Gennaro Esposito
Pizzaiolo and founder
Gennaro learned to stretch dough at eleven in his uncle's pizzeria in the Sanità and has not stopped since. He still opens every ball of dough himself and judges the oven by sound rather than thermometer.
Napoli · Barcelona · 2016
About
A family from Naples, an oven on a hearth of volcanic stone, and a street in El Born that felt like home.
01
The Esposito story
Forno Nero opened in the spring of 2016, when Gennaro and Carla Esposito left the Sanità district of Naples with two suitcases, a sourdough starter and a conviction that Barcelona deserved a proper Neapolitan pizza.
They found a former flour warehouse on Carrer de la Farina, which felt like a sign. The ceiling vaults were kept, the walls were stripped back to the stone, and a master oven builder flew in from Naples to spend six weeks building the heart of the room.
Ten years on, the recipes are unchanged. Gennaro still opens the dough every morning, Carla still greets every table by name, and the oven has not gone cold since the day it was first lit.
02
The oven
Built by hand, with a brick dome over a hearth of stone quarried on the slopes of Vesuvius, our oven holds 485 °C and bakes each pizza in around ninety seconds. Volcanic stone stores heat like nothing else, which is what gives the cornicione its leopard spots and the base its light, crisp snap.
03
The dough
Caputo flour, water, sea salt and a whisper of yeast; that's all. The dough rests for 48 hours at a controlled temperature before it is hand-stretched to order, which is why it is so light, so digestible and so full of flavour.
04
The team
Four people, one oven, and a shared stubbornness about doing things properly.
Marta Vilaró
Chef de cuisine
Born in Vic and trained in Modena, Marta runs everything that is not a pizza: the antipasti, the desserts and the Tuesday trip to the Santa Caterina market. She is the reason the courgette flowers are always Catalan.
Davide Russo
Sommelier
Davide grew up among the vineyards of the Taburno and keeps a short, stubborn list of wines from Campania and Catalonia. Ask him what to drink with a Diavola and clear your evening.
Carla Esposito
Front of house
Gennaro's sister and the first face you see at the door. Carla remembers names, allergies and which table you liked last time, and she will find you a seat even when the book says there is none.