Latest news with #NeapolitanPizza
Irish Times
08-08-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Coke Lane Pizza at The Circular takeaway review: Don't tell the Neapolitans, but even the pineapple works
What's on offer? Dave Holmes founded Coke Lane Pizza in 2017 after leaving his career path in forensic science. While studying for a master's in forensic science at King's College London , he became fixated on Neapolitan-style pizza after eating at Franco Manca in Brixton. Returning to Ireland , he saved €8,000, bought a van, oven and mixer, and launched Coke Lane as a pop-up at Frank Ryan's in Smithfield, Dublin 7 . In 2019, following a successful run at Lucky's Pub on Meath Street, Coke Lane moved into The Circular in Rialto, Dublin 8. It now operates from three locations: Lucky's, The Circular, and Priory Market in Tallaght . Coke Lane specialises in Neapolitan-style pizza with 48-72-hour-fermented high-hydration dough. The dough is made with a blend of Caputo flour and UK-based Wildfarmed flour, wood-fired at 450–500 degrees. All pizzas use crushed Italian plum tomatoes and toppings include locally sourced ingredients such as free-range chicken from Manor Farm. For the ham hock, they buy free-range hams from Niall O'Gorman Meats, cook them with botanicals, and pull the meat apart before finishing in honey and mustard. What did we order? Margherita, Ryan's, Locard and Magnum Pi. With Coke Lane known for toppings that might give Italians palpitations, I chose a mix and used the Margherita to benchmark the base and technique. READ MORE How was the service? Order at the counter inside The Circular, take a seat and wait for the buzzer. Was the food nice? The Margherita was benchmark. It had a good balance between tomato, cheese and basil, and the crust was blistered and elastic, showing that they know how to handle dough. The Ryan's, a Margherita with roast chicken thighs, smoked bacon, rocket, Caesar drizzle and Parmesan, was extremely good. It's a combination you wouldn't expect to work, but the Caesar dressing pulls it all together, and it ends up the favourite. Coke Lane Pizza The Locard, a Margherita with goat's cheese, butternut squash, rocket and Irish honey, is more muted than expected. The goat's cheese, which should add depth, is too mild to leave an impression. A stronger goat's cheese would work better. The Magnum Pi, a pizza I would generally never order, is a Margherita with wood-fired ham hock and Teeling Whiskey flambéed pineapple pieces. It's a restrained take on ham and pineapple. The flambéed pineapple avoids the tinned-sweet cliche, while the ham hock is shredded and delicious. You can't taste the whiskey, but there's balance between sweet and savoury. Coke Lane Pizza What about the packaging? Mostly cardboard packaging which is compostable. What did it cost? €54.20 for dinner for four people: Margherita, €12.70; Ryan's, €13.90; Locard, €13.70; and Magnum Pi, €13.90. Where does it deliver? Eat-in, takeaway and delivery Thursday-Sunday within 2km. Open Friday-Saturday, 4pm-10.30pm, Sunday-Thursday, 4pm-10pm. Would I order it again? Yes, this is very good pizza and the creative approach works.
BBC News
03-08-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Italy's undercover pizza detectives
As pizza's popularity spreads around the world, a group of top-secret agents are travelling the globe on espionage missions to determine what "real" pizza is. On a sweltering day bleached by the fearsome southern Italian sun, a group of international travellers have gathered a stone's throw from Naples' San Gennaro catacombs, named for the city's patron saint. But these visitors aren't here to venerate the ancient martyr; they've come in service of something equally important to the city's identity. Hailing from Belgium, France, Japan, South Korea, Canada and Brazil, these men and women are all aspiring pizzaioli (traditional Italian pizza makers), and they are about to take the biggest pizza test of their lives. The trainees are at the headquarters of the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (the "True Neapolitan Pizza Association", or AVPN for short). Founded in 1984, this organisation exists to "promote and protect" an exacting vision of the city's most famous culinary marvel, and was instrumental in inscribing "the art" of Neapolitan pizza-making as a Unesco Intangible Culture Heritage of Humanity several years ago. From its humble origins as a Neapolitan street food in the late 1800s pizza has become one of the world's most beloved, ubiquitous dishes. Though there are two traditional types of Neapolitan pizza (the Margherita, topped with tomato sauce, mozzarella and fresh basil; and the marinara, which uses oregano and garlic instead of basil and doesn't contain cheese) myriad contemporary varieties have popped up worldwide in recent decades – from slices dressed with blue cheese and honey to the creamy, lemon peel-topped Crisommola del Vesuvio by chef Franco Pepe. But just as there are strict criteria for determining "authentic" Champagne or Parmigiano cheese, this group of culinary custodians has set out to ensure that the delectable dish stays true to its Neapolitan roots – at least if you're going to call it "real" pizza. "There is a big connection between this kind of food and the soul of Naples," says Massimo Di Porzio, vice president at the AVPN, who is flecked with flour in his corporate profile photo. With its training school, competitions, trade fairs and a large bronze pizza statue shining just outside its headquarters the AVPN has become a veritable empire of pizza authenticity. Its lengthy guidelines dictate that all certified pies must consist of a "roundish seasoned disc" with a high-border, puffy crust (cornicione) no taller than 1-2cm. There should be no "big bubbles" or "burned spots". Pizzas must be "soft", "elastic" and foldable. Pizza-makers can't use a rolling pin or baking tray. Cooking a pizza for longer than 90 seconds is sacrilegious. And the final product must be consumed within 10 minutes after emerging from the oven. On the blistering-hot final day of the AVPN's rigorous monthly training course, the international students will put their newfound pizza knowledge to the test. Attendees have studied dough-leavening techniques and hydration, the ins and outs of yeast, the nuances of picking fresh toppings and ideal salt-to-water ratios. They've practiced the intricacies of placing pizza into ovens – a simple-seeming but deceptively tricky step – all with the goal of baking a consistently perfect pie. "I was quite nervous, especially as people started coming back from their exams," says Gemma Eldridge, a Canadian pizza-maker. "But you're really only there for three minutes. You don't really have time to be nervous." From 10:00 to 18:00 during the nine-day course, Eldridge and her fellow pizzaioli baked as many as 40 practice pies each day. Today, students pick at their rehearsal Margheritas as they await the return of the other trainees from their exams, under the scrutiny of local pizza celebrities Gino Sorbillo and Paolo Surace. The chefs are being judged on an undisputed classic: the Margherita. While the pizzaioli refine their technical know-how through this intensive programme, the course is only their first step towards pizza mastery. The real work begins with maintaining these standards in pizzerias back home – an ongoing test that will continue throughout the rest of their careers, should they one day work in accredited Neapolitan pizza restaurants. While pizza-chef training is available to anyone, the bar is higher for restaurants to get accredited. Pizzerias must first employ an AVPN-trained pizzaiolo. They then have to fill out reams of forms in which they swear to "accept, respect and promote the tradition of the Neapolitan pizza". They must photograph their kitchen, equipment and ingredients, as well as take videos of their head pizza chef preparing dough and making and cooking a pizza. This is all sent off to the AVPN headquarters in Naples with no guarantee of approval. To date, roughly 1,000 pizzerias from Japan to Siberia and Ecuador to the UK have signed up to be part of this elite pizza club and, once accredited, can display their AVPN certificate bearing a striped figure wielding a baking peel, all together forming a global network of pizzerias where travellers know they can get the real deal. Still, a restaurant's scrutiny isn't over once it's accredited, as the AVPN intermittently dispatches secret pizza agents on espionage missions to clandestinely spy on the restaurants. Any pizzeria found non-compliant with the group's standards by these quality-control spies risks de-listing. According to one such agent, who cannot be named: "The most serious error I found was a pizza that was crispy and with dough that was definitely not approved." The Association verified the problem and then promptly removed this restaurant from its list of pizzerias. In Japan, a pizzeria that was kicked out of the organisation – but continued to display its certificate – learned of the consequences the hard way. "We went to Osaka and removed it," laughs Di Porzio, recalling the lawyer accompanying the pizza enforcers. This mission to define authentic pizza has a curious side effect, says Karima Mover-Nocchi, a food historian at the University of Siena, who suggests the whole process is as much about myth-making as it is maintaining traditional like this:• A chef's guide to the best pizza in Naples• How to make pizza like a Neapolitan master• Italy's beloved 'fried pizza' By codifying "authentic" pizza, she says the AVPN creates an "inner circle" of true-pizza certificate holders. In short: all the exclusivity gets people salivating over pizza more. "The AVPN aren't just preserving a tradition, they're producing it," she says. "[The AVPN is elevating pizza] into a transcendental experience. They're safeguarding the dish, but also creating a mystique – and you're made to feel like you're part of something that's enduring." Still, given the high drama of these top-secret cloak-and-dagger pizza investigations, it's ironic that such fussy standards to maintain "traditional" Neapolitan pies haven't always existed. According to Di Porzio, centuries ago, Naples' artisanal pizza-makers each had differing techniques, usually passed down from father to son. But in the late 20th Century, faced with a groundswell of shoddy fast-food simulacra that offered fake-Neapolitan pizza, AVPN founder Antonio Pace – who is from a long lineage of pizzaioli – gathered 16 other pizza-making families to standardise what makes an "authentic" pie. There were bumps along the way for the "17 families", as they are known. A major row erupted over the finer details of dough fermentation, but the initial guidelines were published in 1984 and the AVPN was formed. In 1998, the organisation teamed up with the nearby Università Parthenope di Napoli to study pizza science, cutting-edge baking technology and the broader impact of the food, co-creating the Socio-Economic Observatory of Neapolitan Pizza. A yearly conference of top pizza-makers debate whether new findings, such as improvements to flour manufacturing, necessitate a rejigging of the regulations. But for all this precision and protectiveness over pizza napoletana, Antonio Puzzi, the editor-in-chief of the magazine Pizza e Pasta Italiana, notes that Italy has dozens of different types of pizzas. There's Neapolitan pizza fritta(deep-fried calzone), but also Roman pizza, which is crispier and crunchier than the Neapolitan style and rolled with a pin rather than hand-stretched. Then there's pizza nel ruoto (pizza baked in a pan), cooked in a small baking tin; the hot and crispy deep-fried pizzonta from Abruzzo; and a long list of variations on focaccias and flatbreads. "There are a lot of recognised kinds of pizza in many cities and many states," says Puzzi. "But the only official representation is for Neapolitan pizza." Even with Italy's many pizza varieties, certain faux pas – such as ordering a chicken pizza overseas – remain just as likely to invoke the wrath of Italian purists. Case in point: after trying in vain to open 880 shops in Italy, US pizza brand Domino's famously filed for bankruptcy in the bel paese in 2022 – and never dared to open a branch in Naples. Yet, some argue that Italian tastes arechanging, and despite the AVPN's seeming rigidity, they now seem to be more amenable to modifying their exacting standards than they were in the past. "If we can improve something, we'll change it, so we are very open," says Di Porzio. In 2024, Sorbillo, one of the AVPN's examiners and accredited restaurateurs, controversially debuted a Neapolitan pizza with Hawaiian-style toppings. While critics such as Puzzi describe the pizza as a "provocation" – and employees of the eponymous Naples restaurant Gino e Toto Sorbillo all but refused to serve it to me – Sorbillo believes there's room for both modernity and tradition. "Pizza does not stop at a certain point – it's always developing, changing, cooperating with the Association, there is always something to learn," he says. "The pizza of today is not the same as 40 years ago." Yet times do change, acknowledges Di Porzio, who says the AVPN faced a "lot of criticism" for accepting in 2013 that Neapolitan pizza could be cooked in electric ovens as well as the traditional wooden receptacles. The decision rankled the most hardcore traditionalists, says Di Porzio. Still, even as trends and styles shift and previously taboo toppings become de rigueur, Di Porzio and the AVPN believe it's important to maintain traditional cooking methods too. "I always say, pizza napoletana is not necessarily the best, but the pizza that has its strongest roots in the culture," says Di Porzio. "So it's a skill that we need to teach and preserve." -- For more Travel stories from the BBC, follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
CNN
03-07-2025
- Business
- CNN
New York may have America's top pizza, but LA is at its heels, Italian judges say
The best pizza in the United States comes from a wood-fired oven on New York's Lower East Side, an Italian pizza-ranking guide has announced. For the second year running, the Naples-based 50 Top Pizza judged Una Pizza Napoletana the winner in its annual assessment of American bakers. The ranking focuses strictly on Neapolitan-style pizza — the thin, round, fastidiously prepared variety from the city that considers itself the cradle of pizza — but to aficionados, it's the only type that matters. In a one-two punch, the Big Apple also claimed the top individual pizza slice, with the honors going to L'industrie Pizzeria, run by Massimo Laveglia and Nick Baglivo. Last year, Una Pizza Napoletana was also rated No. 1 in the whole world. The global rankings are due to be released later this year. Una Pizza Napoletana is owned by Anthony Mangieri. Born and raised in New Jersey, Mangieri opened his first pizzeria on the Jersey Shore in 1996. Food and Wine magazine has called Mangieri 'one of the country's most skilled practitioners of the Neapolitan style' of pizza, and New York magazine called him a 'one-man Opus Dei' for authentic pizza. The organization behind the ranking, 50 Top Pizza, cited the rich flavor of his pizzas and the his straightforward approach to making them, with only a few dishes on offer and a single location. Mangieri said that perfecting his technique has been his goal since he first started making pizzas at age 15. While his focus remains the same, he said the world of pizza has changed dramatically in the nearly 30 years since he established his first restaurant. 'When we opened, no one was making the style of pizza that we make,' he told CNN Travel. Now, he says, you can find good pizza all over the world, and American diners have come to appreciate fine Neapolitan pizza. He attributes his success to a strong work ethic that limits distractions. 'It is not a concept restaurant — it is not one of 20 things that I'm doing,' Mangieri said of the restaurant on Orchard Street in New York. 'It's a life's work.' Restaurants in Los Angeles and San Francisco snagged the next two spots on the list of top pizzerias in the US, which also included nine other New York pizzerias. Pizzeria Sei, the No. 2 pizzeria in the US, is run by William Joo, whom the organization deemed 'very talented.' And American pizza 'legend' Tony Gemignani came in third with his Tony's Pizza Napoletana in San Francisco. Other cities known for their pizza also made appearances on the list, including New Haven where the restaurant Zeneli was singled out. California fared particularly well, with honors also going to pizzerias in San Diego, San Luis Obispo and Berkeley. But the gospel of Neapolitan pizza has traveled widely, and the ranking also included restaurants in Louisville, Kentucky, and Charlotte, North Carolina. The ranking was announced at the West Edge in New York's Chelsea Market on Tuesday. Have a hankering for more pizza news? The organization will announce the best pizzerias in Italy on July 15 and the world's best pizzerias in September. The top 10 pizzerias in the US according to 50 Top Pizza: 1 Una Pizza Napoletana - (New York) 2 Pizzeria Sei – (Los Angeles) 3 Tony's Pizza Napoletana – (San Francisco) 4 Jay's – (Kenmore, New York) 5 Ribalta – (New York) 6 Robert's – (Chicago) 7 Don Antonio – (New York) 8 Ken's Artisan Pizza – (Portland, Oregon) 9 Truly Pizza – (Dana Point, California) 10 La Leggenda – (Miami)
Yahoo
27-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
New in town: rumeL's $5 sourdough pizzas in Bugis+ this weekend
If you see an adorable creature popping up all over Bugis+ on 28 Jun, you know you've walked into rumeL's newly opened outlet. After all, it's not every day you see a lemur gracing a pizza store's logo, right? With a that's 'lemur' spelt backwards, rumeL mimics its mascot's playful, laid-back nature through their pizzas and coffees. But the ones most similar to the lemurs may be those peering through the queue on opening day, lol. rumeL's opening is thanks to Hersing Culinary, who has brought in Sicilian chef Silvo Gropelli — ranked number 1 by 50 Top Pizza — for the curation of recipes. Neapolitan pizzas — known for their thin bottom and high, charred crust — are rumeL's speciality. While Neapolitan pizzas traditionally include only pizza Margherita or pizza marinara, rumeL caters to the Singaporean food scene with 15 flavour variations. As someone who frequently eats out alone, I appreciated the personal-size portions. From S$5, you get a 6-inch pizza that's more than enough to fill you up. If you're with friends, you can opt for the 10-inch pizzas that start at S$9.80. Trust me, don't dabao these if you've got time to dine in. Luscious melted cheese stretches from slice to slice when it's piping hot, and the ingredients glisten in bubbling juices. Though these thin-crust pizzas still taste great cold, the theatrics of a cheese pull are half the reason why I love myself a slice! rumeL's opening menu features the Hot Honey Cheese Pizza (S$6.80) topped with perfectly melted cheddar and mozzarella. A generous drizzle of mildly spicy hot honey completes the golden balance of sweet and salty. Personally, I didn't feel the heat from the hot honey, so hardcore spice lovers take note! Headlining the breakfast pizza section is the world's first Kaya Butter Pizza (S$6.80), which is only S$5 during rumeL's opening promotion. Don't back away just yet, because sourdough was a surprisingly close match to toast in this combo! I was shocked by how well the Kaya Butter Pizza emulated kaya toast. The layer of kaya wasn't too sweet and the butter melted into a silky golden sheen on each slice. I'm not a fan of cold butter slices myself, so this was right down my alley. Plus that thick, chewy crust covered in oven char? It's kaya toast, no doubt! The promo for S$5 pizzas covers the Kaya Butter Toast, Chicken Floss and Crushed Peanut Butter flavours. The Veggie, Margherita and Mozza B.L.T pizzas will be S$6.80 instead of the usual price of S$7.80. As long as you come down any time from 8am to 11am, this promo will apply! Furthermore, on 28 and 29 Jun, you'll be able to get 50% off your second pizza if you're one of the first 188 customers each day. If you're planning an outing with friends, this is your sign to come to Bugis+ for a slice. So get ready for rumeL's grand opening this Saturday, or else you'll become a tiptoeing lemur at the end of the queue! Il Piccolo Pizzeria: Restaurant-quality Italian cuisine in humble Toa Payoh coffeeshop with gnocchi & pizza from $5.50 The post New in town: rumeL's $5 sourdough pizzas in Bugis+ this weekend appeared first on
Forbes
26-06-2025
- General
- Forbes
San Matteo Pizzeria E Cucina Sets A Standard For Neapolitan Food In New York
Neapolitan pizzas and panuozzi from Salerno are textbook examples of San Matteo Pizzeria e Cucina's ... More cooking.I have refrained from getting into the food media's never-ending harangues over the best pizzas in any city because they have as much credibility as descriptions of twenty different brands of chinos. If, however, there are first-rate pizzas to be found within a restaurant that is also serving excellent Italian food across the board, I'm happy to heap praise on both. Remarkably, a ten-year-old trattoria on New York's upper east side named San Matteo Pizzeria e Cucina has evolved so that it probably should switch its name to San Matteo Cucina e Pizzeria, for the Italian food, from antipasti through main courses is among the most robust and delicious in the city, thanks to Fabio and Ciro Casella, whose bonafides begin in their native Salerno. Moving to New York in 1999, Fabio worked at the fabledDean & DeLuca and Mike's Deli of Arthur Avenue before striking out on his own with his brother to open San Matteo Pizza & Espresso Bar in 2010 on 90th and Second Avenue, then the current restaurant on 81st in 2015 (with another on East 89th Street). Once a staple of Italian-American restaurants in New York, potato croquettes return at San Matteo ... More Pizzeria e Cucina Back then the siblings helped revive an interest in southern Italian food, particularly Neapolitan, including the puffy crusted, soft-centered pizzas invented in that city, which transcended the thin-crusted anomalies that ruled New York for years. To get right to the point, yes, San Matteo's pizzas are as close to those of Naples as you'll find in New York––with a yeasty, flavorful crust with real chew, charred bubbles and toppings that make sense, from a classic Margherita to a Paesana with tomato sauce, housemade mozzarella, eggplant cubes and basi,l and Cetara with tomato sauce, mozzarella, capers, oregano, black olives, Sicilian anchovies, garlic and basil. They also make wonderful calzones and panuozzi, a specialty of Salerno, made with baked pizza dough, sliced and stuffed with a variety of ingredients including roast porchetta, mortadella, prosciutto, broccoli di rabe, buffalo mozzarella, marinated eggplant, arugula and roasted peppers. Potato gnocchi in a rich cheese and tomato casserole. Were you able to resist ordering a pizza as a first course, I highly recommend the luscious, cream-centered burrata and prosciutto or the crocche di patate––potato croquettes of a kind that used to be on so many Italian restaurants, now here revived, with a crispy fried crust and velvety interior. Of course the potato gnocchi alla sorrentina are housemade, of the right, tender texture and cuddled in a tomato and eggplant sauce, while other options include tagliatelle with mushrooms, spaghetti cooked in a pouch, and rigatoni with a convincing bolognese sauce rich and complex with vegetables and meat. A massive tomahawk steak is some of the best beef in the city. Main courses revert to traditional fare like chicken parmigiana (another dish now back in favor everywhere), but Fabio recommended a tomahawk steak, which I could see dry aging in the restaurant's refrigerated cabinet. I'm always hesitant about the bravura show of the naked rib at the end of a massive sirloin, but the meat, perfectly charred and cooked medium-rare, was some of the best beef I've eaten in ages, at a time when high-end steakhouses all (falsely or otherwise) promise dry-aged USDA Prime with very little marbling or flavor. This tomahawk specimen had a minerality, a sanguine sweetness and a rich fat content that I recall from the days when the Prime grade really meant something. The steak is huge and four of us––albeit after pizza and pasta––managed to consume only about half the thick, rosy slices; the rest came home with the bone. For dessert there's a generous tiramisù, but even better is the cream-centered lemon cake. San Matteo has a modest wine list fit for a trattoria, with plenty of bottles under $100. Storefront pizzeria decor gives San Matteo Pizzeria e Cucina a no-frills ambience. There's not much to say about the décor, which more resembles the average pizzeria than a stylish trattoria. Try to get one of the two tables by the window overlooking the avenue. The Casellas have done well with two New York units of San Matteo, and this year will be selling their pizzas at the upcoming U.S. Open. Plans are in the works for a gelateria in the neighborhood and maybe San Matteos in other cities. I really hope they don't expand too much or too quickly. Food this good takes very careful monitoring, and there are only two Casellas to make sure. But for now, San Matteo has given the upper east side the kind of Italian food so often copied and raved about downtown and in Brooklyn of a kind that go on and off those endless lists. San Matteo should be around for a very long time. SAN MATTEO PIZZERIA E CUCINA 559 Second Avenue 212-861-2434 Open daily for lunch and dinner.
