Pizza chef Phillip Bruno shares his secrets to making the perfect pizza
Meet the Ascot Vale man behind a world-class dish. Credited by the mayor of Naples for bringing true, Neapolitan pizza to Australia, it’s now been 10 years since the master dough-maker turned his dream into a reality.
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If you love eating good pizza, there’s an Ascot Vale man you need to thank.
Phillip Bruno is a master piazziolo who was awarded a plaque by the mayor of Naples five years ago to thank him for bringing the Neapolitan pizza tradition to Australia.
The Bruno family opened their Scoozi restaurant 10 years ago and it remains one of only three pizzerias in Australia to be accredited by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana — which designates “true Neapolitan pizzas” worldwide.
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Mr Bruno still puts the naturally leavened 30-hour dough through its wood-fired paces, and was made the president of the Associazione Pizzaiuoli Napoletani in Australasia — a non-profit organisation that upholds the strict tradition of Neapolitan pizza.
Every year, he travels around the world judging Neapolitan pizza chefs for the Caputo Cup Pizza competition.
There are 11 pages of regulations that specify how true Neapolitan pizza should taste, smell, look and be made.
Mr Bruno is so adept at judging pizza he can tell just by looking at a ball of uncooked dough whether or not the chef used the correct ingredients and tools to make it.
“It’s a 300-year-old recipe that includes the manipulation of the dough and the resting time,” he said.
“When you have an eye for it you can tell, for example, when it’s been refrigerated for too long. We pick the world’s best each year and have up to 750 people enter. The chefs stretch out the dough, cook it and present it to us. So sometimes it takes three days.”
Mr Bruno has witnessed woodfire pizza explode around the world.
“Over the last few years I’ve been to Taipei, China, Korea. There are only 700 to 800 people in those countries who are the only ones who can make real pizza,” he said.
“It takes months of dedication to learn to stretch pastry.”
Ten years ago, Mr Bruno realised his dream of opening an Italian restaurant.
His wife Amelia has run front of house since the beginning and his son Leigh is now head chef.
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