If your pizzeria, locates in USA, Canada or Central America, is equipped with a wood burning oven and an approved mixer (spiral, fork or double arm) you qualify to become an AVPN member.
In order to be certified by VPN Americas, and thereby become a member of the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, your brick-and-mortar restaurant must already be in operation.
Currently, individuals or businesses (including mobile ovens or oven equipped food trucks) do not qualify for membership.
Basic requirements
Equipment and tools:
- Wood-burning oven: An approved Neapolitan pizza must be cooked in a wood-fired dome oven operating at a temperature of about 900 F. Coal, electric, or wood/gas combination ovens, while capable of producing a delicious pizza, do not conform to the Neapolitan tradition and are not allowed.
- Mixer: The dough must be kneaded either by hand or with an approved mixer (spiral, fork or double arm). No vertical or planetary mixers are allowed.
- Tools: A wood or aluminum peel to introduce the pizza inside the oven, a long handle steel round peel to turn and remove the pizza from the oven, a metal (steel or copper/tin) oil cruet, a 5 inches spatula and polyethylene proofing boxes are widely suggested.
Ingredients:
Only fresh, all-natural, non-processed ingredients (preferably imported from Naples or Campania region) are accepted.
As far as eating at a non VPN pizza places, I suppose that it is very probable that somebody out there can make a very good pizza and simply not be part of the VPN network. If I find a great pizza place near me, that I really enjoy I am going to enjoy it from time to time. To ignore good pizza because the proprietor does not have VPN status would be extremely foolish, IMO.