In Naples, the home of pizza, there is a school whose only job is to protect one dish. The Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (AVPN) runs a training school — in person and online — and keeps a register of certified pizzaioli around the world, all to safeguard the authentic “vera pizza napoletana”: the right dough, the right wood-fired bake, the right technique. A craft passed hand to hand is becoming a documented, certifiable profession.
It is protection by standard-setting. Rather than let “Neapolitan pizza” mean anything, the association defines it, teaches it and certifies who may carry the name — across a global network of accredited schools. The lesson is quiet but sharp: when a tradition gets popular everywhere, the people who own it can defend its value by codifying exactly what “real” means.
So…:
How could you protect what makes your craft “the real thing” as it scales?
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AVPN (presse)