Next-level pizza in Hong Kong: restaurants ditch the usual dough and play with toppings to create new experiences
- First came the ultimate burger challenge. Now it’s the turn of pizza, as restaurants come up with new dough recipes and experiment with toppings
- From sourdough pizzas in Happy Valley to emmer-dough pies in Admiralty, and pasta-style toppings such as carbonara, we talk to pizza pioneers about what’s new
In the past few years, chefs in Hong Kong have tried their hand at creating the ultimate hamburgers, giving them the gourmet treatment by using ingredients such as wagyu beef, raclette cheese, caramelised onions, and brioche buns.
Recently, chefs have turned their attention to pizza. Three new pizzerias have opened in the last few months, none of which make pizza the traditional way; each says they are trying to create what they think is the best-tasting pizza by developing their own kind of dough and some creative toppings.
Dough Bros in Happy Valley was opened in October by Ed Rolston and Matt Lamming, two ex-rugby players who also have the European/British restaurant Three Blind Mice on Ship Street in Wan Chai.
“We eat loads of pizza and wanted to have a pizzeria of our own,” says Rolston. Lamming identified artisanal pizza in the UK as becoming more popular as diners become more discerning.
They landed on the idea of making sourdough pizza, and are using a dough starter that is more than 50 years old. “We teamed up with a gentleman who has a history of owning flour mills in his family,” Rolston says.
The result is a pizza with a pillowy crust that is light and slightly chewy and, for the most part, holds up to the toppings.