Six of the best places in Hong Kong to eat pizza – margherita, of course – plus seven reader recommendations
A great margherita requires top quality ingredients and strict adherence to traditional cooking methods, but where in Hong Kong is up to the task? We recruit two local Italians to help us with our search
When debating Italy’s most globally embraced food export, pizza beats pasta by the thinnest and crispiest of margins. But how many times have you heard friends complain that they can’t find a good slice in Hong Kong?
Eager to prove them wrong, we recruited two Hong Kong-based Italians, Maria Teresa Brusco and Francesco Del Gaudio – the latter from Naples, where the modern pizza was invented (but who’s not afraid to admit that he also enjoys a deep-fried pizza).
Del Gaudio is passionate about pizza and says a true Neapolitan pizza – in our case, the margherita – can only be cooked in a wood-fired oven, with fresh basil and San Marzano tomatoes. The thin-and-pointy variety of plum tomatoes from the town of San Marzano sul Sarno, near Naples, can only be used as stipulated by the Associazione Vera Pizza Napoletana (or True Neapolitan Pizza Association, better known as VPN). This global movement aims to protect the Pizza Napoletana name and the product by enforcing strict rules governing its preparation.
Other guidelines include that ovens must be at 485 degrees Celsius and flour must be grade “0” or “00”, indicating the fineness of milling (“00” is highly refined and has the consistency of baby powder).
But what really makes a good pizza? We asked 2014 world champion pizza maker and self-confessed margherita lover Johnny Di Francesco from Australia, whose family’s roots can be traced to Naples.