ristorazione — Cernusco sul Naviglio · Lombardia
In Milan's hinterland, in Cernusco sul Naviglio, a foundation has turned pizza into the language of a quiet revolution. Since 2017, Fondazione PizzAut ETS (a non-profit foundation) has shown that inclusion is not an abstract principle: it is a trade to be learned, a table to be set, a pizza to be served.
The entrance to a PizzAut restaurant looks no different from that of any other pizzeria: the same sign, the same door open to the scent of leavened dough. The difference lies in the project behind it — born in 2017 from an idea by Nico Acampora, father of an autistic child, with the ambition of building a future of dignity and work for autistic young people.
In the dining room, every table tells a deliberate choice: quality products from short supply chains, a carefully tended setting where — as the foundation's philosophy puts it — there is no room for haste, and eating well means doing good. Today there are two restaurants: the first opened in Cassina de' Pecchi in 2021, the second in Monza in 2023, both run entirely by autistic young people.
In the kitchen, the gesture of stretching the dough is also an act of training. AutAcademy is the programme that prepares each young person at their own pace and according to their abilities, bringing this expertise into schools and businesses as well. Alongside the restaurants, the travelling PizzAutObus (PizzAut bus) — active since 2020 — carries the PizzAut model beyond the walls of a fixed venue.
A dish marked by exceptional recognition: in 2023 President Sergio Mattarella inaugurated the restaurant in Monza; Pope Francis received the project in audience.
