Giuseppe Oliva

The Path

A linear route is not required for disciplined dough work, and Giuseppe Oliva’s path shows why. He trained at Nautical Institute in Trapani, then worked as an officer on merchant and passenger ships, where timing, observation, and control under changing conditions are part of the job. Those same habits later carried into pizza: reading the room, managing heat, and staying exact when variables shift. From 2013, he worked as pizzaiolo at Bæst in Copenhagen, Denmark, a formative period that placed his practice inside the city where SURT would later take shape. The movement from nautical study to shipboard work to the oven is visible in the craft itself: attention becoming method, method becoming rhythm. Since 2019, Giuseppe has been founder and owner of SURT, and the project reflects the same directness that defines his cooking. The work is built on clear procedure, steady hands, and a tight relationship between dough, fire, and fermentation.

The Work Today

At SURT, the craft is defined by restraint and precision. Giuseppe’s method does not depend on excess; it leans on acidity, texture, and the force of fundamentals handled well. That gives the pizza a plainspoken identity: process stays legible, and the result carries the marks of careful making rather than decoration.

Signature

Giuseppe's signature dishes include Sur Pie. The name is concise, and so is the idea behind it: a compact expression of the SURT style, with the project’s broader approach carried in a single named item.

In Their Words “SURT pays homage to handcraft and the unpredictable character of gesture.”

Acclaim

His recognition is tied to a specific set of technical concerns: sourness, natural leavening, pan cooking, and fire, brought together in a Copenhagen pizza identity with Italian roots. The strength of the work is in how those parts stay aligned, with each element serving the same clear language.