Moldovan chef links Chinese porcelain with pizza

Golovinov Vitali, a chef from Moldova, has discovered some similarities between Chinese porcelain art and his pizza business in Cixi, a county-level city in Ningbo, Zhejiang province.

Thanks to China's Belt and Road Initiative, Vitali left Moldova, a BRI participant country in Europe, for Ningbo to set up a pizza shop in Cixi. As his pizza shop gained popularity with residents, he was drawn to the city's historical porcelain culture in his spare time.

Cixi's Yue Kiln Site at Shanglin Lake was a celadon production hub that operated for a thousand years.

In 2016, mise (literally, "secret-color") celadon was unearthed at the site. It was created by using a technique lost long ago. The celadon, which features a grayish-green color and tactility that make it similar to jade, represents the finest of Yue celadon. The mise ware was primarily produced for the imperial court.

During Vitali's exploration of the mise celadon, he discovered some similarities between the production of porcelain and pizza. He serves food on traditional plates in his pizza shop.

He said that food can cross nationalities, and porcelain can cross time and space. Every delicacy and every piece of porcelain is a gift of nature, which can coexist despite differences, he said.

Watch the video to learn more about the mise celadon with Vitali. [Video provided by Xu Weiming for chinadaily.com.cn]

Yu Yin in Ningbo contributed to this story.