Amanda Pascali

Meet Teresa Iorio

the Pizzaiola

“I’ve actually never seen a female pizza-maker before,” I told my parents on the telephone. This realization struck me on my last night in Naples. Every pizzeria we had been to during those four days was full of men. Less than 24 hours after that phone call, I met Teresa Iorio.

We missed the bus. And we were hungry. It was a Monday afternoon in October and despite the fact it had officially been autumn for a few weeks now, Naples was still hot. After poking our heads into one tabaccheria after another for blocks on the way to the bus station, we finally found one that sold tickets to the small town along the coast where we were headed. But by the time we reached the bus stop at the Port of Naples, we were too late. We had no choice but to wait for the next bus in two hours. Weighed down by travel bags, trying to get out of the sun, we stumbled toward the streets near the port. That’s when we saw the sign for Le Figlie di Iorio.

Teresa welcomed us in, even though the place was busy. She was patient with my bookish, overly-formal, slow Italian. I learned Italian in school and from books and movies. Although my accent is pretty convincing, I usually take a few minutes to gather my thoughts before speaking. At that point, it was obvious that we were from somewhere else.

The reason for the pizzeria’s name “Le Figlie di Iorio,” (The Daughters of Iorio) is pretty self-explanatory. Teresa’s family name is Iorio. Her father was a well-known pizzaiolo in Naples. On the weekends, her mother made pizza fritta (fried pizza) at home. As the 19th of 20 children in her family, Teresa started making pizza at 12 years old to help her father in the shop.

Traditionally, Margherita pizza was considered a luxury because mozzarella was so expensive. Standing in front of a large, hot oven was considered a man’s job. On the other hand, pizza fritta is traditionally made with less expensive ingredients like ricotta and pieces of fatty pork. Instead of being cooked in the oven, it is deep-fried in oil (usually sunflower oil). Because the pizza fritta is smaller and easier to hold with small, nimble hands, making fried pizza has been considered a “woman’s job.” Teresa has mastered both the fried pizza and the classic pizza. She was the first woman to win the Trofeo Caputo Pizza Championship, earning her the title of Worldwide Champion Pizzaiola.

But the pizzeria was also named partly after the 1906 opera by Alberto Franchetti. In the opera, a girl named Mila is suspected of being a witch. The superstitious inhabitants of her small town in Abruzzo are enraged by her, believing that her nonconformity is reason enough for her death.