Recently, I have received many personal messages asking why I was in New Zealand. Some have asked if I have plans to open a pizzeria there, but for now, that is not the case.
I have been frequently traveling to New Zealand because I have started producing some food products there, for a very simple reason. The quality of the ingredients surpass my greatest expectations.
Part of my team is also located in Auckland, so together we work on the development of these products, test my new pizza creations and design new menus.
So for now, no restaurant is in plan… But maybe one day?
Salvatore Cuomo was born in Naples, Italy, in 1972, son of an Italian father and Japanese mother.
Cuomo was first inspired by his father who also was an Italian Chef in Naples. He began at the young age of 11, where he trained himself in the kitchen and traveled frequently between Italy and Japan. He gradually learned how to blend the traditional Italian art of cooking with the Japanese art of perfection.
A few years later he traveled to Japan with his father who opened an Italian restaurant in Chiba in 1984. About those early years Salvatore told the press that it wasn't a good starting experience: "I didn’t like Japan at all, so after one year, I went back to Italy and spent 2–3 years studying at a culinary school. When I was 18, I returned to Japan after my father became terminally ill and I have been here ever since."[3] Cuomo said that Italian Cuisine was just starting to get popular in those days. He and his two brothers decided that in order to succeed in the restaurant business in Japan they would have to understand the Japanese food mentality. They spent a couple of years researching the market before opening a new restaurant in Tokyo with what Cuomo calls "Original Neapolitan pizza."
Since that time, Cuomo has been credited with catapulting Neapolitan pizza to fame in Japan, and today in all Asia with over 100 restaurant.
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