This article contains promotional content .(July 2017) |
Tony Gemignani | |
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Born | Anthony Felix Gemignani |
Spouse | Julie White Gemignani (m. 2000) |
Culinary career | |
Cooking style | Italian |
Current restaurant(s)
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Award(s) won
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Website | www |
Anthony Felix Gemignani is an American chef, restaurateur, and author. In 2009, Gemignani opened Tony's Pizza Napoletana in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco, California. Gemignani is a pizzaiolo and chef, having won 13 world titles in pizza making and opening numerous restaurants. [1] [2] He has appeared on multiple reality television series including Food Network Challenge, Bar Rescue on Spike TV, as well as on The Travel Channel and CNN. [3]
Gemignani was born in Fremont, California, to Frank and Eileen Gemignani. He grew up on his family's farm, he is a third generation Italian American. [4]
Gemignani graduated from Washington High School in Fremont, [5] and later worked at Pyzano's, his brother Frank Jr.'s restaurant in Castro Valley, California, in 1991. [6] Gemignani began his pizza tosser [7] career while at Pyzano's as a way to entertain customers and to show the quality of the dough to diners. [8] He competed all over the world, winning 8 world champion titles for pizza acrobatics between 1995–2007, and earning himself the nickname of the "Michael Jordan of Pizza Throwing". [9] Gemignani traveled the world for 16 years, competing, working in others' kitchens, and learning about regional styles of pizza. [10]
Gemignani formed the World Pizza Champions in 2005, which is made up of over 60 team members who have each earned the highest awards in the pizza industry, along with television appearances, Guinness World Records, and respect as leading professionals and pioneers in the pizza industry. [11]
In 2007, Gemignani took the title of "World Champion Pizza Maker" at the World Pizza Cup in Naples, Italy. [12] Gemignani was the first American and non-Neapolitan to ever take this title. [13] Gemignani is the first and only Triple Crown winner for baking at the International Pizza Championships in Lecce, Italy, meaning, he won three first place titles in one competition. [14]
Gemignani opened his first restaurant, Tony's Pizza Napoletana, in July 2009, with partners Bruno DiFabio and Nancy Puglisi, in San Francisco's North Beach. The restaurant has 7 pizza ovens. [15]
Tony's Pizza Napoletana is recognized as one of the city's best pizzerias. Along with being named "The Best Pizzeria in America" by Forbes magazine, [16] the restaurant has received multiple accolades in a number of publications, both local and national, including Zagat, [17] USA Today , [18] The San Francisco Chronicle , [19] The Huffington Post , [20] Food and Wine , [21] Travel + Leisure , [22] Fox News, [23] and others.
Opening in 2010, Gemignani took ownership of an adjacent deli. [24] Seeing this as an opportunity to serve more styles of pizzas like classic New York style slices, Sicilian, and California style slices, along with Chicago Beef Sandwiches and other deli favorites, the slicehouse allowed people to enjoy Gemignani's pizza without the infamous wait times usually seen at his flagship restaurant. [25]
Since the opening in North Beach, Gemignani has expanded his slice house concept to include concessions stalls in Oracle Park & Chase Center, as well as multiple locations in California and Nevada under the name Slice House by Tony Gemignani. [26] [27] [28] Tony G's Super Delicious Pizza is Tony Gemignani's newest slice house concept in Meridian, Idaho, with its delivery only concept under Crave Delivery. [29]
In 2011, Gemignani, Hewitt and Karpaty opened Pizza Rock in Sacramento California, with a focus on rock 'n' roll and great pizza. Pizza Rock offered many of the same items as Tony's Pizza Napoletana but featured events such as Acoustic Brunch and live DJs performing from a custom Peterbilt truck. [30] [31] Pizza Rock permanently closed in Sacramento, California on July 29, 2020 as a result of declining sales due to the Covid-19 pandemic. [32] Pizza Rock is still open in Las Vegas and Henderson, Nevada. Pizza Rock has received accolades in a number of publications, including the Sacramento [33] and The Chew . [34]
Gemignani's Chicago-style pizza and whiskey bar, Capo's, opened in November 2012 just two blocks away from Tony's Pizza Napoletana; it was designed to feel like a prohibition era speakeasy. [35] The restaurant invites family style dining, serving four styles of Chicago-style pizza: Deep Dish, Stuffed, Cast Iron Pan, and Tavern Style; along with Southern Italian dishes. Favorite items include the Quattro Forni, a thick, square cut pizza cooked in four ovens that is a variation on a pizza baked in three ovens that won Gemignani an international championship; [36] The Dillinger and The Crown Point, Cast Iron Pan pizzas, that won the World's Best Pan Pizza and the Best of the Best at the International Pizza Challenge in Las Vegas in 2014 and 2016, and subsequently earned Chef Matt Molina the title of Pizza Maker of the Year in 2014 and Best of the Best Champion in 2016. [37] [38] [39]
Opened in 2013 at the Graton Resort & Casino in Rohnert Park, California, Tony's of North Beach offers many styles of pizzas made by Tony Gemignani. The menu offers eight kinds of pizzas made in three different kinds of ovens, family-style pasta dinners, sandwiches, and salads. [40]
Gemigani is the first certified Master Instructor in the United States. [41] [ by whom? ] He opened the International School of Pizza and the United States School of Pizza under the Scuola Italiana Pizzaioli. Gemignani and his fellow instructors certify students from around the world, and the certifications come direct from Italy with strict guidelines and theory followed from the Scuola Italiana Pizzaioli. [42] [43] Gemignani also offers non-professional home chef courses, designed to teach home cooks how to make restaurant quality pizza in their own kitchens. [44] In 2023, Gemignani closed the International School of Pizza to focus on his numerous other pizza ventures.
Giovanni Italian Specialties opened in October 2017, Tony brought an "old-world Italian specialties shop" to the neighborhood of North Beach. [45] Giovanni Italian Specialties offers fresh pasta, specialty cooking tools, cook books, and offers focaccia and piadina daily. [46]
Tony Gemignani’s California Artisan Type 00 Pizza Blend flour is made by Central Milling. [47]
Year | Episode title | Show | Channel | Season | Notes |
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2013 | A Bar Full of Bull | Bar Rescue | Spike TV | season 3, episode 17 | [48] |
2013 | Jon of the Dead | Bar Rescue | Spike TV | season 3, episode 21 | [49] |
2014 | World Pizza Champ Turns Dough Into…Dough | Taking Stock with Pimm Fox | BloombergTV | [50] | |
On Location: Pizza Rock Vegas | The Chew | [34] [ dead link ] | |||
Pizza Paradise 2 | Food Paradise | Travel Channel | season 0, episode 41 | [51] | |
Pizza Champions | Challenge | Food Network | Michael Shepherd, Joe Carlucci, Siler Chapman and Tony Gemignani compete at Mall of America. [3] | ||
The Pizza Show | Viceland | [ citation needed ] | |||
Cirque du Pizza: The Art of Pizza Acrobatics | Great Big Story | CNN | Micro-documentary. [52] | ||
Sin City Eats | Cheap Eats | Cooking Channel | season 4, episode 10 | [53] | |
Ryan's Yummy Playdate/Ryan's Speedy Playdate | Ryan's Mystery Playdate | [ citation needed ] |
Gemignani has authored three books:
Pizza is an Italian dish typically consisting of a flat base of leavened wheat-based dough topped with tomato, cheese, and other ingredients, baked at a high temperature, traditionally in a wood-fired oven.
Chicago-style pizza is pizza prepared according to several styles developed in Chicago. It can refer to both the well-known deep-dish or stuffed pizzas and the lesser-known thin-crust "tavern-style" pizzas. The pan in which deep-dish pizza is baked gives the pizza its characteristically high edge, which provides ample space for large amounts of cheese and a chunky tomato sauce. Chicago-style deep-dish pizza may be prepared either this way or stuffed. Chicago-style thin-crust pizza dough is rolled for a thinner, crispier crust than other thin-crust styles, and the pizza is cut in squares instead of slices.
Sally's Apizza is a pizzeria in the Wooster Square neighborhood of New Haven, Connecticut. Sally's Apizza also has locations in Stamford, Connecticut, Fairfield, Connecticut, and Woburn, Massachusetts.
Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana, commonly known as Frank Pepe's or simply Pepe's, is a popular pizza restaurant in the Wooster Square neighborhood of New Haven, Connecticut, at 163 Wooster Street and originator of New Haven-style pizza. Opened in 1925, it is one of the oldest and best known pizzerias in the United States.
New Haven-style pizza is a style of thin-crust, coal-fired Neapolitan pizza common in and around New Haven, Connecticut. Locally known as apizza, it originated in 1925 at the Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana and is now served in many other pizza restaurants in the area, most notably Sally's Apizza and Modern Apizza. This geographically limited pizza style has been favorably regarded by national critics.
California-style pizza is a style of pizza that combines New York and Italian thin crust with toppings from the California cuisine cooking style. Its invention is generally attributed to chef Ed LaDou, and Chez Panisse, in Berkeley, California. Wolfgang Puck, after meeting LaDou, popularized the style of pizza in the rest of the country. It is served in many California cuisine restaurants. California Pizza Kitchen, Round Table Pizza, Extreme Pizza, and Sammy's Woodfired Pizza are four major pizza franchises associated with California-style pizza.
Pizza Margherita, also known as Margherita pizza, is a typical Neapolitan pizza, roundish in shape with a raised edge and garnished with hand-crushed peeled tomatoes, mozzarella, fresh basil leaves, and extra virgin olive oil. The dough is made by mixing water, salt, and yeast with flour.
The history of pizza began in antiquity, as various ancient cultures produced flatbreads with several toppings. Pizza today is an Italian dish with a flat dough-based base and toppings, with significant Italian roots in History.
Detroit-style pizza is a rectangular pan pizza with a thick, crisp, chewy crust. It is traditionally topped to the edges with mozzarella or Wisconsin brick cheese, which caramelizes against the high-sided heavyweight rectangular pan. Detroit-style pizza was originally baked in rectangular steel trays designed for use as automotive drip pans or to hold small industrial parts in factories. It was developed during the mid-20th century in Detroit, Michigan, before spreading to other parts of the United States in the 2010s. It is one of Detroit's most famous local foods.
Neapolitan pizza is the version of the round pizza typically prepared in the Italian city of Naples and characterised by a soft, thin dough with high edges. The tomatoes are traditionally either San Marzano tomatoes or pomodorini del Piennolo del Vesuvio, which grow on the volcanic plains to the south of Mount Vesuvius, and the cheese is traditionally mozzarella di bufala campana or fior di latte di Agerola. Pizza napoletana is a traditional speciality guaranteed (TSG) product in the European Union and the United Kingdom, and the art of its making is included on UNESCO's list of intangible cultural heritage.
Pizza arrived in the United States in the early 20th century along with waves of Italian immigrants who settled primarily in the larger cities of the Northeast, such as New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Baltimore. After American soldiers stationed in Italy returned from World War II, pizza and pizzerias rapidly grew in popularity.
Pizzeria Bianco is a pizza restaurant in downtown Phoenix, Arizona established in 1987 by Chris Bianco. It has earned positive reviews from notable food critics. Nationally recognized for its pizzas, the restaurant's small seating capacity can lead to wait times that sometimes surprise casual patrons. The restaurant features a wood-fired oven and homemade mozzarella cheese used in pizzas primarily fashioned by the owner himself. In 2013, the restaurant established a second location in the Biltmore Area of Phoenix. In 2022, the restaurant opened a third location, in Los Angeles.
Numero 28 is an Italian restaurant chain, headquartered in New York City, with outlets in Austin and Miami Beach.
Modern Apizza is an American pizza restaurant in New Haven, Connecticut. Along with Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana and Sally's Apizza, Modern forms what is informally referred to by locals as the "Holy Trinity" of New Haven-style pizza; the three pizza parlors are consistently ranked by food critics as some of the best pizza places in the world.
Antico Pizza Napoletana is a pizzeria located in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2015, it is considered the 7th highest rated pizzeria in the United States by TripAdvisor.
Tony's Pizza Napoletana is a pizzeria located in San Francisco, California on Stockton Street which serves Neapolitan styled pizza. In 2015, it was considered the 5th highest rated pizzeria in the United States by TripAdvisor.
Pizza by the slice is pizza sold in individual portions as a fast food by a restaurant or street vendor. Some restaurants and pizza stands only sell pizza by the slice, while others sell both slices and whole pizzas. The jumbo slice is a large-sized slice of New York–style pizza made in areas of Washington, D.C. Pizza al taglio is a style of rectangular slice of pizza that originated in Rome and is typically sold by weight.
The American city of Portland, Oregon has been recognized for its pizza culture and establishments.
A pizzeria is a restaurant focusing on pizza.