An African immigrant's pizza wins global raves — and overcomes Italian prejudices
Ibrahim Songne's pizza place triumphed over local anti-immigrant sentiments — and now has earned a spot on a worldwide top 50 pizza list! To think — he didn't even like pizza when he first tried it.
After immigrating to Italy from Burkina Faso at age 12, Ibrahim Songne tasted pizza for the first time. His reaction?
Disgust.
"I'd never even heard of pizza before I arrived in Italy. I took a bite and found it gross and completely tasteless."
Despite that inauspicious start, Songne went on to take out a loan to open a pizza joint — and in late 2021 the 30-year-old's pizzeria was named one of the top 50 in the world. 50TopPizza.it calls Ibrahim's dough "perfectly leavened" and the recipes "imaginative."
Ibrahim christened his restaurant, IBRIS— an all-caps hybrid of his first and last name. Before he opened the small shop in downtown Trento 3 years ago, he says that locals warned him, "A Black man
