Nancy Silverton and the Mozza tree

Nancy Silverton is arguably the most consequential figure in modern Los Angeles dining, and her tree is unusual because it has two trunks: a bakery and a restaurant group. She trained at Le Cordon Bleu in London, worked the pastry station at Wolfgang Puck’s Spago in its early-1980s heyday, then in 1989 — with her then-husband Mark Peel — opened Campanile on La Brea Avenue and, in the same building, La Brea Bakery ^[1][4]. The bakery is the foundational story: Silverton’s naturally-leavened loaves essentially reintroduced artisan bread to America, and La Brea Bakery’s wholesale arm (sold in 2001, though Silverton’s name stayed on it) put that bread in markets nationwide ^[4]. Campanile, meanwhile, ran for 23 years (1989–2012) as the city’s defining Cal-Italian dining room and an extraordinary training kitchen.

In 2007 Silverton opened Pizzeria Mozza and Osteria Mozza on Melrose with partners Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich — the pizzeria built around a pull-from-the-oven Roman-Neapolitan hybrid crust derived from her dough discipline, the osteria around a mozzarella bar and a more formal Italian menu ^[1][2]. That core became a group: chi SPACCA (a roughly 30-seat butchery-and-grill room originally carved out of the Mozza complex), Mozza2Go, Pizzette, and Triple Beam Pizza in Highland Park (a Roman pizza-al-taglio shop opened with Matt Molina) ^[2][3]. The Mozza name has since franchised and expanded well beyond LA — Osteria Mozza outposts in Washington D.C. (Georgetown), Singapore, Los Cabos, London and Riyadh, plus a location on Lanai in Hawaii ^[2].

Direct ventures

• La Brea Bakery (1989) — co-founded; wholesale arm sold 2001, the original retail bakery on La Brea remains ^[4].
• Campanile (1989–2012) — flagship; closed when the lease ended ^[1].
• Pizzeria Mozza (2007, Melrose/Highland) — with Batali and Bastianich ^[1][2].
• Osteria Mozza (2007) — mozzarella bar and dining room ^[2].
• chi SPACCA — salumi, whole-animal cookery, live-fire grill ^[2].
• Triple Beam Pizza (Highland Park) — Roman-style, co-owned with Matt Molina ^[3].
• Mozza2Go, Pizzette — counter-service spinoffs ^[2].
• Osteria Mozza outposts: Washington D.C., Singapore, Los Cabos, London, Riyadh, Lanai ^[2].

Alumni / mentees

• Matt Molina — chef de cuisine at Osteria Mozza from its opening; won the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Pacific in 2012 (the region was called “Pacific” that year, later renamed “West”) ^[5]. Opened Hippo in Highland Park (2018) with partner Joe Capella, and co-founded Triple Beam Pizza with Silverton — so he never fully left the tree ^[3][5].
• Chad Colby — the cured-meat specialist who ran chi SPACCA’s salumi program; went on to open Antico in Koreatown, then Antico Nuovo, then Bari (an Apulian restaurant on West 3rd, 2021) ^[3].
• Bryant Ng — cooked at Pizzeria Mozza before opening The Spice Table and then Cassia in Santa Monica; one of the cleanest “trained at the trunk, opened his own” stories in LA ^[3].
• Suzanne Goin — was executive chef at Campanile in 1997 before launching Lucques and the Lucques Group; the entire Goin/Styne tree has Campanile-era roots, which is the most far-reaching branch (see the Suzanne Goin & Caroline Styne entry).
• Jeremy Barragan, Ari Rosenson — career chefs who ran the Mozza kitchens and carried the system to outposts like Osteria Mozza D.C. (further sourcing welcome).

What the tree means

The through-line is ingredient-first cooking with a craftsman’s rigor, anchored by the bakery. Bread and dough are the discipline that propagates: La Brea Bakery’s natural leaven becomes Pizzeria Mozza’s blistered crust becomes Triple Beam’s Roman al-taglio; the same logic of house-curing runs from chi SPACCA into Antico Nuovo and Bari. Silverton’s kitchens are also famous for a “no substitutions” stubbornness — the dish is the dish — which her alumni tend to carry out the door. And because she herself came up through Spago’s pastry station, the tree connects to Wolfgang Puck’s; because Mark Peel co-founded Campanile with her, it connects to his; and because Suzanne Goin ran Campanile’s kitchen, the Lucques Group is effectively a sub-branch. The Mozza tree is less a single style than a standard of seriousness about Italian-Californian food — and the bakery that made it possible.