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Telegraph
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
How the humble pizza conquered Britain
The sleepy town of Bushey, a stone's throw from Watford on the outer reaches of north-west London, is not the type of place you'd typically call a culinary hotspot. Yet on Bushey's innocuous high street, nestled alongside a hardware store, charity shop and dog-grooming parlour, sits one of Britain's most popular restaurants, attracting visitors from across the world. Vincenzo's, opened in 2022 by former teacher Tom Vincent, does not offer Michelin-starred fine dining, but rather the humble pizza. 'People come here from all over the world,' says Vincent. 'When we opened this shop, we were selling out in 30 seconds. That's 200 pizzas in 30 seconds. As much as we can fit in the oven, in the fridges and make with these hands.' Vincent, a self-proclaimed Americanophile, styled his tiny restaurant on the family-run pizzerias of New York. Its walls are adorned with paintings by Vincent himself, including one portrait of the fictional mob enforcer Paulie Walnuts from The Sopranos. 'Eating all the pizzas there, I loved the culture,' he says. 'What I noticed was different [to Britain]. There were families, tradition, big characters – we hadn't got that here.' His small business has been lavished with praise from influencers, food writers and fellow chefs alike, and Vincent is now planning to open a larger, second restaurant in Shoreditch, east London. In the long run, he hopes to turn Vincenzo's into a group. However, he is not the only one harbouring such ambitions, as barely a week goes by without local headlines hailing the expansion of a new pizzeria in another town or village. 'We are in a very dynamic and very dog-eat-dog world at the moment when it comes to the pizza industry,' says Eric de Luca, operations director at Alley Cats, which runs two New York-style pizza sites in west London and is opening a third. This fierce competition highlights how Britain remains in the grip of a pizza phenomenon. In recent years, high streets have been flooded by pizzerias, offering everything from softer Neapolitan-style pizzas to larger Romano alternatives with thin, crispy bases. Popularity is such that the sale of sourdough-style pizzas has almost become a signifier of an area on the up. In Vincent's case, some commentators have credited him with pioneering a new approach, dubbing his pizzas 'London-style' owing to their American portion sizes combined with a European approach to toppings and ingredients. 'It's the journalists, food critics that have coined it, not us,' he insists. Amazingly, some of the pizza-makers receiving the highest acclaim don't even run their own restaurants. Crisp, one of the most feted pizza kitchens in London, is a bare-bones operation in a pub in Hammersmith, west London. Ace Pizza, a small but growing pizza business run by chef Rachel Jones, also started life in a boozer, over in Hackney, east London. 'You put good pizza in a struggling pub and the [drinks] sales go up, while it creates a home for the pizza-maker,' says Vincent. Some are even aspiring to push the boundaries of what pizza can be, in a move that will no doubt enrage traditional Italians devoted to the original. Michele Pascarella, the founder of Napoli on the Road, a restaurant in Chiswick, west London, that has repeatedly been named Europe's best pizzeria, is in the process of opening a site in Soho that will have a pizza-inspired tasting menu. 'We're going to play around making different kinds of dough, triple-cooked dough, fried, cooked in the oven – a lovely quality product and seasonal, the way you would [get] in a Michelin-star restaurant,' he says. It all speaks to Britain's modern obsession with what was once an Italian working-class staple, tracing its origins back centuries as a cheap and convenient meal. According to recent estimates, the average Briton consumes almost 6,000 slices in their lifetime, equivalent to more than 730 whole pizzas. Pizza Express alone sells 18.4 million per year. Its popularity outweighs traditional British dishes like fish and chips. Pizza is Britain's fourth-favourite dish to order when eating out, according to hospitality data firm CGA, behind only chicken, burgers and fries. Britons spent just under £3bn on pizza from restaurants and takeaways in the year to July, according to data from Worldpanel, and a further £1.4bn on frozen and chilled pizzas in supermarkets. Unsurprisingly, these flourishing sales have captured the attention of profit-hungry investors. Fulham Shore, the company behind sourdough pizza chain Franco Manca, was bought by the Japanese food giant Toridoll and investment firm Capdesia for £93m in 2023, while Pizza Pilgrims, which runs 20 sites across the UK, was acquired last week by the German chain L'Osteria for an undisclosed sum. Yet, this flurry of deals has sparked concerns that they are piling into the market too late. After years of rapid growth, sales in both the supermarkets and restaurants are slowing, having fallen compared to 2024. This has already led to larger chains like Pizza Hut and Papa Johns running into financial trouble, with the latter closing dozens of sites. In fact, pizza was the only type of fast food to post a drop in new store openings over the first half of 2025, according to data from hospitality industry analysts Meaningful Vision, falling by 0.6pc. 'What I see is brands growing, but at the expense of older brands failing,' says Simon Stenning, hospitality industry expert and director of Future Foodservice. 'I can't see significant growth in the consumption of pizza from where it is now.' At the same time, restaurants are battling soaring labour costs and higher taxes following Rachel Reeves's Budget, which has also led to fewer people eating out owing to cost of living concerns. This therefore raises the question: could Britain be approaching peak pizza? Humble origins The sheer variety of options available to British pizza lovers nowadays would have been unfathomable 60 years ago, when the young entrepreneur Peter Boizot opened the first Pizza Express on Wardour Street in Soho, central London. Boizot had just returned from a trip to Italy, finding inspiration in its vibrant food culture. His first restaurant was a modest affair, offering square slices of pizza cooked in an oven imported from Naples, sold through a hole in the wall and served in greaseproof paper with plastic cutlery. Simple it may have been, but it sparked a revolution that shapes how we eat out today. David Page, a former chief executive of Pizza Express, says pizza introduced post-war Britons to a kind of aspirational and accessible dining. Page, who joined Pizza Express as a dishwasher in 1973, says in the early days 'there were queues at lunch and queues at dinner, because, quite frankly, for 20 years, there was nothing else around', he says. 'You ate in pubs, but badly. There were fish-and-chip shops and greasy spoon cafes. There were posh hotels with restaurants, but that was very expensive.' At the same time, international air travel had become more affordable, giving people the chance to explore Europe and try pizza for the first time. 'People got to know sangria and tapas when they went to Spain, and they got to know pizza from Italy,' says Page. 'And there was a mass importation of ideas and people into the UK.' Page joined Pizza Express to supplement his income while he trained to become a teacher. However, he later abandoned a burgeoning career in the classroom when offered the chance to run a franchise restaurant. He rose through the ranks to become Pizza Express's chief executive in 1993, floating the company on the London Stock Exchange and growing it to around 300 sites alongside the well-known investors Luke Johnson and Hugh Osmond. 'It was incredibly exciting and satisfying,' says Johnson. 'We would go off to Leeds or Edinburgh or Dublin or wherever and bring something to the city that they hadn't really experienced before. 'We came with a degree of fanfare because by that time, the brand had a reputation. It was seen as new and – I know it sounds ridiculous in a way – but glamorous. 'It was relatively classless, which I think was part of its appeal, in that, you know, we had educated customers, people from different backgrounds, it didn't matter.' Johnson sold his share in Pizza Express in 1999 and went on to found the Italian chain Strada. Page, meanwhile, left the company when it was taken private by private equity firm TDR Capital – best known today as the owners of struggling supermarket Asda – in 2003. He later went on to purchase the sourdough pizza business Franco Manca, which he also turned into a nationwide success. With Page at the helm, he launched an assault on his former employer by undercutting it on price and luring younger customers with fashionable sourdough bases. After achieving a personal fortune built on pizza, it is now ironic that Page first failed to see how he could make it a success outside of London. 'As a Londoner, I was very rude about the rest of the country ... Of course, I was completely wrong,' he says. 'When we opened on Banstead High Street [in Surrey], one of the customers wrote to me and said it was the most exciting thing that had happened since the Germans destroyed the library in 1942.' Pizza Express wasn't the only company to bring pizza to the UK. US chain Pizza Hut opened its first site in Britain in 1973, while Domino's crossed the Atlantic in 1985. The latter's debut was a crucial milestone in popularising the pizza as a takeaway staple rather than just something to be eaten in a restaurant. 'There were three big pizza businesses – Pizzaland, Pizza Hut and Deep Pan Pizza – all of which were much bigger than Pizza Express in 1993 when we took control of it,' says Johnson. However, it was arguably the first to properly win over the middle classes. 'It raised expectations of what pizza should be like,' he adds. 'We had a proper wine list and decent coffee. And overall, it was a more sophisticated experience than pizzerias had been before.' As Pizza Express expanded, a flood of rival brands such as Ask, Bella Italia and Zizzi entered the market. By the turn of the millennium, private equity firms were ploughing millions into mid-market chains, heralding the beginning of a casual-dining boom that changed the face of British high streets. 'The food scene in Britain had been seen as unsophisticated and not very cosmopolitan,' says Johnson. 'Through the 1990s and into the 2000s, London became one of the great dining-out locations in the world, and Pizza Express was part of that transformation.' It didn't last forever. During the latter years of the 2010s, consumers began to lose interest in cookie-cutter brands, with many chains creaking under the weight of heavy debts incurred by ambitious expansion plans. In 2018, both Strada and Prezzo were forced to close swathes of sites, while a year later Pizza Express posted a £350m loss amid pressures from a £1.1bn debt pile. When the pandemic hit, Pizza Express was plunged into crisis and forced to negotiate a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) with creditors that saw 73 sites close with more than 1,000 job losses. Since the pandemic, things have remained tough for hospitality. Soaring inflation pushed up the price of fuel and ingredients to excessive levels, while the cost of living crisis caused customers to cut back. While inflation has since fallen, restaurants are now having to deal with rises in National Insurance (NI) and the minimum wage. 'The economics have changed in a bad way, such that any restaurant business – whether it's a full-service, sit-down bistro or a pizzeria – is going to feel increased expenses,' says Johnson. The impact of Reeves's tax raid is already being felt, compounded by food inflation hitting 4.5pc in June. Figures from the Office for National Statistics in July revealed the loss of 69,000 jobs in the hospitality sector since the Chancellor's Budget. Paula MacKenzie, the chief executive of Pizza Express, says the NI rises 'caught us all on the hoof', meaning the company is now looking to cut costs and become more efficient. Other big pizza brands are also sounding the alarm. Domino's, the UK's biggest pizza company, warned it faces a 'tougher' takeaway market as it posted a drop in profits earlier in August. 'There's no getting away from the fact that the market has become tougher both for us and our franchisees, and that's meant that the positive performance across the first four months didn't continue into May and June,' Andrew Rennie, its chief executive, recently told investors. 'Given weaker consumer confidence, increased employment costs and uncertainty ahead of the autumn statement, franchisees are taking a more cautious approach to store openings for the time being.' Sector-wide challenges nearly led to the collapse of Pizza Hut's UK business earlier this year, which was only averted following a pre-pack rescue deal with the investment firm Directional Capital. Meanwhile, the UK arm of Papa Johns recently revealed a £21.8m loss in 2024, which prompted the closure of more than 70 sites. A Papa Johns spokesman says these are 'not new developments' and took place over two years as part of a review of the business, insisting it is 'profitable when excluding restructuring costs'. Whether these cases are a reflection on the popularity of pizza itself, though, is up for debate. After all, while total pizza sales have fallen in the last year, they are still significantly higher than in 2022 and 2023. Johnson thinks it has more to do with weakness in the delivery market than any significant drop in demand. 'I think delivery has probably peaked in some respects, and has become pretty expensive once you add on all the costs,' he says. 'And although pizza carries pretty well as a delivery product, it's never going to be as good as the one where you can see in the oven being cooked. I also happen to think that the delivered products from those brands are simply not as good.' 'I've given up having pizza delivered because it tends to arrive lukewarm,' adds David Milner, the chairman of the Italian food brand Crosta & Mollica, which sells chilled pizzas in supermarkets. With big chains struggling to grow, Vincent says people are seeking out more interesting and authentic pizzas and moving away from big chains. This is in a similar vein to the craft beer boom of the early 2010s, which saw small-batch, hoppy IPAs marketed as an exciting alternative to mainstream beers. 'When I was young, we'd go to Pizza Express, TGI Fridays and stuff like that, and people blindly supported chains because we thought that's what was cool,' he says. 'Since lockdown, people want to support local. And it's much cooler to be going to somewhere that's owned independently.' When it comes to making money, many business owners believe they have a slight advantage over competing cuisines thanks to the attractive returns available for their product. 'Margins in pizza are really good. That is a statement of fact,' says James Elliot, co-founder of Pizza Pilgrims. So much so that he claims Pizza Pilgrims has not had to compromise on quality despite the rising cost of ingredients, fuel and labour. 'In 14 years, we've never had to make a call and try and compromise,' he says. 'I was just in Naples last week and we made a decision this year to switch our tomatoes to a specific kind of San Marzano tomatoes, which cost the business about £100,000.' That is not to say that pizza is immune to inflation. 'Everybody has taken pricing or put prices up, but we haven't put them up as much as other people,' says MacKenzie. But with the price of a 12-inch pizza usually coming in below the £15 mark, 'it's still an attractive proposition at a time when everything's becoming more expensive', says Stenning. 'When you look at the cost of ingredients like beef, the cost of that has risen so dramatically. When you have something like pizza, where protein is low down on the list of ingredients, you've got scope to play,' he says. At Vincenzo's, 12-inch pizzas cost between £11 and £13, while his 18-inch pizzas cost from £19 to £23. 'Margins were very, very good during lockdown but everything's doubled in price since then,' adds Vincent, who sold pizzas through a hatch during the pandemic before going on to open his restaurant. 'Mozzarella, pizza boxes and tomatoes have all doubled in price. Some things have tripled. Margins are certainly not as good as they were, but they're still good.' Barney Howard, who runs Barney & The Pizza in Folkestone Harbour, Kent, alongside a sandwich company, says: 'Comparing it to the sandwich company where margins are awful, pizza is a lot better.' However, he adds, 'You can still make a loss-making pizza. Just because your food costs are low, because it is, it is still very, very tough to make money.' MacKenzie says demand for pizza has also kept up thanks to its broad appeal. 'At the end of the day, it is dough, passata, cheese, toppings, in an oven,' she says. According to Alley Cats' De Luca, the explanation for how pizza conquered Britain is equally as simple. 'We see pizza as a staple that everybody can relate to. It doesn't matter where you find yourself in the world, or what cuisine you like or don't like, pizza seems to be a common denominator.' Elliot agrees: 'If you're booking dinner for you and your six mates, pizza is always a pretty safe bet. 'It is such a democratic food. For £15, you can go and get the best pizza in the city. I can't then give you another £15 and you can go and get a pizza that's twice as good.'
The Sun
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
EastEnders fans stunned after spotting huge show star in another popular drama
EASTENDERS fans have been left stunned after spotting a huge show star in another popular drama. ITV viewers couldn't believe their eyes after noticing that Harriet Thorpe, 68, who plays Elaine Peacock in the BBC soap, popped up in none other than Midsomer Murders. 3 The unexpected cameo from a 2021 repeat didn't go unnoticed. On Reddit, one user wrote: "Ar [sic] Elaine in Midsomer Murders," sharing a photo of the star wearing a floral kaftan and colourful necklace. Another quipped: "It seems she has a consistent costume department." Harriet is well-known to EastEnders viewers as Elaine Peacock - Queen Victoria's feisty landlady. She took on the role in 2023 , but her credits stretch much further back, including appearances in Wicked, Absolutely Fabulous, The Brittas Empire, and of course, Midsomer Murders. In fact, Thorpe appeared in the hit series twice - once in 2006's Dance with the Dead and later in 2021's The Stitcher Society - well before she arrived at the Queen Vic. Last year, The Sun revealed some exclusive photos of Elaine marrying her on-screen husband, George Knight, played by Colin Salmon. Soap bosses filmed the dramatic wedding episodes of the long-awaited nuptials. A huge swathe of the BBC soap's cast turned out to a church in Bushey near the studios to film the big soap wedding of the year. Elaine actress Harriet Thorpe looked stunning in the landlady's shimmering gold wedding gown. Elaine's intended, George Knight actor Colin Salmon wore a sand coloured suit matching with his best man Johnny Carter. Anna and Gina Knight stars Francesca Henry and Molly Rainford were also filming in dark green bridesmaid gowns. While their on-screen mum, Cindy Beale star Michelle Collins also attended in full funeral black alongside Ian Beale actor Adam Woodyatt. A source said at the time: 'The BBC have clearly pushed the boat out for the wedding. 'These days its unheard of for even the big soap weddings to have large amounts of the cast filming on location but bosses have made it work.' 3 3
Telegraph
27-06-2025
- Telegraph
After his wife and two daughters were murdered, John Hunt's dignity is humbling
What does bravery look like in 2025? Truthfully, it looks a lot like an ordinary middle-aged man getting up every morning and going to work, returning to his home at the end of the day and repeating it. Not so different from millions of his peers. Except every time BBC racing commentator John Hunt leaves his house, he is striking a blow for goodness and hope in the face of the most unspeakable evil, the most gut-wrenching horror imaginable. Last July, the BBC racing commentator's wife Carol, 61 and his daughters Hannah, aged 28 and Louise, 25, were slaughtered with a knife and crossbow at the family home in Bushey, Hertfordshire. The monster who carried out this heinous crime was Kyle Clifford, Louise's 26-year-old ex-boyfriend, who was sentenced to a whole life order for the murders, meaning he will, quite rightly, never be released. Nor will Hunt ever escape from the memory of what happened in the house where he and his remaining adult daughter, Amy, still live. Last night, they gave their first interview to Victoria Derbyshire on BBC One – and it was the most humbling and astonishingly life-affirming display of dignity and courage I can recall. Almost a year on, John speaks to his murdered family every day. 'Sometimes I say out loud to Hannah and Louise, 'Girls, sorry I can't be with you, I'm with your mum at the moment',' he told Derbyshire. 'As I close my eyes at night, I chat to them as well. They're very close to me all the time.' It is their legacy of love that has kept him and his surviving daughter going, he said. For Amy, speaking on camera was a way to 'breathe life back into my mum, Hannah, and Louise as fully rounded people' and show the world they were more than a statistic. Kyle Clifford had been in their home, had accepted their hospitality many times during his 18-month relationship with Louise. But after she ended things, he turned up and stabbed Carol with a 10-inch butcher's knife before hiding her body. Then he waited over an hour for Louise to come in from the back garden, where she was working in her dog grooming pod. When she walked in the door he gagged, restrained and raped her before killing her with a crossbow. Her elder sister Hannah returned home seconds after Louise was killed – whereupon Clifford shot her fatally before fleeing. But before she died she somehow managed to text a friend and call the police to alert them to what was happening. John believes that call saved his life – he felt certain that Clifford planned to kill him too. 'Her doing that has given me life,' he said. 'And I've used that to re-ground myself on a daily basis. I get to live. Hannah gave me that, and I've got to treat it as a gift from her.' And so he has carried on living. Not just for the sake of Hannah, Louise and Carol but for the sake of Amy. Clifford was too much of a coward to turn up in court to hear his sentencing; at the time John issued a pledge: ' I want you to see what real courage is,' he said, vowing to carry on 'no matter what'. That is bravery. That is integrity. That is the power of love in the midst of loss.
The Guardian
26-06-2025
- The Guardian
Amy Hunt says murder of mother and sisters was ‘rooted in misogyny'
Amy Hunt, whose mother and two sisters were murdered in their home last year, has said the attack was 'rooted in misogyny', calling for radical societal changes to address the 'epidemic' of violence against women and young girls. Amy's mother, Carol, 61, and sisters Hannah, 28, and Louise, 25, were killed in July by Kyle Clifford, her youngest sister's former partner. The three women were the wife and daughters of the BBC racing commentator John Hunt. Clifford, 26, from Enfield, north London, fatally stabbed Carol after he followed her into her home in Bushey, Hertfordshire, under the pretence he was bringing over some of his former partner's belongings. He then waited for Louise to arrive, before raping her and using a crossbow to shoot her and Hannah. Speaking to the BBC in their first interview since the murders, Amy said: 'Violence against women and girls in all its forms … doesn't have to be as catastrophic as this, because it happens in small ways every single day. 'We've got a serious obligation as a society to change men's behaviour because this is a man's issue – it's not a woman's issue.' Asked whether Clifford's attack was fuelled by the social media content of Andrew Tate, whose videos he had watched in the days before the murders, Amy said: 'I think it's ridiculous to say that Kyle Clifford was not capable of murder, watched Andrew Tate, and became capable of murder and rape. 'We live in society that in many cases emboldens misogyny, allows misogyny to fester. It's not just Andrew Tate, there are many subsets of Andrew Tate on social media.' Issuing a message to 'young women in a troubled relationship', John Hunt said: 'Try and find the strength to extricate yourself from that, because you deserve so much better.' John called for young boys to begin receiving education about misogyny from as early as nursery. He said: 'I think schools should have far more freedom to explain, get young boys to behave correctly towards women, at the earliest possible age. I mean nursery age.' John described media reports claiming Hannah and Clifford had an 'abusive' relationship as 'ill-informed' and 'off-the-scale inaccurate'. He said Clifford 'violated us and our family in the most horrific of ways, but what those stories felt like was a continued violation'. Reflecting on her mother and sisters, Amy said: 'They are the representation of all things good. 'They worked hard, loved hard, had fun, travelled, went and did the things they loved, spent time with the people they loved, were kind, caring, considerate. 'They don't stop being your sisters, your mum, when they pass away. I'll always be one of three sisters, we'll always be a family of five.' Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, or 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at
National Post
26-06-2025
- National Post
BBC commentator whose family was murdered with a crossbow by his daughter's ex speaks out for the first time
John Hunt, a man whose wife and two daughters were murdered in a crossbow attack, is speaking out for the first time in an interview published by the BBC on Wednesday. Article content On July 9, 2024, Hunt's 61-year-old wife Carol, as well as his daughters, 25-year-old Louise and 28-year-old Hannah, were killed. The suspect was Louise's ex-boyfriend, Kyle Clifford, who was later arrested. He pleaded guilty, and in March, was convicted of fatally stabbing Carol before he raped Louise and then killed the sisters at their family home in Bushey, north of London, with a crossbow. He received three life sentences, the BBC reported. Article content Article content Article content Hunt, who is a BBC racing commentator, sat down with the publication alongside his third daughter, Amy. Article content Article content 'When it happened I thought, 'How on earth am I ever going to be able to care about anything ever again?'' he said. 'It's fine to sit with that thought in the wreckage of what was our personal disaster. But you come to realize that, with a little bit of work, you can find some light again.' Article content Hunt and Amy said they didn't want to speak out earlier because the intense, and sometimes inaccurate, media coverage after the murders 'added to their pain,' per the BBC. They didn't want their family to be 'defined by their deaths.' Article content 'From the moment I wake up, I say good morning to each of them,' said Hunt. 'Sometimes I say out loud to Hannah and Louise, 'Girls, sorry I can't be with you, I'm with your mum at the moment.' As I close my eyes at night, I chat to them as well. They're very close to me all the time.' Article content Amy revealed a touching memory with her sisters around two months before the horrific murders. She said they had gone out to dinner together and were so grateful for the lives they got to lead. They discussed how lucky they were to 'have had the parents we've had and the life we've had,' she said. Article content Article content My wife and daughters left behind a legacy of love, John Hunt tells BBC — Victoria Derbyshire (@vicderbyshire) June 26, 2025 Article content She told the BCC, at the time, there was no indication that Clifford was capable of such crimes. Although, the BBC reported, the relationship eventually 'started to sour' between Clifford and Louise. It ended in late June, when Louise broke up with him. Article content Article content Clifford went to the Hunt's family home on the day of the murders, reportedly to return some of Louise's belongings. He had a brief and cordial interaction with Carol, which was captured on the family's doorbell camera. He then followed Carol inside and stabbed her to death. When Louise arrived, her raped her and used a crossbow to kill her. Then, Hannah arrived and he killed her with a crossbow. Article content Before Hannah died, she texted her boyfriend and called police. Hunt said he believes Hannah's actions saved his life, as he was likely intended to be a victim of Clifford's as well.
