Chef Giovanni Giosa
Back in the days when Nashville was a bit of a pizza ghost town, Porta Via was the first local pizzaria to apply for and receive VPN status from the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, meaning they were serving pies up to the standards of the masters of Napoli. It took Nashvillians a while to appreciate what a true Neapolitan pizza entailed, with its minimal toppings intentionally still slightly soggy after a rapid pass through an infernal oven. Fans of Pizza Hut needed not apply at this local institution.
A major force behind the drive for authenticity was chef Giovanni Giosa, who ran the kitchen ever since the restaurant opened its doors on White Bridge Road in 2009. Over the past few years, Giosa had struggled with cancer, seeming to have had a bit of a rebound recently before unfortunately passing away of pancreatic cancer on July 4. That date is even more ironic and tragic when you realize that just this year, Giosa became an American citizen in front of a group of friends and family, an event that Porta Via owner Mehrdad Alviri described as “one of his proudest moments.”
Giosa leaves behind two children, who also recently lost their mother six months ago to liver disease. Left with no living immediate family in America, Aurora, 22, and Salem, 19, find themselves in need of assistance, so Alviri and the Porta Via staff have put together a GoFundMe campaign in the chef’s memory. The effort raised almost $10,000 of its $50,000 goal within the first day or so, and support keeps flowing in.
If you’d like to learn more about the effort or in some small way thank Giosa for helping to drag our city out of the Papa John’s desert, you can visit the GoFundMe page to find out how to help.
