[music] -This starter was started by my auntie family 69 years .. Every single piece of bread that I make, every single focaccia that has been made here at the Lele Dinner Club is made with that starter.

I'm giving to people a story, not just a piece of bread or a piece of pizza or a piece of focaccia.

It's a family history that I'm trying to tell to people.

The food that I want to cook is something that feed your soul.

When you enter over here, it's like you step in a new world.

Basically, not anymore in Los Angeles, but you are in Naples.

The music that you hear, 100% Neapolitan rap.

The rap or rap.

Neapolitan rap.

That's how you say it.

Is that good pronunciation?

A rap.

[chuckles] When you make bread, you are dealing with living things.

Any living things for me reacts to your energy.

It's like if you wake up in the morning angry about yourself, about anything else, and you try to cook, nothing good is going to come out of it.

It's like, "Oh, you're going to be angry."

Then I'm not going to rise.

I'm not going to do it.

People think that I'm crazy because I speak to the bread.

When I see that it's not rising enough, it's like, "Oh, please, come on.

We need to go.

Services starts in three hour.

I need you to rise.

Come on.

Be a good boy.

Be a good boy."

Believe it or not, the bread rises.

I don't know why, but it works.

My auntie had an underground bakery.

Basically, in our house, we used to have a little oven down the basement.

It was an ancient oven.

We used to make bread and focaccias and all kind of cuts of bread for the delis in my little town.

I loved mixing the dough because everybody was putting their hands in the beautiful sticky dough, this wooden box.

A kid is drawn to mess, like why are they having so much fun?

It's like, I want to participate.

As soon they started to understand, I was starting to get a grasp.

I said, "Maybe we can save some labor.

Let's put him to work."

Child labor.

I'm a product of child labor.

That's who I am.

Basically, focaccia is the precursor of pizza.

Focaccia used to be a plate for ingredients to go on top.

One of the focaccia that we serve at Lele is made with Concerto Romano, which is one of the oldest cheese made by the Roman Empire.

It used to be served in Pompeii.

When you taste it, it's not super sourdough-ish.

It's more on the sweeter side.

That's a technique that has been in my family for a long time.

Also, it's in Caserta.

A lot of people use this technique.

When I came to US with that starter by my auntie, I jar it, close it, wrap it like a baby, and put it in my suitcase.

Hopefully, pray God that the custom didn't stop me because otherwise, I'd let you throw away.

The moment I passed custom and I knew that the starter was with me, I was like, "God, yes."

I made it because that's the foundation of all the bread and focaccias and all the flour products that I make.

[music] All right, another day in my life.

After learning the club, this is my main job, basically.

Come with me in the kitchen.

I'll show you every little things behind Pizza.. It's my first restaurant.

Come on.

When I came to US, I had $300.

I had to live in a van on Venice Beach for seven months and a half.

I started to work in a restaurant.

A lot of celebrities start to came in.

One of the celebrity was Chris O'Donnell.

Basically, he needed somebody to go to his house and teach him how to make pizza.

The only answer I gave to him, like a good Italian, "Pizza, don't worry.

I got you, brother.

I got you."

We started, and he started to stretch pizza with me in one of these party that he used to organize.

The third try like, "Okay, you do it.

I'm just going to go and enjoy the party."

In one of these parties, I met my current partners in Pizzana, Candace and Charles Nelson.

They started Sprinkles Cupcakes a long time ago.

I came from living in a van to going all over the US and making pizza.

This little piece of dough, it's what started everything.

People call it sourdough, right?

My starter is a fermented agent that makes the pizza, all the bread, the proof.

My auntie is the one that gave it to me, this starter.

Then I came over here in the US, and I refresh it every day.

Now, it's part of every pizza at Pizzana, every Focaccia a.. It's in everything I do.

[music] You know that every Italian is going to have a guy, right?

I have a guy for tomatoes, so come here.

-Daniele.

-Hello, my good friend.

-How are you doing?

-Now, better.

This is amazing.

-Good to see you.

-I love the hat.

-Thank you.

-Hans is one of the most amazing human being ever in Los Angeles.

It's a man that is focused on living in the past.

Hans went from having a job in a restaurant, a routine, to say, screw it, just going to be home and make my home a farm.

How many years now that you're doing all this?

-This garden I've been working on for about five years now.

I started just before the pandemic and slowly expanded to practically the entire backyard.

I have no employees.

I do all this by myself.

It's really a labor of love.

-That's why you've got that beautiful tan over there.

-I got too much sun.

I aged myself in 10 years and five years.

All right, come check out what I'm working on, Daniele.

I think this is something that's- -That's beautiful.

--near and dear to your heart.

Here, we have some of my own varieties that I've created, and they're in the finishing stages.

This is a type of pianola you've probably never seen before, except from me.

-No, it's bicolor.

-I'm the only one in the world growing it because I created it, and I get to name it.

This one is- -Can I try one of these?

-Of course, yes.

These are already about four weeks to a month old, and they've been sitting here.

This is how I prepare them to hang them.

You've obviously done that before, I'm sure.

-That's delicious.

It's starting to get on the sweeter side right now.

-[crosstalk] It's rich.

One of the greatest misconceptions I hear all the time is that, "Oh, we can't do things.

Food's so much better in Italy."

This and that.

Obviously, there's a deep tradition.

The food in Italy is incredible.

-100%.

-The ingredients are incredible.

The biggest misconception to me is that our produce isn't as good or that we can't compete.

I think the produce that we have available to us in California and some of the farmers and the talent that we have producing that are on par, can compete with the greatest produce anywhere in the world.

Anywhere.

-I agree.

When we talk about tradition, .. Tradition is something that before that became traditional, it was innovation.

I'll take the biggest example in the world.

When the first Margherita pizza was created, at the time, that Margherita pizza wasn't tradition, but was something new.

People embraced them, tried it, and then after 250 years, that Margherita pizza became something traditional.

Now, what prevents us from creating something, a technique, or a method of harvesting tomatoes like you're doing over here?

What prevents us to make something that we do over here to become tradition in 200 years?

Talking and looking over these beautiful tomatoes, it's just making me hungry.

Should we make a pizza?

-Let's do it, yes.

-Come on, let's make a pizza.

.. -I got the oven fired up.

Let's go.

I'll show you how I stendere la pizza.

-Some Italian in there.

Basically, in Neapolitan tradition, the dough usually is stretched like this.

See?

This one doesn't need to be slapped because otherwise you get too thin in the middle.

See?

Let's see.

That's pretty good.

Look, I still know how to make dough.

-Oh, yes.

-You work your fields- -All by hand, no tractor.

-Then I destroy them.

See?

I destroy your tomato.

There you go.

-You ready to open up our pizza shop over here?

-Let's do it.

-Right here.

-Another one?

-My house.

-Another one?

We are on the farm making pizza.

Come on.

Salut.

-Cheers.

We did it.

-I love you.

-I love you too.

[music] -People always associate Naples with just pizza, right?

Pizza or spaghetti, which is okay.

It's one of our staples.

There's so much variety.

It's a seafood town.

We have a lot of seafood.

During the week, we eat pretty light.

There is one of the most amazing vegetarian dish that we have.

Every day is a pasta with a different kind o.. At Lele Dinner Club, we do it.

We do pasta with zucchini, pasta with potato, pasta with butternut squash.

My favorite is the pasta with beans, pasta fagioli.

Mixing everything in this big pot with a lot of olive oil, with garlic, parsley, the tomatoes, and you reduce it down.

Then you add this beautiful bean broth in it.

Then you add pasta mista, which is all broken ends pastas.

Back in the days, the pastificio basically is the pasta factories.

Back in Naples, when the pastificio had all these broken ends pasta, instead of throwing them away, they couldn't sell, but they used to put it in a brown paper bag and just give it away to people that couldn't afford to buy the pasta for free.

A lot of Neapolitan dishes are born out of necessity, out of poverty.

To me, those are the best dishes.

-All right, ready?

Ready.

Misto.

[music] -You have nine courses, nine [?].

We're starting with the Neapolitan metodo classico.

[?]

-I cook like an Italian grandma.

Like I said, I'm not going to use my wooden spoon on.. All right?

When I started Lele Dinner Club, I started out on my house kitchen.

I wanted to cook for friends, basically.

Then my DMs started to crash.

I had 300, 400 DMs.

Like, "Where can I reserve?

When is it going to be?

Where do you do it?"

It's like, I got to find a space.

This was perfect.

We are basically at Foodstiz Studios.

There's an underground feeling.

Already, everything's set up.

It was just a perfect spot.

Also, my co-founder over here, Ferdinando Muscherino, is one of the most talented sommelier.

The first dinner I did at my house, I invited him to come and say, "Listen, I need a sommelier.

I need you to pair all the wine from Southern Italy with all the food that we do.

The menu is half written in Italian, so you don't really understand everything that's going on.

You're hit with a lot of Italian-ness.

Southern Italy is famous for the warmness.

In Naples, we do this.

When we see somebody, it's like, "Hey, how are you doing?

Oh my God, it's so good to see you."

"Where do you have to go?"

It's like, "Oh, I got to go to visit my family."

"Okay, let's go take a coffee first."

Doesn't matter what you have to do.

Let's go get an espresso.

Take the time to talk a little bit.

Over here, it's [?].

Everybody's so focused on work, work, work, and the human connection for me lacks over here.

I wanted to bring that back.

After that bite of food, you see the nod of peoples.

It's like, "Oh, this is good."

That makes my day.

You cook because you want to make somebody else day better.

[music]