Ciro di Maio trains inmate pizza makers

The pizzaiolo originally from Naples, owner of the pizzeria “San Ciro,” will teach the secrets of dough and cooking to inmates in Brescia for two months. Ciro Di Maio: “The restaurant industry needs workers, we want to help those who want to create a second chance for themselves. If other pizzerias want to participate in the project, they are welcome.”

Ciro Di Maio is a young pizza maker, born in 1990, from Frattamaggiore, in the Naples area. In 2015, after leaving his studies at the Alberghiero, to find some new opportunities he decided to move to Lombardy. This is how the adventure of “San Ciro,” his pizzeria based in Brescia, began. From initial difficulties to working realization: today Ciro considers himself a privileged man and, after overcoming the difficulties related to the pandemic and subsequent increases in raw material prices, he decided to give those less fortunate the chance to find a job. Pizza as a form of rebirth. Work as an escape from crime.

Since February 28, in fact, Ciro has been teaching the art of pizza to the inmates of the Canton Mombello prison in Brescia, thanks to a project conceived in collaboration with Luisa Ravagnani, guarantor of the rights of persons deprived of their liberty of the City of Brescia, and supported by the director of the prison itself, Francesca Paola Lucrezi. A project that was still born in 2019, then suspended because of Covid, and can now take off.

For two months, Ciro will enter the prison twice a week to carry out theory and practice lessons on how to make the perfect pizza. From the role of salt to oven temperature, through the secrets of dough and those related to tomatoes. The lessons will be attended by seven inmates, all of whom have been charged with misdemeanors and thus are ready to serve a (short) prison term. In all, forty hours of a professional course that will use prison facilities (such as an electric oven) and will be supported by “San Ciro,” at least for managing the first doughs.

“A boy who ends up in prison, perhaps for minor offenses, then has a huge difficulty in reintegrating into the working world,” Ciro explains. “I know this from personal experience, I’ve seen many friends end up badly. That’s why I decided to make a personal commitment to help them. At this moment in history, by the way, there is an increasing demand for pizza makers and people who want to get involved in the restaurant business. We thought of offering such a course precisely to almost automatically guarantee employment for the people who will take the course.”

Ciro’s goal in the medium term is to create a sort of consortium of pizza makers who, like him, want to give those who have gone wrong a chance and simultaneously fill those roles that are still vacant. “I am launching an appeal to my colleagues who work in the restaurant industry,” Ciro concludes. “I would like to found an association of people who want to help former prisoners reintegrate with a new professionalism. At this time when there is a shortage of workers, it is a positive model for everyone.”

Luisa Ravagnani is guarantor of the rights of persons deprived of their liberty in Brescia. “Learning a trade in prison represents a concrete chance to use the time of the sentence to prepare for a future away from the deviant choices that previously led to prison,” she says. “Ciro’s commitment to this project shows that the outside community is capable of abandoning prejudice and stigma to become a key element in the path to reintegration. All that remains is to hope that Ciro’s enthusiasm will infect other entrepreneurs who, like him, know how to believe in second chances.

Francesca Paola Lucrezi is the director of the prison. “The pizza-making course in the Brescia Prison has been highly appreciated right from the start among the inmates who have asked, in far greater numbers than the places available, to participate,” she says. “The professionalizing activity, in addition to conferring skills, is particularly ‘attractive’ for spendability in the world of work. The repetition of the activity within the prison is certainly desirable, and it would be an important achievement if other pizzaioli accepted Ciro’s proposal to consort in this sense: making a system guarantees effectiveness and tightness in results.”

It must be said that Ciro is no stranger to charitable initiatives. Some time ago, he also devoted himself to training in Naples’ Rione Sanità, an area that reminds him of the street where he grew up, Via Rossini in Frattamaggiore. The institute that embraced his project was the D’Este Caracciolo hotel school. Specifically, the classes that attended the video lectures were those with a food and wine address and a dining and hospitality address.

SAN CIRO – Ciro Di Maio was born in Frattamaggiore, a town in the Naples area, in 1990. Housewife mother, father with a stormy past. His first experiences in work are at age 14, then he enrolls in Hotelier, but at 18 he leaves his studies and starts working. In 2015, the turning point: he found a job as a pizzaiolo for a large chain in Lombardy, then managed to take over that pizzeria together with six partners, finally becoming sole owner. That’s how the “San Ciro” adventure began, his place in Brescia (near the Oz multiplex, in via Sorbanella) that today employs about fifteen people and is known for the veracity of its pizzas, but also for its a la carte haute cuisine menu. It is a beloved place because it represents Neapolitan tradition, starting with the ingredients: dop oil, mozzarella di bufala campana dop, pomodorino del Piennolo, homogenized buffalo ricotta and porchetta di Ariccia Igp. Fundamental is the dough: every day the exact level of hydration is chosen, based on the humidity of the day. On the menu he has pizza verace, but also battilocchio, the pizza made from a dough fried in hot oil and immediately served wrapped in straw paper. The pizzas are all different; they are handmade. Ciro often repeats. “I like to pull the ears of the pizzas, each one has its own character and must show it, I hate perfectly round pizzas and if there is more tomato on one side than another it is because we use real tomatoes.” Many VIPs love him; the walls of his restaurant are full of photographs. Among others are Eva Henger, who went to cook pizzas one evening at his place. Not forgetting the players of Brescia Calcio, who whenever they can, even after games, drop by to say hello.