“Primo from Big Night” Award for Dogged Commitment to Authenticity
by Stuff Boston  |  October 05, 2009

“Chef Giuseppe Castellano of Gran Gusto (90 Sherman Street, Cambridge, 617.441.0400) deserves this award for refusing to overload his wood-oven thin-crust pizzas.”

He’s from Naples, the birthplace of pizza, and if you try to add five extra toppings to the tomatoes, mozzarella di bufala, and basil on his classically perfect pizza margherita, he will curtly demur. Bravo, chef, for refusing to concede that the philistine customer is always right, for defending the idea that “sometimes the pizza likes to be alone.” (Never mind that in the movie, Primo’s restaurant proves too authentic for New Jersey and fails.)