Pizza in Its Purest Form: The Story of Lucali | Food Skills

I really wasn't planning on making pizza I really didn't know what I wanted to do I was in the construction business I used to do marble and granite fabrication didn't do a lot of cooking you know I let my grandmother do all the cooking she was amazing at it did a lot of eating not a lot of cooking still to this day when I see the crowd building up outside I can't believe it it's still surreal these people are lining up to eat my pizza how did this happen and then the anxiety kicks it and I'm waiting for the orders like you know it's the quiet before the storm and then I just suck it and hit with the takeout orders and then the you know the place fills up with 30 people at once and the orders stop coming and then the chaos starts excuse me mind me pose I was like what's that noise my name is Mark Iacono and this is my pizzeria Luke alleys and Carroll Gardens Brooklyn this was an old candy store that I hung out in as a kid my parents hung out here as kids they may have even met here and I go for a cup of coffee one day and I run into Rosemarie who this door belonged to and a X of what was going on with the store you know every time I go there it's closed and she told me they were renting the space out and like a light bulb went off and I just really wanted to save it and you know the rest is history three days later I'm signing a lease it's not that it's important to have a pizza in Carroll Gardens it's just that this is my neighborhood this is where I just love being here I want to be here don't want to be anywhere else there were still people here that that I was in kindergarten with that I still see on a daily basis but for the most part mostly everybody's gone and it's like everything else in life everything changes Carroll Gardens was this amazing little neighborhood that not too many people know about and it had such amazing restaurants here and there's still a small handful of places left I mean you have Fernando's Esposito's pork store Missoula's bakery Caputo's bakery and Caputo's deli other than that I don't think there's much left very fresh log bread it's on the old neighborhood front I give it to the girls thank you very much this bread made with log salami and a lot of black pepper my brother brought something to our attention and he was saying like blowing up for this table it was like playing in a minefield and we didn't realize like all the stuff that was going on and how unsafe it was but at the same time it was super safe so this is Carole Park this is where like the whole neighborhood would come this was like the Yankee Stadium of Carroll Gardens some pretty crazy games were played here they fenced it all in now but we all used to hang out on the stoop over here when we were younger and you know that was like where we would all congregate and meet you know on hot summer nights and that's where I smoked my first cigarette right there kiss my first girl - on the steps of the library are you doing this until I know I'm showing man you want some good-looking guys in there this used to be Leonardo's pizzeria but before that it was cafe del suit it was it was a know like social club Italian cafe but then Joel the owner of the cafe decided to turn it into a pizzeria with his son gonna be fed then it was Leonardo's and Joe was one of the guys that taught me how to make pizza now it's a Dunkin Donuts every time I would go to places even my favorite pizza spots there were certain things that says if they just did it like this it would be so much better if they just you know added a little more salt you know a little bit less oil it would be so much better one of the places I that I went to was the ferris and I saw how this old man took pizza to another level and like what I thought I loved now I loved even more there's also a chef in New York Mario Mario Carbone from Cabo ins restaurant and I watched what he did with classic Italian dishes and just took it to another level you know and and then you know I started thinking know what it can be better you got to make sure that flavors don't overpower each other the crust the sauce the cheese the flavor of the dough it's more about ratio than anything it has to be consistent and that's one of the hot things about making pizza making it come out of that oven the same way time after time after time there are so many variables what do I consider great pizza it's a combination of a lot of things we don't use a lot of water in our dough which has a tendency to make it a little bit more crispier and hold up better the only problem is with that we have to roll the dough out then from there we have fresh tomatoes that we cooked for four hours growing up eating pizza these guys are just throwing or tomato sauce out of the can that was one of the things that I always wanted to change because my grandmother always made a great sauce and I was like why not cook it why not give it some flavor give it some character and then we top it off with three cheese's which is something that I got from down demarco from the ferris you know we use a little moist and what's it Oh a buffalo mozzarella and then we top it off with the Ruggiano and then some basil a lot of basil one of the things that I'm proud of we're always mentioned for the margherita pizza in its purest form and and like I actually want to take toppings off the menu sometimes and just make plain pies my grandmother didn't have like a huge arsenal of recipes but the few things she did make she made spectacular people like you know we only make pizza and call zonals like it that's all I know how to make you know but I'm just gonna do it really well 20 half years to build the space out you know I signed the lease with $5,000 to my name so you know after my nine-to-five I would come here work nights and weekends I built the place pretty much by myself you know I'll never forget the day I opened I made a couple of pies gave him out to my neighbors and they were like wow this is pretty good I was like alright now what do I do this is I have to open you know it's been two and a half years people thought I was crazy they're like what is he doing in there you know when's he gonna open and I took the paper off the windows I set up my table you know and I opened within two hours every table was taken I go to this one customer serves everything right with pizza you enjoying everything the guys like listen is it okay if I take your number and give you a call tomorrow I'd like to do an interview I'm like you know this guy's probably trying to get something for you Adam you know and you know how you excellent my says you know we'll call him you know what magazines do - he's like a New York magazine I was like all right no big deal like I says the only thing I knew about restaurants and the restaurant industry was that I used to eat in them and that's how it all started and then Jay Z and Beyonce came in and you know that was just like totally not a level had to get a bouncer for us in the beginning I really didn't know what I was doing and I'd get like panic attacks back yeah you know people were like knocking down the door to get in here and every time I would get like all worked up and nervous I would just like turning stare at grandma's picture and like you know just call me down and like you know I'd reset one of the great things about having this place is when people do come back to the neighborhood they come here and I get to see them again a lot of the old time is you know people that I've looked up to walk were really proud of what you did here and it gives me a really good feeling and you know I love Carroll Gardens I'll never leave this neighborhood and I just love making pizza here [Music]

Channel: First We Feast

Views: 3,283,811

Rating: 4.9578438 out of 5

Keywords: First we feast, fwf, firstwefeast, food, food porn, cook, cooking, chef, kitchen, recipe, cocktail, bartender, craft beer, complex, complex media, Cook (Profession)sean evans, Food Skills, Mark Iacono, Lucali, margherita pie, margherita, Dom DeMarco, beyonce and jay z lucali, pizza, brooklyn, ugly delicious mark Iacono, how to make pizza, how to make tomato sauce

Id: BSHh0MmJM1U

Length: 8min 55sec (535 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 12 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/ruthless_tippler]

"and now it's Dunkin' Donuts" - the saddest line in the video

[u/PuddleMyFud]

Nothing but respect for this guy

[u/wiki_warren]

Mark is always on The Pizza Show. Love that show with Frank Pinello.

[u/dopestdope456]

Anyone who hasn’t seen the pizza episode of Ugly Delicious on Netflix should watch it.

[u/Bonestacker]

We need more of this in the world.

[u/DistortoiseLP]

So this guy's one of those many random people with little cooking experience who just says "fuck it, I'm gonna open my own restaurant" and unique among them in that he was actually really good at it.

[u/GrandpopLester]

Its nice to see good food bringing the community together.

[u/[deleted]]

The pizza is good but the calzones are far and away the best I've ever had. Really wish there was not constantly an hour wait to get in.

[u/NYnosher]

I live in NYC and have been to Lucali, and it's absolutely fantastic. While the pizza is great (easily the most delicious and fresh basil I've ever had), there is better pizza in NYC (e.g. Di Fara, Rubirosa, Emily). However, their five-cheese calzone is one of the greatest things I've ever eaten in my life. It's just indescribably amazing, and as you eat it your first thought will be planning when you can return to Lucali to eat it again.

I've seen a bunch of videos and interviews featuring Mark Iacono, and he seems like a down-to-earth, friendly guy.