We move to Rosarito where an Italian is already winning
prizes with his cuisine.
Manny, what part of Italy are you from?
- [Manny] I'm born and raised in Naples.
- Naples? - Yes.
- I've been to your city, I've been to Naples.
- Yes, like 25 minutes from Pompeii which is very, very,
very famous. - Wow.
From Mount Vesuvius, right? - Yes, basically,
we live under the Vesuvio-
- Wow. - Which is in the zone
of East Naples.
- You know, oddly enough, some of the best pizza
I've ever had has been in Naples.
- Yes.
- Better than Rome, actually.
- Yes, in Neapolitan pizza is the first one inventor.
This is not the best, but it is the first one.
- It's the first one.
- Yes, different guys.
- Are you making here a Naples style, Neapoli style?
- I make Neapolitan style.
I don't have the exact ingredients and it's like Naples
who have the pizza because the water is different.
Main ingredient of the pizza is the water.
- The water makes a difference.
- It's the main ingredient, basically, yes.
There's so many different kind of water than you have
no idea because the water, lighter shades,
the dough is stronger.
- You're tasting it with different waters?
- Yes, it's grow faster and becoming lighter
to work on that.
- And is that good? - Yes.
- Lighter is good? - Yes, yes.
The Neapolitan pizza is a lighter pizza.
It's not a pie, it's a pizza.
- It's a pizza. - Yes.
Other people, that's pie.
For my portfolio, I do pizza.
- Yeah, you do a real pizza. - Yes.
They ask me, "Why you don't put to the mozzarella on top?"
In Neapoli, we don't put too mozzarella on top.
- [Jorge] Right, it barely has any cheese, very little.
- We put fior de latte which is a different kind of cheese.
- Oh really? - Yes, see, without the water,
then usually have the mozzarella, it's more dry,
and it's basically the same than I find the,
they have the Oaxaca casero fresco.
I have this guy that make four, five kilos x 2 days for me.
He's a local guy from Santa Fe.
- You use Oaxaca?
- Yes we do.
I don't come from Italy down here, you know, to do pie.
I got from here to do pizza.
- You want that?
Go to Domino's, right? (laughs)
- Yeah, it's right across the street there. (laughs)
- Now, how did you make your way to Baja, Manny?
How did you-
- Before over here, I was trying to open a pizza place
in Amsterdam, Holland.
Yeah, with a friend of mine, and this friend of mine
didn't wanna invest.
It's very expensive like to open or like to open
in California.
In California, papers was difficult to make,
to open a business.
See, because I have a lot of friends in Tijuana,
and so others here, some Rosarito, you know,
way cheaper to invest.
Okay, I'm an Artisan.
That's it, simple as that.
I'm not gonna change nothing.
I don't have a microwave in my house,
I don't have a freezer, and that-
- Everything fresh.
- Everything got by fresh and local, mostly local.
Only thing that I buy that is not local is my Italian pasta
which I use La Molisana.
I don't use anybody. (speaks in foreign language)
100% Italian grains.
- And if it's Italian grains, it means it has no pesticides?
- Yeah, it's much better than the Canadian or others.
- It was grown with Italian water.
- Yes. - Right?
- Italian water, plus we do that from 2,000 years.
We do bread from 2,000 years. - Wow.
- And we still have some of the grains in Italy
that you cannot buy in France or somewhere else.
- 100% Italian. - Yes, yes.
- Your menu is always changing depending on what the day.
- Yes, yes.
- Kind of Italy, okay?
- Kind of Italy. - Yes.
In Italy, we work by season.
It means the menu is never the same all year long.
We don't frozen a lot, we try to keep everything
by the season guys.
That's what's it's supposed to be.
- Of course. - And plus, we buy very,
very local.
I buy Italian pasta, I buy from all local people here.
My cheese is not from a supermarket.
I have the guy here that make for me.
- See the cow? (laughs) - You know,
sometimes he comes with this five kilo of cheese
that is still warm.
- Really? - Yeah.
And when he goes in the pizza over there, 90 seconds,
you know guys, he's starting.
That's why I like what I do.
Other people, they do it for money.
I do it because I like- - You're an artisan.
- Yes, I'm a small artisan. - Wow.
- I don't make $1, it's all glory. (laughs)
- Manny, well, when somebody does something with love
it's normally, it shows in the end product,
and we wanna see your end product.
- Okay. - We're gonna get
to see your food.
It's "Crossing South", folks, stay with us.
Based on what Manny said, this should be a good one.
Don't go anywhere.
Well, Manny was all hands on deck.
Sometimes, the artisanal label is used as a cliche
or a hyperbole, but not here.
If you look at him work, you almost think you're watching
Bob Ross at work, sans the fro.
If you have not been to the old country across the pond,
to Italy, having a pizza like this may require
that you reset your expectations for a pizza dish
and try these original version as its own thing.
It's that different, but oh, so good.
(bright music)
Okay, so Manny says is that the quintessential pizza
is the margarita that he speaks very highly of it.
It's when he brought it, it's almost like a painter
bringing you his work of art that all these brush strokes
of lightness, even the sogginess, he expresses of it
like part of that, the maduration of the dough,
look at the porous, how it's maturing,
and the color of it also.
So we're gonna try his masterpiece, and I've been to Naples.
I've eaten pizza over there, and this looks very similar
to that so we shall try it in Baja, in Rosarito, right?
Oh my Lord.
From the first bite, you know, I'm your typical guy
that likes like the gigantic cheesy pizzas.
I'm that kind of guy, you are too, right?
It's what we've been used to in this side of the world.
So normally, you look at something like this and like,
"It can't be better than just a giant cheesy pizza
from a commercial place."
It is a fantastic taste and you have to know that the reason
why we're here is because many of our fans,
many of our acquaintances are raving that is some
of the best, if not the best tasting pizza, in Baja.
Like, I mean, that's a tall statement.
So the fact that this place is jumping out is for a reason,
and margarita pizza's not good everywhere.
I've ordered it before in some places,
and it's like boring to me.
This first bite was blissful, makes you rejoice.
I'm gonna close my eyes, imagine I'm in a villa somewhere
in Italy, enjoying the breeze with Vesuvius on top,
hoping it won't explode in Naples.
(bright music)
It's phenomenal, it's phenomenal.
This little bite bit of margarita on the planet
and the one that's going into my mouth.
When a cook, chef, or whoever is in the kitchen cares
about the food they're molding, imagining how each
ingredient will affect your experience, well,
that person becomes known by the local population
really fast.
You know, that golden recommendation often stated as,
"You have to try this place,"
that is how Manny is becoming known in Baja, California.
Okay, so check this out, folks.
Manny brought and cut up this beautiful calzone made again
in the Naples style.
It's got Oaxaca cheese, but not just any Oaxaca cheese,
you know, fresh, homemade Oaxaca cheese.
It's got ricotta, it's got all these different ingredients
like pepperoni, Italian sausages, ham,
it's got tomato sauce, fresh basil, and look at on top,
you've got your mushrooms, you got your tomatoes,
you got your basil, you got some parme on top.
He is reinforcing the fact that if it's soggy, it's good
and I agree with it.
There is food that just goes good soggy when all the juices,
all the creaminess is infiltrating and infusing the dough.
Look at that ricotta, that Oaxaca.
I'm going in, folks.
This might not be pretty.
Everything just tastes fresh.
There's a difference.
When as soon as you bite into it,
you can tell the difference of processed food
and things that are just made with fresh ingredients.
Baja has certainly been compatible with this Naples Native,
was found local ingredients combined
with Italian ingredients to create a cuisine
for the benefit of the population in the region, wow.
(gentle music)
Even though the lasagna is dough, which you could say is
like a type of bread, you know, you can grab in his style
in Naples and the way his family, you could literally grab
some bread and put some lasagna on the bread.
So we're gonna try it multiple ways to honor the ancient way
of Manny's family.
So the first one is going to be the typical, just like,
I'm just gonna try the lasagna.
Can you believe this?
You know, halfway around the world and you have access
to literally the old country and it's cuisine.
Thanks to people like that who have transported themselves
and their knowledge to countries that maybe don't have
a whole lot of Italians, for instance.
Mm, let's honor him and his ancestors and his family
by trying with a little bread.
Okay.
Mm, this bread is literally the same as the dough
for the margarita pizza.
He said you can try it three ways, lasagna alone,
lasagna with some of my famous Italian bread,
and some bread alone.
So we're gonna try some bread alone.
Mm, look at it.
I gonna show you how this opens.
Look at that, it's beautiful.
Look at that strand, how it just pulls, beautiful.
It's like fibers.
That is high quality bread, my friends.
That is high quality Italian bread.
A place is enriched when it adds culture
not previously existent in the area, everyone wins.
Oh, we're not done.
We're about to try what you could say is the quintessential
Baja seasonal pizza.
Italian food, Italian restaurants, they always serve,
as Manny was saying, things according to season.
Now, fisherman friends of his gave him bluefin tuna,
and guess what?
We have a bluefin tuna pizza here.
The only complaint that he has is that he couldn't find
olives from Italy.
He says that normally, he would use the Oliva di Gaeta.
Gaeta is a city north of Naples, and that's what he
would have used.
So he's using, he apologized for these commercial olives,
which is we don't mind, of course, we don't mind.
And look at that, that bluefin tuna, medium rare.
Oh my goodness.
I knew it was under something because I always thought this.
Something becomes soggy it's because it's drenched
in the sauces, the creams or whatever you're eating.
So let's go, let's get in there, let's... (blows)
(gentle music)
Just when you thought things couldn't get better.
I'll tell you one thing, all of the food that I've had here
with Manny is delicious, but the man is a specialist
in pizzas because they are at another level.
They are so full of flavor, wow.
Okay this, if you can see now, there's two different
pizzas here, different sides.
So this is just tomato sauce, but this is spicy pesto.
Spicy pesto right here with tomato sauce mixed.
None of it overbearing, it's a perfect balance,
and it literally takes me to Naples.
I've been to Naples and this might be a little better
than the ones I had in Naples.
So Manny has truly brought his culture to Baja.
So after getting to see refugee children dignified
with quality education and some normality
in a region foreign to them, and after getting to know Manny
and the food he brought to Baja, California
from his native town of Naples, Italy,
we wonder what other experience we will get to live
the next time we cross south.
(upbeat music)
- [Narrator] Like to know more about the places
you've just seen?
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