Francesco Crifo is a passionate advocate of pizza. He describes himself as a pizza chef and not a pizza maker and says that despite the abundance of pizza restaurants in Melbourne, there is still a real lack of knowledge about pizza, their bases, flours, toppings, and potential. To this end he has established his pizza academy where he offers a masterclass and an e-book to share the knowledge gained from growing up and working in pizza restaurants in Catania and Milan before coming to Melbourne. Francesco opened Roccella with Bernie Cuteri and Joe and Bruno Ceraso in East Melbourne and happily works there (even on his days off!) with his wife and a largely Italian staff. They opened nine weeks before we went into our first lockdown in Melbourne and had to quickly pivot to takeaway pizza, pasta and salads which was a godsend for East Melbourne locals and continues to be a popular local hangout. Francesco strongly believes that chefs must cook what their diners want and not what they themselves want to cook. He has four different pizza doughs (including an activated charcoal dough made from coconut shells) and he knows his grains and fermentation processes inside out. And the toppings? Francesco is all about balancing flavours and textures, salty and sweet, so that every bite is absolute deliciousness. There’s an impressive offering, but just to give you an idea of the thought that goes into his food, Francesco told me that he even has pineapple on one of his pizzas. But not with tomato, ham and cheese. Because the combination of pineapple and tomato, “is not correct.” Francesco’s Smoky Ananas has smoked and charred fresh pineapple, fior de latte, 24-month aged prosciutto, Stracciatella, vincotto glaze and cracked pepper. Delicious! Francesco gave me a tour of the restaurant before we sat down in the beautiful East Melbourne room filled with archival photos of the area in the early days and overlooking the lush Fitzroy gardens.