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Metro
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Metro
World's best pizza chef reveals ‘horrendous' ingredient he'll never use
Welcome back to What's Cooking, Metro's food series where we find out exactly what's going on behind the scenes in the nation's kitchens. This week we're rifling through Michele Pascarella's kitchen in London, to find out what he really has in his cupboard, fridge and freezer. Michele is the owner of Napoli on the Road with pizzerias in Richmond and Chiswick which were crowned the best in Europe in the 50 Top Pizza Awards 2024. And if that weren't enough, at the age of just 33, Michele has been named the world's best pizza chef. The chef, who hails from Naples, has been making pizza since he was just 11 years old and realised very quickly that it was his calling. Aged 19, he came to the UK and began working in various restaurants, including Sartori in Soho, before finally setting up his own business selling wood-fired pizza from a van, hence the name. If you've ever wondered where a top chef goes to eat in the city, their kitchen must-haves and what they actually cook for dinner after work, we've got the answers… Lots of people might think the ingredients are the secret, but from my point of view it's that I never stop learning. I'm always trying to get better. Learning is key in any job, because if you keep working hard every day then you'll get better and better. And it's important to learn from those around you, when you work with new people, they'll have something to each you – whether it's a new chef in a kitchen or a new waitress in a restaurant, you can always learn something. At Napoli on the Road we get a lot of questions about chicken and pineapple, but I don't like to put these things on pizza. If we were going to do a dessert pizza, I might put fresh fruit on it, but the idea of opening up a tin of pineapple and just slapping it on a pizza is horrendous. In Italy we used to eat lots of chicken, but that was always with a main, so we'd have it after some pasta and do grilled chicken and potatoes, or something like that. We'd just never think about putting chicken on a pizza. Cooked meat can also be tricky as a topping, as it can be very dry and when you're putting it into the oven, it'll be even worse. I'm working so much in the restaurants and see so much pizza every day, so when I go out, I try to go to a regular restaurant instead of a pizzeria. I love Dalla in Hackney, which is an Italian restaurant, and I discovered a new one near Queen's Park called Ida – it's very good. If I were going for pizza, there's a place in Stoke Newington called Oi Vita, it's run by a friend of mine and he's doing more classic Neopolitan pizza, more Roma style. I like that it's very crispy. Sometimes I don't get home from work until 9pm, so I'm tired and don't really want to cook dinner. I just go and buy bread, or get some from my restaurant, and toss it together with some olives and cheese. It's not really very Italian, but I love garlic powder. If I need to cook any chicken, I'll use it and some chilli powder as well to season the meat. I always have tomatoes in the fridge and I'm very lucky because I can buy lots of them from Italy and they're very, very good, especially the San Marzano ones. I use them to make my favourite dish in the world, which is pasta pomodoro (pasta with fresh tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil, garlic, basil, and salt). There's lots of bread in there, as I don't want to throw away anything. And I always have a box of Parmesan rinds. In Italy, we cut a little piece off the big wheel of Parmesan and when we do pasta with lentils, pasta with potatoes or soup, we put this inside to make it more cheesy. You don't defrost it, just put it straight in there. I really hate the little bags of mozzarella in water you get at the supermarket. Cheese, for me, needs to be quality and those little balls of mozzarella don't taste of anything, it's better to do without. I get lots of cheese from Italy, but I do really like the cheese shop in Neal's Yard and there's a very good one in Borough Market. It's fun trying new cheeses on my pizzas. It's also very important to have good olive oil. If you're doing toast with ham, or a salad, or you want to finish some spaghetti with some extra virgin olive oil it has to be good, because if not it'll be too bitter and ruin it. I've spent £27 on a bottle of olive oil before. I never buy expensive beer, but I like to have some at home. I'm not a big drinker, so I love the Peroni Nastro Azzurro 0.0%, it's always welcome in the fridge. I really love Greek salads. I've always got some Feta cheese and some vegetables to make it and the veg coming up from British farmers is amazing, sometimes even better than from Italian lands, to be honest. More Trending I've also been enjoying fresh strawberries and cherries while they're in season. View More » Want to take part in What's Cooking and let Metro raid your kitchen at home? Email Do you have a story to share? Get in touch by emailing MetroLifestyleTeam@ MORE: 100ml liquid limit set to be scrapped for flyers across Europe MORE: The one drink you should never order from a restaurant wine list MORE: Londoners outraged over 'stupid' new charge being added to restaurant bills Your free newsletter guide to the best London has on offer, from drinks deals to restaurant reviews.
Time Out
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
The best pizzeria in Europe is giving away free pizza on London's South Bank next week
What's better than pizza? Free pizza. Next week Napoli on The Road – which came first at last month's 50 Top Pizza Europa Awards – will be handing out thousands of slices of free margherita pizza on the South Bank from a nifty Napoli on the Road van. This cheesy giveaway will take place on Tuesday July 29 and Wednesday July 30, from 11am-7pm, at Observation Point near Gabriel's Wharf. To what do we owe such an honour? We can thank tomatoes, specifically Italian tinned tomato brand Mutti, whose tomato sauce will take pride of place on the pizza slices. Mutti will also be dishing out free samples of its new garlic pasta sauce. Napoli On The Road - which has outlets in Chiswick and Richmond – won the title of Pizza of the Year 2025 at the Pizza Europa Awards for its signature pizza Ricordi d'Infanzia, which is topped with slow-cooked ragu with beef, Parmigiano Reggiano DOP, fondue and basil. Napoli on the Road was set up by pizzaiolo Michele Pascarella, who hails from Maddaloni, near Naples. Pascarella was also named World Pizza Maker of the Year 2023 by 50 Top Pizza and Best International Pizza Maker 2024 by the Accademia Nazionale Pizza DOC.
Time Out
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
The best pizzerias in Europe have been crowned for 2025
We know a thing or two about good pizza at Time Out. In March, we released our global guide to the world's best pizzas, where you'll find everything from a classic Neapolitan margherita in Naples to porteño-style pies in Buenos Aires. But we're not the only ones chewing and cheese-pulling away to determine the planet's tastiest pies. 50 Top Pizza is an influential industry guide that produces several annual pizzeria rankings – and they've just dropped their latest list of the greatest pizzerias in Europe. Number one on the list for 2025 is Napoli on the Road, a London-based pizzeria with branches in Chiswick and Richmond. It's the second year in a row the restaurant, opened by Italian-born pizza chef Michele Pascarella, has claimed the prize. Baldoria in Madrid came second on 50 Top Pizza's ranking. Its signature Búfala Fest pizza featured on our own list, with Time Out Madrid's editor Gorka Elorrieta calling it 'a delightful surprise for cheese lovers'. In third place was a tie between Sartoria Panatieri in Barcelona and Via Toledo in Vienna – though the most represented city overall was none other than Paris. If you're wondering where on earth Italy is in all of this, rest assured the pizza motherland has its own dedicated ranking, the winners of which will be announced on July 15 in Milan. Here's the full list of Europe's best pizzerias in 2025 1. Napoli on the Road – London, England 2. Baldoria – Madrid, Spain =3. Sartoria Panatieri – Barcelona, Spain =3. Via Toledo – Vienna, Austria 4. 50 Kalò – London, England 5. IMperfetto – Puteaux, France 6. Pizza Zulu – Fürth, Germany 7. nNea – Amsterdam, The Netherlands 8. Fratelli Figurato – Madrid, Spain 9. Sapori Italiani U Taliana – Bratislava, Slovakia 10. Forno d'Oro – Lisbon, Portugal =11. La Balmesina – Barcelona, Spain =11. La Piola Pizza – Brussels, Belgium 12. Surt – Copenhagen, Denmark 13. Stile Napoletano – Chester, England 14. Demaio – Bilbao, Spain 15. Franko's Pizza & Bar – Zagreb, Croatia 16. Little Pyg – Dublin, Ireland 17. Matto Napoletano – Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia 18. Zielona Górka – Pabianice, Poland 19. da PONE – Zurich, Switzerland 20. Babette – Stockholm, Sweden 21. La Pizza è Bella – Antwerp, Belgium 22. Forza – Helsinki, Finland 23. MaMeMi – Copenhagen, Denmark 24. 450°C – Turku, Finland 25. L'Antica Pizzeria – London, England 26. Pietra – Belgrade, Serbia 27. Pizza Nuova – Prague, Czech Republic 28. Ciao a Tutti – Warsaw, Poland 29. Oobatz – Paris, France 30. Pop's Pizza – Ljubljana, Slovenia 31. Buon Appetito – Burgess Hill, England 32. Arte Bianca – Sagres, Portugal 33. Roco – Paris, France 34. Majstor i Margarita – Belgrade, Serbia 35. NAPIZZA – Nuremberg, Germany 36. Infraganti – Alicante, Spain 37. La Manifattura – Paris, France 38. Calvello's – Munich, Germany 39. Fimmina – Paris, France 40. Gasparic – Girona, Spain 41. Belli di Mamma – Budapest, Hungary 42. Margherita Pizzeria – Tallinn, Estonia 43. Kytaly – Geneva, Switzerland 44. 'naPizzà – Brussels, Belgium 45. Villa Severino – Helsinki, Finland 46. ZANO – Iași, Romania 47. Mamma Pizza – Oslo, Norway 48. Bottega Ceccarelli – Brunswick, Germany 49. Filo D'olio – Sarıyer – Istanbul, Türkiye 50. O'Panuozzo – Utrecht, The Netherlands
