“It all started with a picture of a millefeuille…but we didn’t make any,” Luigi Lauri begins, as he tells us the story of how his family’s bakery, Antica Pasticceria Lauri, has become a unique fixture in the Neapolitan culinary landscape.
In a city like Naples, having the word “Antico” (old) preceding the name of an eatery of any kind conveys a sense of comfort to the customer, a guarantee that the place sticks to the beloved, never-changing recipes of the Neapolitan tradition. This promise certainly doesn’t apply to Antica Pasticceria Lauri. Lard, one of the staple ingredients of Neapolitan patisserie, is banned here. And, although it seems impossible to imagine a babà, the local mushroom-shaped sponge cake, not soaked in the rum that defines its very essence…well, here, that’s exactly how it’s made.
But these choices are not just a whim of the owner. They’re all for good reason: Antica Pasticceria Lauri is a halal bakery, meaning any pastry prepared here follows the Muslim precepts on food preparation. Located just a couple of streets away from Naples’s central train station, it resides in a small neighborhood that thirty years ago started to see a sudden increase in the population of immigrants, mainly from the Maghreb. Nowadays, the area is dominated by open-air markets and shops selling bags and clothes run by Algerian, Tunisian, Moroccan and Senegalese people.
The North African vendors have little in common with Neapolitan street vendors. While the latter are famous for tirelessly shouting all day to attract passers-by, the Maghrebi people here just display their goods, attending to their customers quietly. Granted, being in the middle of the central station area, it’s not exactly a quiet street. But entering the Antico Forno Lauri immediately delivers that feeling of calmness. The shop’s bright lights and counter welcome people in. There are no tables, just a couple of stools in one of the corners; actually, quite a nice space for a quick bite and a chat: the store is not that busy, and we’ve rarely seen more than two people entering at the same time.
Lauri is the third generation of the family that has run the bakery on Via Bologna since 1963. He was just a teenager when his father, Angelo, met the person that gave him the idea that would change their business forever – an Algerian man who, upon entering the shop, noticed an old picture hanging on the wall of a millefeuille, a layered pastry that is popular in parts of North Africa, which has been strongly impacted by the French colonization and culture.
Disappointed to see they didn’t actually sell the cake, the customer worked to convince Angelo to make it for him and for other local Algerian customers: “Believe me, you will sell a lot.” Angelo had no idea how to make a millefeuille but, with a bit of trial and error and under the customer’s guidance, he eventually put eight pieces on sale. Which soon became twenty, then forty, then hundreds. As predicted, the bakery quickly became the place to go for all the Maghrebi neighbors.
Lauri later carried on what his father started. He hired an Algerian pastry chef to learn how to make more pastries. The offer of the bakery grew in time with baklava, Moroccan cookies and other North African specialties. Lauri himself went to Algeria for a few days to attend a pastry-making workshop. But the shop didn’t leave the Neapolitan tradition behind. Better, they adapted to the new Muslim clientele. The lard in the sfogliatelle was promptly replaced by shea butter. The babà became non-alcoholic with the rum served only on request, on the side. These were just a few of the minor, but important, adjustments that allowed the bakery to thrive.
In the last thirty years, Lauri has indeed witnessed the change of the neighborhood where his family has always lived and worked; these days, most of the businesses in the area are run by Chinese families, another group of newly arrived immigrants. “We survived, but that’s also because we believed in something other people didn’t want to believe in. Many shop owners didn’t want to have anything to do with North Africans. But seventy percent of my income comes from them. How many of them do you see still open now? We’re the last one standing on this street.”
Plus, Antica Pasticceria Lauri’s reputation grew: “If you ask around, we’re famous in Naples for our millefeuille,” Lauri says. “We make it in so many different ways: with crème chantilly and black cherry, or cream and strawberry… Fresh every day, light and crispy.”
Light and crispy is also the best way to define their sfogliatelle, a classic shell-shaped Neapolitan pastry and undoubtedly one of our favorites. The absence of the animal fat means the sfogliatelle don’t feel greasy on the fingers, nor in the mouth. The focus is solely on that deliciously sweet mixture of ricotta, eggs and orange flavoring.
Antico Forno Lauri remains quite under the radar compared to other more famous or more visible pastry shops nearby. Which is quite a shame, if we consider the price of a single sfogliatella: only €1.20, considerably lower than other places of the area that have started to capitalize on tourism. But, as the shop is so conveniently located only a short walk from the station, it’s not uncommon to see in-the-know travelers stopping here to pick up a box full of sfogliatelle before going to board their train.
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