Gabriele Bonci is an Italian chef.[1] He became well-known as a television personality in Italy to the point a theme song, "Bonci, Bonci, bon-bon-bon", was created.[1][2]
Bonci recalls every day on the way home from school he would stop for suppli, fried balls of risotto, and a slice of tomato pizza. He attended catering school.[1]
Bonci worked at restaurant Rome's Simposio and eventually became chef there.[1]
In 2003 he opened Pizzarium, called by The Atlantic "Rome's most revered pizza al taglio (pizza by the slice) joint".[2][3][4]
He experimented with fried pasta balls similar to the fried balls of risotto he'd grown up eating.[1] He became well-known for his pizzamaking and was named "Michelangelo of Pizza" by Vogue.[1][2][5] He was invited on a television program, La prova del cuoco.[1] He became a regular.[1][2]
Elisia Menuni developed a logo Bonci used, and Bonci developed a character around it, Bonci.[1] Bonci became a celebrity chef in Italy to the point a jingle, "Bonci, Bonci, bon-bon-bon", was used to introduce him for his appearances.[1][2][5] In 2011 he began teaching at Rome's Tricolore cooking school.[2]
The pressure of sustaining the persona caused him to retreat from the public view. As of the early 2020s he says he considers himself not a pizzaiolo but a farmer.[1]
Bonci had a television program, Pizza Hero.[1] It filmed in cities around Italy.[1]
In 2013 Bonci's Pizza:Seasonal Recipes From Rome’s Legendary Pizzarium was published.[4]
Bonci focuses on higher-quality ingredients such as flour from artisanal producer Mulino Marino.[2]
Bonci uses a long-fermentation method.[2]
The Atlantic called Bonci "Italy's foremost celebrity baker".[2] The Los Angeles Times called him "Rome's phenomenal pizza master".[4] The Washington Post said, "what do you call him? chef? baker? pizzamaker fanatic? genius?"[6] La Repubblica said that with Stefano Bonilli he had "inaugurated an era".[7] Anthony Bourdain joked that in order to get Bonci's pizza, people should, "Leave your family, abandon your children".[8][9][10] Mashed said he'd "reinvented the Roman idea of pizza".[10]
Bonci describes himself as a "big child. Big and round. Beautifully round".[1]
He started to cook at 14 and says that from then on he knew he wanted to cook and never wanted to do anything else.[1]
He has said that he became confused between where the dividing line between Gabriele Bonci and the character Bonci was, calling the character his "clown costume" and the jingle "the red nose". In 2022 he describes having to kill the character in order to himself survive. At the time he weighed almost 200 kilograms (440 lb). He decided to have sleeve gastrectomy.[1]