
4th annual report Peninsula Restaurant Week It is here! Through Saturday, April 27, celebrate the Peninsula's restaurant scene with special prix fixe menus and offers at dozens of local eateries. We spoke to three restaurateurs participating in Peninsula Restaurant Week. This is the last interview of this year. I talked to you before, Kelly Liu, owner of Oh Honey Macaron About the inspiration behind her unique macarons and Bistro Vida owner Ali El Safi About the new cocktail bar he's opening next to his restaurant in Menlo Park.
Learn more about Peninsula Restaurant Week here. peninsularestaurantweek.com.
Craig and Annie Stoll decide to open a restaurant together on their second date.
A year later, in 1998, San Francisco's Delfina, serving California and Italian cuisine, opened for business. In 2005, the couple opened their first Pizzeria Delfina on San Francisco's California Street, with Craig in the kitchen and Annie in the front, and in 2008, Craig won a James Beard Award for Best Chef. Since then, she's opened four more pizzerias, including her own in Burlingame and Palo Alto (one she closed in 2020 due to the pandemic).
During Peninsula Restaurant Week, Pizzeria Delfina in Burlingame and Palo Alto will feature Insalata Primavera (little gem lettuces, radishes, lentils, asparagus, pea shoots, green goddess dressing) as an appetizer for $45 Offering a prix fixe 3-course menu. For mains, choose between carciofi pie (made with artichokes, mozzarella, arugula, ricotta salata, and gremolata) and Delfina's homemade potato gnocchi (made with English peas, prosciutto cotto, and fresh herb brofusso). Fior di latte soft serve ice cream (with roasted strawberries and rhubarb conserva) as dessert.
I spoke with Craig and Annie to learn about their respective journeys into the food and beverage industry, their passion for Italian cuisine, and upcoming changes to Pizzeria Delfina. The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Peninsula Gourmet Contact: How did the two of you get into the food and beverage industry?
Annie Stoll: I grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia, and my mother was a great cook. And for my 12th birthday, she took me to this place that was called the Knife of the Heart in the 70s. There was a white tablecloth and cold strawberry soup was served. And I've always loved service and loved going to restaurants since I was young. So I went to college for hotel restaurant management at Penn State University. I graduated from Penn State University and then I started running restaurants…and I moved here in 1990 and always operated with just the desire to open my own restaurant. But I'm a front-of-house person. I'm good at entertaining, so I knew I needed a chef partner. So I was looking for that and gaining experience, and I met Craig.
Craig Stoll: I'm from New York. I started washing dishes when I was in high school so I had money for a car payment so I could date girls. I think that was the sum of my drive at that point. But I just fell in love with it. It's like instant gratification – there was a fire, they gave me a beer after work, and everyone drank. I liked it.
I also come from a family of hardcore foodies, even before the word was coined. I grew up on the outskirts of the city, and my parents were wannabe hippies. So we were part of a Westchester food co-op in his '70s and they took us out to eat all over the city. I completely fell in love with it. I ended up going to culinary school right out of high school and went back to get a Bachelor's degree in Hospitality Management (Florida International University). And I moved here in his 1988 and started working for a very famous chef in San Francisco at the time. I was just moving around town, getting different chef jobs, getting sous chef jobs, bouncing around. And I had the opportunity to visit a group of beady guinea pigs at this culinary school in Turin, Italy. Then I spent three months in this Stalin-era conference center in the hills of Turin and got a job in Tuscany at a restaurant called Da Delfina. I would say it's like a central foundry in a small Tuscan village. Surrounded by olive groves and vineyards, I slept in a small room below the restaurant. It was obviously a great experience that inspired us years later. I moved back to the Bay Area, took jobs as a sous chef and chef, and just bounced around until I met Annie. We worked across the street from each other at Mill Valley and started dating. And on our second date, we decided to open a restaurant together.

Peninsula Gourmet Contact: Was Delfina named after Da Delfina in Tuscany?
Craig Stoll: Yes, it was a woman's name. Delfina was Grandma Nona. And she was in her 80s when I was there, and she's passed away a long time ago. Her son Carlo still runs the restaurant.
Peninsula Gourmet Contact: How would you describe the style of pizza served at Pizzeria Delfina?
Craig Stoll: New York meets Naples. Some might call it neo-Neapolitan. What we're looking for is a really well-developed, airy cornicione. This is the crust, the edges, and the center of the crust enough to hold the toppings, cheese, etc. Not too long after opening Delfina, we went to Naples and spent some time there working and staging in different locations. We've had pizza in Italy before, but we've never spent any real time on the ground in Naples. And that's when we fell in love with it. And it was just shocking. I couldn't stop shoving buffalo mozzarella in my face and couldn't stop eating pizza after pizza.

Peninsula Gourmet Contact: What is the most popular dish on your menu and what makes it special?
Annie Stoll: Our best sellers are Margherita pizza and meatballs.
Craig Stoll: It has everything you need for meatballs. Many of our foods don't cheat. There's no funky stuff in there like green pepper, lemongrass, or black truffles. A classic meatball. Adding three types of meat, onions, bread crumbs, and ricotta cheese, and adding pork belly and simmering it in tomato sauce gives it an even deeper flavor. For Margherita pizza, the dough is carefully kneaded and the tomato sauce, not just tomato sauce, is exquisite. Fresh canned tomatoes with a little olive oil, a touch of raw garlic and salt (how to make a margarita pizza), and fresh local mozzarella and torn basil from Belfiore in Berkeley. It just contains.
Annie Stoll: Only a few.
Craig Stoll: Some people get upset about not having enough basil.
Annie Stoll: That should not be.
Craig Stoll: You will get two torn pieces. That's the Napoli way. It's not a topping. It's an air freshener.

Peninsula Gourmet Contact: Are there any upcoming changes to Pizzeria Delfina?
Craig Stoll: At the end of the month, we will receive the first batch of the custom flour blend we have developed. What we're switching to is Central Milling's all-American, organic, custom-milled flour. We used Caputo, which is milled in Naples, but they source their grains from all over the world. They get their grain from North America, they get their grain from all over Russia, Ukraine, etc., they mill it in Naples, which we visited a few times, and then they send it back around the world, so the carbon footprint is ridiculous. It's worse than importing water from Italy, but we don't do that.
Peninsula Gourmet Contact: How does changing the flour affect the taste?
Craig Stoll: It will be better. That's unbelievable. Due to the protein content, it can further promote hydration, resulting in lighter, more developed edges (cornicione). This also gives it a little more ash and a little more whole wheat. It's not a whole grain crust, but it has more whole grains in it, which adds even more flavor.

Peninsula Gourmet Contact: What is Pizzeria Delfina aiming for?
Annie Stoll: It's a cliché, but it's about having a place where people can go away from home and feel truly cared for by authentic, genuine, knowledgeable service.
Craig Stoll: Delfina itself was never meant to be a destination restaurant, but a neighborhood trattoria. As with any place, Delfina was the one I could talk to the most. Because Delfina was our baby. There she had her first date, some of whom are now married with children. They want to come back and show their kids where they had their first date. And those kids come and work for us. People work for us, meet people, get married, start their own restaurants. But it's a very human business, full of more than just business transactions. Feeding people is a truly intimate act, and the way we do it creates so many connections that go beyond our guests to our vendors, farms, and staff. It's a good life. It enriches our lives. And I think it's the same for people who know us…we just want to share our love and passion for what we do with people. And hopefully they understand that.
Peninsula Gourmet Contact: Are there any plans to open more Pizzeria Delfinas?
Annie Stoll: We've never sat down and said, “We're going to open seven restaurants in this many years.'' Everything came naturally, including opportunities. I might do that if the right opportunity comes along. Craig is very creative and very excited about different projects. I'm like, “Now that he's 60, it might be time for him to slow down a little bit.'' So we're not exactly on the same page. I'm not sure.
Pizzeria Delfina Burlingame, 1444 Burlingame Ave., Burlingame. 650-288-1041. Business hours are Monday through Thursday from 5pm to 8pm, Friday and Saturday from noon to 9pm, and Sunday from noon to 8pm. @Pizzeria Delfina.
Pizzeria Delfina Palo Alto, 651 Emerson St., Palo Alto; 650-353-2208. Business hours are Monday through Thursday from 5pm to 9pm, Friday and Saturday from noon to 10pm, and Sunday from noon to 9pm. @Pizzeria Delfina.