizza
with Korean comfort food.

[woman ] It has everything to do
with her identity.

[woman ] My food is loud
and bold and spicy.

This is who I am.

[pensive string music playing]

Subtitle translation by: Angelica Lacetera

[music fades out]