Antonio Starita

The Path

As third-generation owner of Starita a Materdei and chef of Starita, Antonio Starita carries a family line through daily production rather than display. The lineage is legible in the work itself: dough extended by hand, timing held steady, and the oven used as a final adjustment, not a flourish.

The Work Today

The clearest statement of that method is the Montanara Starita at Don Antonio by Starita in Atlanta. It begins as lightly fried pizza dough, then takes Starita tomato sauce and imported smoked buffalo mozzarella before a finish in the wood-burning oven. First the dough is given richness through frying; then the oven tightens the structure and sets the surface. The combination and technique was first created by Mr. Starita fifteen years ago and later emulated by many pizza makers. At Don Antonio by Starita in New York City, the Montanara is described as his justly famous fried pizza, invented there about ten years ago. The wording differs, but the craft point holds: frying establishes texture before the oven completes the pizza. In both versions, the sequence does the work, and the contrast between fry and fire carries the dish. The Atlanta menu extends that approach through the Racchetta, a racket-shaped pizza and calzone combination. Its form joins open and enclosed baking in one piece. Pistacchio e Salsiccia brings fresh pistachio pesto, Italian sausage, homemade mozzarella, pecorino romano, basil and extra virgin olive oil. Truffle Burrata Pizza layers prosciutto di parma, grape tomatoes, basil and homemade burrata filled with black and white truffles. Together, these dishes show a kitchen working between richness and restraint, with shape and filling treated as part of the same discipline.

Signature

Antonio's signature dishes include Montanara Starita, Montanara, Racchetta, Pistacchio e Salsiccia, and Truffle Burrata Pizza.

In Their Words “We’ve taken the most enjoyed pizzas and specialties from our homeland and combined them with proven winners from New York. There’s something for everyone on our menu.”

Acclaim

A fried dough technique finished in a wood-burning oven became not just a house specialty but a model emulated by many pizza makers. That influence is practical rather than abstract. It lives in the sequence: fry the dough lightly, add tomato sauce and smoked buffalo mozzarella, then return everything to the oven so the pizza carries both the tenderness of frying and the dry heat of wood fire.