-On the West Coast, researching, there is no one that makes
the panzerotti fritti, I am the only one bringing this
food from Puglia in the West Coast. Why we keep this panzerotti
just in Puglia? Why? It's a secret?
Dough? Who knows? I have to tell everyone I can. None of my customers have never
heard about the panzerotti. They try one small, and they
don't even finish one small and they run back,
they want another one. And say,
"Look what I found today! Who are you? What are you doing?
This is magic!" ♪♪ Janet, panzerotti
quattro formaggi! [ Honking ] My name is
Trifone Walter Ferrante. We are in Portland. I run Bari Food Cart,
and we make panzerotti fritti. The panzerotti fritti
is typical of southern, east Italian food. It is very like the thin
pizza bread dough filled with a base of
fresh mozzarella, chopped tomato,
fresh oregano, pepper. Fold as technique
as a calzone, but is fried. We have 13 panzerotti
on the food cart. The most popular is the country which is with
fresh tomato, mozzarella, home-made basil pesto,
sun-dried tomato, and oven-roasted chicken. The dough is the key. It is not heavy. It's not chewy. It's not greasy. And when you fry it,
it's just gourmet. When the dough fried and the mozzarella melts,
everything inside -- I wish we can give like
the smell from the camera. Now we are making the barese. This is what
we make at home, what I make. But at home, our parents,
they do the carne, which is the ground beef. This 'nduja --
cured pork, salt, chili flakes. This is magical ingredient. See the technique I have to take
the filling because it's not like you fold. If you fold, they all
will fall, so, it's difficult work with. So, with my finger, I help
keeping the filling inside. You have to be gentle,
delicate, because if it broke,
it broke. You have to know
when they are ready. It's by experience and by
feeling and by the smell. See, this is very ready. You don't want really brown,
brown, brown. You want it nice and gold. We have a barese, carne,
and calabrese. Robin, Robin, Robin, my lady.
My special. -Here you go, Robin.
-Thank you. -Thank you, sweetie. -You're very welcome. Thank you for always being here
ready to serve your customers. -And of course,
don't eat all by yourself. Save something for your husband.
-[ Laughs ] It might not make it home.
-I know. That's why I'm telling you. I'm from a little metropolitan
called Adelfia, which is a city
in Apulia region, in the southeast Adriatic coast. Whole town knows me
and knows my father because he's the mailman. Around ten, 11 year old,
I started work in a little bar in my town
making cappuccini and espresso. Eleven year old.
Cappuccini and espresso. Like at 5:00 in the morning,
opened the bar. Then I worked in a little
local pizzeria serving -- serving the pizza everywhere. I was the only waiter.
Like 12 year old, I was the only waiter
serving like 40 -- 40 people in one time. I was always there, like looking
in oven, and looking in,
putting the pizza, like smoking like this. And my mom always yelling,
"Come here, leave them alone! They have to work." And they would say,
"No, leave him here." They were petting me
because blond, blue eyes. Said, "No, leave him here. It's fine.
It's no bother to us." So, see, when I was already
a kid, this kind of thing. ♪♪ This is
the Glenn Jackson Bridge, which now
we are on the border. We are entering
in Oregon state. There is the sign there,
welcome in Oregon. Ciao, Washington,
I'll see you tonight. Hi, Oregon, good morning.
I'm coming. We're going to Alexis Food
in almost downtown Portland, the other side of the river. It is a nice warehouse. They specialize in this like Italian
and south cheeses, flours, all imported from Italy. Hello.
-Hi, Walter, how you doin', man? -Buongiorno.
Good. -Got your mozzarella.
We got your 'Nduja. -Ah, ha, ha, ha.
-Yes! -We got some nice Levoni
prosciutto. -Si.
-Got your ricotta, the burrata, and of course you
have your salami -- -Ah, ha, ha! Muah! These, these, these,
these, these, these. Mama Mia!
[ Sniffing ] Smell them. Can't smell?
No. I can smell from here. Can take a bite. The salamette. This is 'Nduja. This product in Italy, just the Calabria people
can make. It is a spicy spread salami. ♪♪ In the south it is --
it's great, but financial, economic -- economically it
is very difficult. If you want to have success, you
have to move to go somewhere. In 2004, my friend,
manager here in America, my friend from my town
knew me as a -- I was a good waiter,
he would start to call me
and gave me this chance to come in California
to work for this restaurant which was opening
a new restaurant. When I came here,
I was 29 years old. I was scared, but I said, this is the only chance
of my life. I never took an airplane
in my entire life. The first airplane, Milano,
London; London, San Francisco. I cannot read the ticket.
I don't know what I'm in gate. I start to work,
no speak English, but because my skill, my natural
skill, is like be a waiter. And they said,
"You don't speak English, how you make possible
I have a great dinner?!" That's my job! After three months I was here, I meet my girlfriend
which become my wife. It was hard to communicate,
but love is blind. We started with a little
dictionary, with a notebook. Slowly, slowly,
slowly become natural. People knows me
because always I talk wrong. I no say grammatically
correctly things. I -- I tell this company
to make the sticker like "Southern Italian
Street Food." And I spell for them, and I spell "Southern"
with an A. And then they want to change it. I say, "No, no,
no, no, leave that. People knows me.
People know what I mean." You know what I mean? ♪♪ And let's go. This is a particular dough from
Apulia, it is made with double,
zero-zero pizzeria flour. It's not like I go to
the bakery, I buy the bread
and I fill up with stuff. I make that. It's not just flour, but the semolina give the texture on the dough. It's nice -- crispy and fluffy
in the same time. And that semolina give
the goldness color to the panzerotto. No aggressive, no violent. This is a dough gentle. It's like your wife, like your girlfriend,
something you love it. The logo, the logo.
My business partner create this because the panzerotto,
this is the panzerotto. It just looks like
a smiley face. I give some smiles,
some happiness. That's what it is all about. Buongiorno! Buongiorno!
Bella! How are you? Thank you, sweetie!
Grazie mille! In 2014, me and my coworker, good friend from
the Italian restaurant where I was working,
we went in Italy for a trip. We were in Bari, and we were
in my friend house, Salvatore. And then eating the panzerotti. Salvatore stopped to ask me, "But what do you want
to do in your life? You are waiter
for your life. It's time, do not underestimate
yourself anymore." He started to ask question
about Portland, he start talking about
the food cart. And then he looked at me,
he said, "We have to make panzerotti.
Who does the panzerotti there?" We start to look, we start to
look, like I said: nobody. He look at me, he said,
"You are crazy." I like the idea, but I need
to know what I have to start. And one year later after that,
Salvatore came in the summer. Step by step, one year later,
we opened the food cart. But when I opened, I was selling
two panzerotti in one day. Three panzerotti in one day. I go home, "Christina,
I sold nine panzerotti, I make $50!
Oh, my gosh, people like it!" But every single person try,
become a regular. Year by year, more customer,
more regular, and the panzerotti, the voice
of the panzerotti is spreading. This is my family. This is one reason
it make me keep going because they really
believe in myself and they really support me. And that's why the reason
they're here -- they are here
every day with me. Compared to Italy, here you can
succeed with your dream because it's America. In America you come,
the dream can come true. But you have to work
for your dream. You have to chase your dream.
You have to earn it. ♪♪ I'm done, I give up -- where can
I make panzerotti in Portland? Where are these people gonna go
to find the panzerotti? Nowhere.
My customer is my life. Without my customer,
Bari cannot be successful. The money goes -- come and go,
come and go. Buy and blah, blah, blah. But this is what I love. The love of the people. They make me feel good. I don't need the million dollar. More people happy I make,
the more happy I am. I go home, I feel rich,
I feel like content. ♪♪ When we do the cannoli,
I have this big sign. I have car from the road,
look at the sign. They run to it and say,
"Do you have cannoli?! Do you have a cannoli?!
I'm from East Coast." ♪♪ ♪♪ When we do the cannoli,
I have this big sign. I have car from the road,
looking the sign. They run up to me and say,
"Do you have cannoli?! Do you have a cannoli?!
I'm from East Coast." ♪♪
