The Moceris say the centerpiece of Gerardo’s Pizzeria is their wood-burning oven. Though the exquisitely tiled oven is the catalyst for many dining experiences in Sedona, the true keystone is not found within its fiery frame. Rather, it is the shared values evident across generations.
Gerardo Moceri’s connection with local food dates back to 1918, when his great-grandfather bought a Packard truck to bring local produce to one of the oldest markets in Detroit. Moceri grew up working in the family business. “One winter, I was delivering produce to a chef on a really icy day,” he says. “The chef hadn’t placed his order properly, and I lost my temper. I told him, ‘I almost got killed bringing you this case of tomatoes,’ and he was, like, ‘Yeah, if you think you’re so smart and can do better than me, go to Europe.’ … And I did. It lit a fire in me.”
Moceri was taken in by chef Angelo Paracucchi at the Locanda dell’Angelo—one of the top three restaurants in Italy at the time. “He was like my dad, my mentor by far,” Moceri says. In a short time, Moceri went from cleaning floors to opening the chef’s fine-dining establishments throughout Europe. “I was always learning, learning, learning. I didn’t go to [culinary] school.”
When he returned to the United States, Moceri opened restaurants and hotels in Dallas; Ixtapa, Mexico; and Kauai, where he married his wife, Maria. Eventually, he relocated to Arizona to work at The Boulders Resort and Spa. “Boulders went through changes, and I was done with hotels. At that point, I had opened hotels, restaurants, and hotels with restaurants. I decided to do my own,” he says. In 2000, he opened Cucina Paradiso in Payson.
“I became the chef, owner, electrician, and everything else, plus dad and soccer coach,” Moceri says. His children, Natalie Rose and Gerardo Francesco “Gerri”, were 5 and 3 at the time. “The whole main thing was I wanted the kids to learn how to make bread, make dough … who would ever think that Gerri would take that to another level?”
Says Gerri, “My sister and I were always in the kitchen, even when we were pretty young. I started learning how to make pizza during the summer I was 14. By the time I got to high school, I was working in the kitchen.” Much of his adolescence revolved around the family restaurant, working side-by-side with his friends and father.
In 2016, Gerardo moved the family’s restaurant to Sedona. A few years later, Gerri began studying sustainability with an emphasis on food systems at ASU. “I never really wanted to stop cooking, but I also wanted to understand food from a different perspective to give me a better understanding of how to purchase ingredients and how to work with seasonality,” Gerri says.
Years later, he had the opportunity to follow in his father’s footsteps. “I did a semester abroad in Perugia”—learning Italian in the same place his father did—“and after I graduated, I had a chance to go back to Italy.”
Whereas his father found his place with a famous chef, Gerri’s return brought him to a family-run bakery. “Probably the biggest connection I made was working at a bakery near Bologna … [the owner] took me in and taught me how to make panettoni, which is like a big Italian Christmas bread cake.”
Beyond the bakery, Gerri spent a lot of time working in pizzerias. “When I came back from Italy in 2021, I thought we should really try to imitate that here and focus on making a really good Italian pizza … it’s still hard to find the little details that Italians put into their pizzas, and I really wanted to bring that to Sedona,” Gerri says.
Previously known as Gerardo’s Italian Kitchen, this year marks the neighborhood icon’s 10th year in operation in the same location. Both father and son’s commitment to sourcing local, supporting sustainable, and sharing their knowledge remains steadfast. “I think I learned that from my dad and my mom,” Gerri says. “For them, owning a restaurant, every day you have to go into work, but you have a bigger picture of what you’re working for.”
Gerri shares his father’s dedication to carefully sourced ingredients. His mixture of flours from Shepherd’s Grain and Hayden Mills is chosen for both flavor and environmental impact. “It’s really about restoring the soil for future generations to use as opposed to destroying it and preventing them from having the type of nutrients that we have,” Gerri says.
The emphasis on the bigger picture is brought into focus through more than the flour Gerri sources from regenerative wheat farmers or the beef he purchases from Tres Hermanas Ranch in Cornville. It is also evident in the relationships being built. Long ago, Moceri began offering mentorship programs to students of NAU’s School of Hotel and Restaurant Management. Most recently, Gerardo’s provided internship opportunities for two students from Mexicali studying under J1 Visas.
Christian Amaya begins the process of making fresh mozzarella by softening the raw curd in hot water. He’s done this work for Gerardo’s for three years now, and makes 120 pounds of cheese each week.
“Dad started it because he’s always looking for people to teach,” Gerri says. “He likes to teach people how to work and to pass down his recipes too, because he never looks at it like ‘This is my recipe, and it’s always going to be mine.’ We always say ‘In our kitchen, there are no secrets.’” His point is made evident by the sign that greets guests as soon as they enter Gerardo’s. It highlights the current flour blend used in their traditional, sourdough, and naturally colored pizza crusts served that day.
“For us, it’s not like this is our job. This is our passion,” Gerri says. “I think it’s a privilege to be a cook because nobody has to come into a restaurant to eat. … Sometimes, in Sedona, the realness seems to go away because it’s a tourist town … like, a diner comes in, eats once, and never comes back. For us, it doesn’t matter if we never see you again; we want to give you the best experience possible.”
Gerardo’s Pizzeria is located at 2675 W State Rte 89A in Sedona and is open W–Su from 4–9 pm. Guests are seated on a first-come, first-served basis. Arrive early. See the menu at gerardospizzeria.com
