Pizza Talk Season Two, Episode 6: World Pizza Champion, Billy Manzo of Federal Hill Pizza

Welcome back to Pizza Talk!

One of the most enjoyable parts of interviewing the many pizza luminaries featured on Pizza Talk is hearing about their unique journeys to and through pizza. Some were born to it and others took the long and winding and unexpected road. No matter the route, the process of self-discovery is always fascinating and, while each person’s journey is unique to them, it also partakes of many universal, shared aspects, which is why these stories seem to resonate for so many of us. William “Billy” Manzo, founder and impresario of Federal Hill Pizza in Providence, Rhode Island, is definitely one of those fascinating people. In this inspiring conversation and tour of the Federal Hill Pizza “Castle,” recorded in the fall of 2020 during the peak of the first wave of the Covid pandemic,  Billy shares the many twists and turns that led to his emergence as one of the great pizza makers and visionaries in America. The one theme that continually emerges in this, and in all the Pizza Talk interviews we recorded in 2020, is resilience. You’ll see why when you watch this episode.