What you are about to read is a typical story from Milan, even if the five characters are all from Puglia, from Cerignola near Foggia to be precise (one is from Canosa di Puglia). These guys, between 24 and 30 years old, set their mind on opening their own business focusing on a single product, the typical panzerotti from Puglia, challenging one of Milan’s institutions, as the legendary Luini in Via Santa Redegonda 16 have fed all the Milanesi with their panzerotti since 1949. This kind of story is very appreciated here in Milan.
These five guys are Paolo Amato, Michele Conte and Mirko Cotugno (the youngest), who are all in the field, and Gianpaolo Sgaramella and Vincenzo Terenzio, who had the idea and found the money to start despite not having any experience in the food business (Gianpaolo has a degree in Business Studies and until recently was in charge of marketing for a gym franchise, Vincenzo is a chemical engineer). To learn something more we talked about it with Paolo Amato, in charge of the fillings, in their venue in Viale Bligny 1, a former copy shop that has been renamed Panzarotti. Paolo is a smart and nice guy who knows his way around things. They all call him Paolone since, apparently, many of the things he cooks don’t stray far from his hands.