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Momo Farouq and Sarika Batra have a love story that reads like a romance novel, with their latest chapter culminating in the creation of Pizzeria Cardamomo in Redwood City, expected to open in early September. But their story doesn’t begin in Redwood City – it begins in Lake Como, Italy.
In 2018, California-born Batra went on a trip to Italy with her friend and dined at a restaurant where Farouq also happened to be eating. Batra’s friend began chatting with Farouq and learned that he was from Morocco, immigrated to Italy at 16 years old and owned a nearby restaurant called Pizzeria Cardamomo.
“She said to me, ‘He’s your age and single. Go put lipstick on,’ and I said, ‘That’s crazy,’” Batra recalled. “But my friend kept insisting, so I put lipstick on.”
While neither of them shared a common language (Farouq speaks Arabic, French and Italian, and Batra speaks English and Hindi), they continued to keep in touch. When Batra visited a friend in Switzerland, Farouq met her there. Then Batra again visited Lake Como and met up with Farouq, and Farouq visited Batra in San Francisco. When the pandemic hit and Farouq’s pizzeria had to temporarily close, they spent a month together in Baja California, Mexico. After six months together in California, they decided to get married and now live in Redwood City.
“The beginning of our relationship was all based on expressions (and) Google Translate, and we somehow communicated our whole life stories that way,” Batra said. “But now we can pretty much communicate.”
After the pandemic, Farouq moved back to Lake Como to continue running his pizzeria, and the couple had a long-distance marriage. On April 21, he permanently closed his eatery after 35 years in business, and now Farouq and Batra are opening the same concept in the former Sushirrito location on Broadway in Redwood City.
“It’s a scratch kitchen,” Batra said. “He makes everything fresh. Nothing is from a can or jar. It’s all gourmet.”
Pizzeria Cardamomo Redwood City will have a seasonally evolving menu of organic, scratch-made sourdough pizza. The menu will feature inventive pizzas, like the Morocco with sausage, dried plums, roasted organic almonds and cinnamon, as well as classic pizzas like Margherita and regional specialties like Pizza al Tegamino from Turin, Italy.
“He’s so passionate about the way he makes his crust,” Batra said. “He spends three days making his crust, and the temperature of the yeast, he keeps checking it.”
A departure from the original location, Pizzeria Cardamomo in Redwood City will also offer hot appetizers like octopus with potato and olives and bruschetta with fig and goat cheese or saffron and tomato sauce. Find a selection of seasonally rotating pasta dishes, including pasta with pistachio and tuna. Italian wine and beer will be available, and there will be outdoor dining.
“For three years, I’m looking for some place, but I’m never finding some place I like,” Farouq said. “I come (to) Redwood City…I feel a lot (of) energy.”
Farouq grew up in Morocco, cooking alongside his grandma and developing an interest in bread-making. At 16 years old, Farouq immigrated to Italy and began working at a restaurant washing dishes. One of the chefs began to mentor Farouq and trained him from the bottom up.
“One day, that chef called in sick, and Momo told the owner, ‘I can do it,’ and the owner was kind of reluctant,” Batra said. “And not only did he do it, but his food was better than the chef. And then people started to come and only ask for Momo.”
While Farouq couldn’t secure a loan, he was determined to open his own pizzeria in Lake Como.
“He found a little pizza shop that was for lease, and he said to them, ‘Can I lease this by the day?’ and they said, ‘OK, but when someone comes, you have to go,’” Batra said. “His first day, he had lines all around the corner because he was already famous from the other place.”
Farouq doesn’t see pizza-making as just a business – he sees it as an art form, he said.
“He’s gonna put his heart into it,” Batra said. “He wants to do the best job possible. He puts his heart and soul in every single thing.”
Pizzeria Cardamomo, 2053 Broadway, Redwood City; 650-686-8114. Instagram: @cardamomopizza.