Larry Galper
Chef Larry Galper is the first born in the United States in his family, who immigrated from Ukraine in the late 1970’s. For as long as he can remember, food has played a leading role in the story that is his life. A loving and delicious home cooked meal was the norm in the Galper household 6 days a week. These meals were prepared by the loving and inspiring women Chef Larry’s family – starting with his mother Ella.
After a 15 year long career in entertainment in Hollywood as a talent agent & manager, Larry finally arrived at his true passion – cooking. So at 35 he traded his suits in for aprons (and cuts and burns) and hit the ground running cooking in kitchens in LA and eventually New Orleans for a brief time before the pandemic hit.
While he’s cooked in restaurants with cuisines influenced from all over the world he always loved making pizza in his free time and even bringing pizzas into work for family meal. After spending most of the pandemic making pizzas for first responders, nurses, and peers he decided it was time to bet on himself and start PizzElla – honoring the woman who he describes as “ground zero” for his culinary inspiration – his mother.
PizzElla was launched in March of 2021 under a ten by ten foot tent with an Ooni oven popping up in spots all over Miami. In November of 2021 the PizzElla food truck opened in midtown Miami and in June of 2022 PizzElla was asked to join the Timeout Market on South Beach.