Authentic Naples pizza 'sweeps the United States'

With ovens made from Mt Vesuvius ash, top-quality ingredients

Rome - Certified-authentic Neapolitan pizza is taking off in the United States, according to an article by the Wall Street Journal. The financial daily cites a "growing wave of culinary entrepreneurs" who have been granted the seal of approval from the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (VPN), a nonprofit organization, founded in Naples three decades ago, whose mission is to "promote and protect...true Neapolitan pizza".

Justin Piazza, the 40-year-old Italian-American owner of two pizzerias in Phoenix, Arizona, says to get his certification he purchased about $25,000 in specialty equipment, including a dome-shaped wood-burning oven which features bricks made from the ashes of Mount Vesuvius. Piazza also must abide by strict quality standards, including using certain ingredients such as a flour the association describes as having "an almost talcum powder-like appearance, and proper dough-handling techniques.

Other pizza certification programs exist in addition to the VPN program, with 76 restaurants in the US having earned the certification, the WSJ reports. Internationally, there are nearly 500 certified. Italy has the most, the report adds.