110. Talia Di Napoli pizzas selling like hotcakes, er, pies

As I wrote in a previous post, Ben and I ordered a box of frozen pizzas direct from Italy from Talia di Napoli, an outfit that had a little write-up in the Food section of the New York Times. As a treat for our kids, we also sent boxes to them, containing five pies each.

My daughter Maria, who has actually lived in Napoli and is a frequent visitor there, is a writer and editor at Food and Wine, and she enjoyed the pizza so much – the idea of it and the reality of it – that she wrote an article about Talia for the online version of her magazine.

The next day, she received a lovely message of appreciation from the Talia’s founder. He thanked her for understanding what he and his uncle were trying to achieve when they left their corporate jobs to start the company, and shared his anticipation of the delighted reaction of his 25 pizzaioli and their families when they would see her article later in the day.  He quoted his Neapolitan nonna as saying “La fortuna sorride agli audaci,” which translates to “Luck smiles on the audacious.” For him, he said, audacity was “the hope that someone would agree that Napoli, and its incredibly hard working families, have a lot to share with the world.”

Many readers of my blog post, and of Maria’s article, immediately ordered a box of pizzas from Talia. Why not — what can possibly be bad about having a reasonably-priced, delicious box of pizza from Napoli arrive at your doorstep? It’s practically irresistible. In fact, when I checked out the Talia website, several of the varieties were out of stock. Business seems to be booming.

I like to think that Maria and I were a small part of that. I like to think, as we all enjoy our pies, that we are now all part of the Talia famiglia.