Asking for garlic at a pizzeria: crime or classic?

Asking for garlic at a pizzeria: crime or classic?

How much do you need to know about cooking to open an Italian pizzeria? Judging by an employee's reaction to a request with garlic, not much. A customer ordered a margherita with extra garlic and got a "with garlic???" as if he had asked for something sacrilegious. The scene, recounted on a responsible consumerism forum, exposes a recurring problem: the lack of training at many pizzerias that market themselves as Italian.

Garlic is a basic ingredient in Italian cooking. Classic recipes like pizza aglio e olio or puttanesca include it. But the employee, who had probably never heard of them, refused the request, offering only garlic powder. The customer ended up at a by-the-slice place where at least the marinara had garlic, even if the pizza was reheated and mediocre. The irony: the pizzeria that takes offense at garlic is the one that flaunts its Italian identity, while authentic flavor takes refuge in a neighborhood joint.

Behind this anecdote lies a question of responsible consumerism: customers should be able to tell the difference between a pizzeria that respects tradition and one that only uses the label. The comments in the thread reflect two camps: those who argue that every place makes its own version, and those who demand fidelity to the original recipes. Meanwhile, the customer is left with the feeling that, for a good Italian pizza in Spain, sometimes you have to look in the most unexpected places.