Why I Use Caputo Flour
May 15, 2026 · Jay De Natale
New York's legislature just voted to ban potassium bromate. The Food Safety and Chemical Disclosure Act passed both chambers this spring and is awaiting Governor Hochul's signature. When it becomes law, potassium bromate gets banned from any food made or sold in New York. California banned it in 2023. The European Union, Canada, the UK, China, India, Brazil, they banned it decades ago. The U.S. has been the slowest to act, one state at a time.
If you don't know what bromate is: it's a dough conditioner. It also happens to be a probable carcinogen. The World Health Organization flagged it in 1992. A lot of New York's most iconic pizzerias and bagel shops use bromated flour. Gold Medal All-Trumps. Pillsbury High-Gluten. The flours that built the New York slice as we know it. They have one year from when the bill is signed to switch over.
I didn't switch flour because of a law. I never used the bad stuff to begin with. My goal when I took over Abbot's was simple. Make the best plain cheese slice and the best pepperoni slice in the city. Period. I'm not here to be the most culinary creative pizza spot in LA. I want the crown for the best basic slice. And that starts with the flour.
I use Caputo. Specifically, Caputo Pizzeria 00, the blue bag, as the base, with a small amount of Caputo Aria 0 blended in for extensibility and lift. Italian flour. Italy banned bromate decades ago. Italy doesn't bleach flour either.
Does Caputo flour contain potassium bromate?
No. Caputo is an Italian flour and Italy banned potassium bromate decades ago. Both the Caputo Pizzeria 00 and Caputo Aria 0 that we use are unbromated and unbleached. This is one of the reasons we use it.
Is Caputo flour bleached?
No. Caputo flour is neither bleached nor bromated. That's the point.
I didn't pick the flour by reading chemistry papers. I picked it because Mario told me to. Mario is my pizzaiolo. He's Roman. APN-certified, Associazione Pizzaiuoli Napoletani, the Naples certification that real pizzaioli care about. Four decades in pizza. When Mario says use Caputo, you use Caputo. When he says blend a little Aria in for the lift you want, you blend a little Aria in. You don't negotiate with someone who knows more than you do.
That's how every ingredient got picked. My Uncle Vinny, forty-year pizza veteran in Bayonne, New Jersey, told me Alta Cucina for the tomatoes and Grande for the cheese. That's it. No debate.
People who make the best food don't compromise on ingredients. They spend more. They wait longer. They don't take the easier version, because the easier version isn't the same thing. Yeah, it costs way more. This is what it costs to care. This is what it's going to take to be Venice's pizza spot again.