Our Story
A journey from Naples to NYC, built on passion and purpose
Where True Neapolitan Pizza Comes to Life
Rosario and Pasquale have brought Naples into the heart of New York to make you experience a one-of-a-kind taste: to taste the true Neapolitan pizza. Forget all that you have known about pizza so far. At Ribalta the ingredients are all the Neapolitan ones: from the flour used for the dough, to natural yeast, to tomatoes, to Buffalo-milk mozzarella from Campania. For those who were born and raised in Naples, pizza is not just food, it is an experience indeed, which has that original, true taste.
Old-World Craft, New-World Possibilities
People working at Ribalta are extremely traditionalist as far as the dough is concerned: Pasquale only uses the mixture of flours for pizza certified by the Italian flour mill “Le 5 Stagioni” and the natural yeast coming from Italy, which makes pizza light and easy to digest. Toppings, instead, are very fanciful and delicate in order to cater to the different customers’ tastes. For this reason, our menu also boasts, besides the traditional pizzas.
Pasquale Cozzolino
Partner Executive Chef
Pasquale Cozzolino is an Italian chef and restaurateur best known for championing a more authentic, Neapolitan style of cooking. His unique pizza-making approach led to the success of his “Ribalta” restaurants and to the creation of his famous “Pizza Diet”.
Born and raised in Naples, Pasquale has spent his life honoring the history of Neapolitan cuisine and passionately studying the art of cooking. By the age of fifteen, he joined the famous culinary college “I Cavalcanti” in Naples where he became an apprentice to some of the best chefs in Italy.
In fact, Chef Cozzolino was a student of Gaetano Esposito—the great-grand-nephew of the chef who invented Neapolitan Pizza Margherita.
The influence of Chef Cozzolino’s mentors and home country are unmistakable in the bold flavors of his food.
After finishing culinary school, Chef Cozzolino diversified his experience by working as a Private Executive Chef in concert tours.
He began traveling extensively throughout Europe and South America with bands such as U2, Madonna, Muse, Coldplay, Pino Daniele, Vasco Rossi, Luciano Ligabue, Laura Pausini, Gianluca Grignani, and 883, to name a few.
Finally, in 2011, Chef Cozzolino settled down in New York City to become the Executive Chef of PizzArte & DellaRocco’s. In 2012, he became Partner & Executive Chef at Ribalta in the heart of Manhattan.