Davide Di Bilio is a certified pizza-chef and bakery-chef and has always placed great importance on training, because a good pizza maker must know different leavening techniques and do research on doughs, flours and combinations.
The origins: between Piedmont, Sicily and Liguria
From a very young age, I learnt to love the flavours and aromas of Sicilian tradition thanks to my grandmother, but - having been born and raised in Piedmont - I was able to combine my Mediterranean imprinting with an approach closer to Piedmontese cuisine.
My passion for cooking dates back to when I was a child, in particular I think of the long summers spent in Liguria with my grandparents, both Sicilian, who emigrated there in the 1950s.
My grandmother was a simple, semi-illiterate woman, but an extraordinarily talented cook and the custodian of ancient Sicilian cooking knowledge. She had a in-depth knowledge of raw materialsI think of the vegetables grown in the garden and the thousands of wild herbs picked in the fields, of the homemade pasta and bread, of the fish brought in at dawn directly from the fishermen. Every morning my grandmother would bring me a warm focaccia, freshly baked: 'This morning the baker has already come by,' she would say. But it wasn't true: years later I found out that it was she who prepared it.
Even today I still have vivid memories of those scents, those authentic flavoursand in a way I work continuously to recreate them and make my customers experience some of those emotions as well.
The route
In my early twenties, I spent a long period in London, following my fiancée (and current wife) Virginia Scarsi, who was living there for study. In London I worked as sous-chef in the restaurant 'Il Salotto' on Ealing Broadway. This experience - mainly thanks to my mentor, the elderly chef Germano - made me realise that cooking was not just a way of supporting myself, but a job I was very passionate about and in which I could express myself at my best.
Back in Italy, the family expanded with our two children (Adelaide and Corrado). As it was difficult to reconcile the catering schedule with the family routine, I decided to temporarily give up catering: then this period, I worked for a chemical company, making the most of my organisational and management skills: an experience that was very useful to me later on in the management of Fuori Tempo.
In the meantime, I have never stopped experimenting with new doughs and leavening in the family's large wood-fired oven, often organising dinners for friends and relatives: this, too, has been an excellent training ground for my work in the restaurant business, which I took up in the 2015 with the opening of Fuori Tempo by Canale.
Intensive training
Genuine Association Pizza Napoletana
In order to improve my pizza-making techniques, I attended the 2015 the intensive training on Neapolitan pizza, at the headquarters of the Verace Pizza Napoletana Association in Napleswith a period of internship at one of Naples' historic pizzerias certified by the association.
Contemporary pizza master
University of Pizza®
To further refine my knowledge of doughs and intrigued by new trends in contemporary pizza, I attended from 2018 to 2019 the 4 modules of the University of Pizza of Vighizzolo d'Este.
Here I had the great privilege of having three undisputed masters of contemporary world pizza as teachers: Simone Padoan, Renato Bosco e Massimo Giovannini. My personal working style was very much influenced by their unique and different characteristics: of Simone I greatly appreciated the flair and creativity, of Renato the organisation and method, of Massimo the passion and energy.
During the master's course, we covered multidisciplinary insights into chemistry and physics, characteristics of flours, dough mixing, leavening and baking techniques, ingredient composition and dynamics, cooking and topping preparation lessons, insights into original grains and spontaneous fermentations without yeast.
Pizza Up®
Technical symposium on contemporary Italian pizza
I follow developments in the contemporary pizza scene with great interest and participate in the national 'Pizza Up' symposium every year, believing that discussions with colleagues and continuous updating are essential.
#PizzaUp is a national symposium which brings together contemporary pizza makers from all over Italy and confronts them with each other and with members of the press and culture on technical and social issues.
Comprehensive study path for Contemporary Bakery
Academy of Bread®
In order to get as much training as possible on leavening, I also attended the specialisation courses of theBread Academy (in Veneto), becoming a certified bakery chef.
The 'Bakery Chef' is a leavening professional, an expert in flour and leavening techniques, but also an expert in new generation machinery that has revolutionised the classic figure of the 'baker'.
Alongside classic baking methodslinked to the local traditions of different parts of Italy, the bakery chef uses new techniques with different floursmultigrain, special mixes, whole grain, with ancient grains, km0 and organic, with seeds, with fibre, with reduced sodium content.
Specialisation course on Panettone and Colomba with live mother yeast
Flour University
Being first and foremost a leavener, the desserts I love working on most are the large leavened goods such as panettone and colomba.
In order to perfect my preparation techniques with sourdough and long - and slow - rising, I decided to attend a specific master class, with a focus on artisanal preparation in the laboratory and the correct balance of recipes.
Consultancy
Davide Di Bilio is available for technical consultancy in Italy and abroad in the field of pizza and the bakerycertified pizza-chef and bakery-chef.
For information: consulting@fuoritempo.com
