pizza making
Making Pizza
Locals are snubbing traditional jobs like pizza making.
Vocabulary
| local | pretty (2) | increasingly |
| hire | dough (2) | available |
| faze | suburb | can’t stand |
| critic | evaluate | criticize |
| crust | tasty | according |
| odd | practical | the proof is in the pudding |
Video
Transcript
It can get pretty hot in the pizza kitchen. And for the pizzayolo, the pizza chef, there’s no time for rest.
Increasingly however, most Italians can’t stand the heat in the kitchen, and are getting out of this most Italian of professions.
Despite high unemployment, they are leaving it to others, like Gamal, from Egypt, to make the dough. And that’s just fine with Gamal.
“It’s an area where lots of jobs are availible,” he tells me.
He’s been in Italy for almost a dozen years, and was recently hired by the Ronta de Mora by the seaside suburb of Ostia.
Across this city, you’re more likely to find a Bangladeshi, a Bosnian or an Egyptian than a local in the oven.
It doesn’t faze pizza critic Armando, evaluating Gamal’s work.
“It’s good,” he says. “The crust is thin. I and a lot of people here like it, and it’s tasty.”
And maybe pizza isn’t as Italian as commonly thought. According to some historians, pizza actually comes from Egypt anyway, so there’s nothing unusual about having an Egyptian make your pizza.
There’s nothing odd about it,” says Gamal, a most practical man. “I’m here to work. And if there’s work, I’ll do it.”
And it doesn’t really matter where the pizzayolo comes from, the proof is in the pizza.
Questions
1. It’s very busy in a pizza kitchen. True or false?
2. Locals (Italians) like to make pizza (in a pizzeria). Yes or no? Why or why not?
3. Is there an irony with immigrants or foreigners making pizza in Ostia, Italy?
4. Foreigners are making the dough. What does this mean?
5. What nationalities were mentioned making pizza?
6. Only Italians can make real, good, authentic pizza. Yes or no?
7. What do some historians say?
A. I love pizza; pizza is very popular where I live. Yes or no?
B. If yes, how long has pizza been in your city? Has it been adapted to local tastes?
C. What other foods are popular?
D. Are there many foreign or ethnic restaurants in your city?
E. Are there jobs that locals don’t want to do?
F. There are expats or immigrants working in my city. True or false?
If true, what are they doing?
G. Do many people from your country emigrate and work abroad? If yes, where?
See FOOD.
