São Paulo learns to eat pizza New York-style, standing up and with your hands

It’s not the first time that Bráz Elettrica’s clientele has come across a different pizzaiolo behind the counter — a smiling, rosy-cheeked American who knows the São Paulo capital very well, despite only scratching out a few words in Portuguese.

Consultant hired by the Company. Traditional Commerce since the creation of the network, in June 2017, the American Anthony Falco was responsible for developing the original menu and, at least once a year, returns to the city to interact with the team and create new toppings.

In the most recent season, from March 17th to 24th, Falco also conducted a workshop for customers and included a personal visit: he went to taste the pizzas of his former pupil and current competitor, the Korean Paul Cho, who opened the

Falco and Cho are two points outside the curve in the most Italian city in Brazil, where pizza has always been a culture associated with immigrants: they try to establish, here, the New York way of eating pizza.

“Paul’s Boutique has a New York vibe. The pizza is fantastic and it’s only going to get better, because Paul is one of the most talented people I’ve ever worked with”, says master Falco.

In common, Bráz Elettrica and Paul’s Boutique (which takes the name of an album by the hip-hop group Beastie Boys) display young and colorful environments, where beers and cocktails accompany the orders.

They have doors open from lunchtime and zero attachment to traditions. They bake the pizzas in electric ovens and there is no cutlery, as the order is to hold the pizza with the napkin, or with the fingertips. But the similarities end there.

Bráz Elettrica bets on the so-called Neopolitan (or Neopolitan) school, the hottest trend in New York’s modern pizzerias, among which Roberta’s stands out —not coincidentally, the house where Falco learned the trade, worked for eight years and had Cho as an intern.

The dough, which undergoes a long fermentation process and comes from natural yeast that Falco himself brought in his suitcase in 2017, generates generous edges and receives unorthodox toppings. The spicy pepperoni (R$ 37) has a drizzle of honey, while the Portuguese (R$ 37) has no boiled egg. It is finished with a thread of raw egg yolk over the other ingredients: mozzarella, ham, caramelized onions, olives and egg whites.

“I think of that guy in Naples who saw the tomato for the first time and was bold enough to make a sauce and put it on top of pizza, no matter the rules. That’s the original spirit of pizza, incorporating ingredients from the world.” , Falco poetizes.

The clientele from São Paulo seems to have approved of his transgressive spirit. In almost five years, the network reached eight units.

Cho studied in the same textbook. Although he was an intern at Roberta’s for just one month, the partnership with his mentor had a long life in São Paulo: as soon as he opened Bráz Elettrica, Falco returned home, leaving the apprentice in the place of chief pizza maker, a position he held until 2021.

Now, in his first venture of his own, the Korean has taken a different path from the master: Paul’s Boutique serves pizzas in large slices without over-covering, a pattern adopted by the most traditional pizzerias in New York. On weekends, the queue reaches the sidewalk.

Large disks, 45 centimeters in diameter, are cut into eight slices. The long-fermented dough has a thin and firmer thickness, which allows you to hold the triangle and bite from the tip, without the slice falling apart in your hands.

This is something very different from the sliced ​​pizzas sold by bakeries in São Paulo, which ask for plates and cutlery. The closest model is the carioca chain Vezpa, which arrived in São Paulo in 2018 and already has three units in the capital.

At Paul’s Boutique, there are six penthouses arranged on the heated counter, waiting for customers. One of the hits is the corn with mozzarella, parmesan, basil, black pepper and, lo and behold, lemon cream (R$11 a slice).

“Why only six? To avoid discarding, since I leave the pizzas ready on the counter. In New York, it’s hard to find a place that has more than three flavors. It’s mozzarella, pepperoni and margherita at most”, says the pizza maker.

The São Paulo touch comes from the almost obligation to always have news. Restless, Cho is already thinking about creating flavors in special editions, in partnership with guests. The first must be chef Matheus Zachini, from the Borgo Mooca restaurant.

Between April and May, Bráz Elettrica should also launch at least three flavors — the ones Falco tested in his last season in the city.

After helping to open pizzerias in 20 countries, he says he is impressed with the quality of national wheat flour and the evolution of the supply of spices and fruits in the local market, which he always takes into account when creating. “I don’t want to make the same pizza everywhere,” says the consultant.

In the interview he gave to Folha, he committed some indiscretions, not yet confirmed by the company. “I’ve been playing with new flavors, maybe pineapple. It’s such a Brazilian fruit! And I’ve tried some dessert pizzas. Is it a secret?”, added the pizza maker.

The menu may also include a Sicilian pizza, typical of Falco’s grandmother’s land — the high-crust version looks more like a focaccia. He just rules out the possibility of inventing a pizza with catupiry, a declared preference of the paulistano. “I don’t like it, I have to confess”, closes the question.

Known internationally as pizza czar —this is the title of his first book, released in the United States in 2021, still without a Portuguese version—, and an idol among professional and amateur pizza makers, especially those of the new generations, Anthony Falco says that the relationship between Americans and pizza is visceral. And that New Yorkers seem to have a credential that authorizes them to criticize any pizza that isn’t from their city.

But about São Paulo, the tsar recognizes: “In your city, this culture is truest. Without a doubt, the capital of pizza is here.”

Bráz Elettrica

R. dos Pinheiros, 220, Pinheiros (+ seven addresses)

Paul’s Boutique

R. Dr. Renato Paes de Barros, 167, Itaim Bibi