Redwood Metropolis has a brand new pizzeria, transplanted straight from Lake Como.
The brand new restaurant is the results of a real-life love story between restaurateur Mohamed Farouq, who immigrated to Italy as a teen from Morocco, and Peninsula resident Sarika Batra, who discovered her strategy to Farouq’s pizzeria whereas touring close to Milan in 2018.
The then-16-year-old Farouq was headed for Switzerland by prepare, when he disembarked close to Lake Como and didn’t manage to pay for to get again on. Caught in a brand new metropolis, he started working in a restaurant whose chef educated him as his assistant and ultimately, his successor.
Keen to start out his personal place, he started making and promoting pizza, first from a window he rented by the day and ultimately at his personal restaurant, Pizzeria Cardamomo — a reference to his nickname, “Momo.” Some 25 years later, he’d turn out to be a famend pizzaiolo, recognized for his clear cooking fashion and distinctive recipes, like pistachio pizza, constructed on a particular sourdough pizza crust.
That preliminary assembly in 2018 quickly had Batra and Farouq touring between Farouq’s dwelling in Italy and Batra’s in Burlingame. They determined to marry throughout lockdown.
Final month, Farouq opened his new Pizzeria Cardamomo on Broadway, Redwood Metropolis’s up-and-coming restaurant hub. He’s excited to adapt the menu for a brand new viewers of American clients, Batra says, however already he’s discovering followers along with his lineup of basic and signature pizzas, together with the Momo ($25) with fior di latte, montaggio cheese and yellow potatoes, and a pizza riff on Carbonara ($27). As for that well-known pistachio pizza, it’s right here too: The Bronte ($26) is topped with fior di latte, ricotta, pistachio pesto and chopped pistachios.
Particulars: Open for lunch and dinner Tuesday-Sunday at 2053A Broadway in Redwood Metropolis; pizzeriacardamomo.com.
