This pizza grand tour is a once-in-a-lifetime journey
Course number three and I’m roundly befuddled: why hasn’t this menu “popped off” on Instagram?
asserted
menu → ’m → Instagram
Well, they’re not really doing press bookings for one thing.
asserted
they → do → thing
And this is a pizza tasting menu, so I can’t imagine many influencers are enticed by the prospect of liberal dough, however light and leopard-spotted it might be; of olive oil and luscious cheese and then, after an indelicate Campanian journey, the boundless sugar of Italian confectionery.
uncertain
it → imagine → confectionery
Yet this is something everybody should do at least once.
asserted
everybody → do → ?
Especially those who think pizza is “just pizza”.
asserted
pizza → think → ?
Before unconventional cooking in a two-storey, futuristic pizzeria in Soho with its curved windows, Berghain-esque concrete and neon, Michele Pascarella was squeezing tomatoes and stretching mozzarella in his native Napoli, where he started making pizza aged 11.
asserted
he → squeeze → 11
Years later, he opened his first Napoli on the Road in Chiswick.
asserted
he → open → Chiswick
It was named Europe’s best pizzeria by Italy’s prestigious 50 Top Pizza awards for three consecutive years up to 2026 - and has now claimed the title of the world’s best pizzeria.
asserted
It → name → pizzeria
He’s 34 now and “still learning”.
asserted
He → ’ → ?
Neapolitan pizzaiolos treat pizza as the Japanese do sushi: a highly skilled craft where ingredients are all and technique long-honed.
asserted
ingredients → treat → sushi
The undoing of decades of Domino’s in Britain will take time.
asserted
undoing → take → time
“Too many people still think of pizza as junk food in Britain,” Pascarella says.
asserted
Pascarella → think → Britain
But it’s happening.
asserted
it → happen → ?
London is a fully-fledged pizza city today.
asserted
London → fledge → ?
You can have a soupy Neapolitan pie on Tuesday and a New York-style slice on Wednesday.
asserted
You → have → Wednesday
Craig David aside and I’m sitting in front of a busy kitchen watching a Dolmio advert unfurl in real time.
asserted
advert → sit → time
Inexplicably svelte Italian men are drizzling olive oil on margheritas, ladling tomato sauce onto springy dough and plucking basil leaves from fragrant bushes.
asserted
men → drizzle → bushes
The warmth of two arched pizza ovens billows through the crowded dining room.
asserted
warmth → billow → room
Tanned solo diners are practising a libretto, the method by which you fold a slice in half and then turn the nose in on itself; families are sharing plates of parmigiana di melanzane, luxurious and stunning in red.
asserted
families → practise → red
Our first course is san marzano tomatoes four ways: raw and then cooked for two, six, and 10 hours.
asserted
course → cook → hours
It enlivens the palate.
asserted
It → enliven → palate
Then come three street food snacks born out of a deep-rooted respect for leftovers.
asserted
snacks → come → leftovers
A cube of polenta is topped with stracciatella and caper dust; there’s a classic crocché, or potato croquette; and a sphere of frittatina, or fried macaroni, imbued with courgettes and spritzed with Amalfi lemon.
asserted
cube → top → lemon
It’s deceptively light; we’re immediately rapturous.
asserted
we → ’ → ?
Pascarella and team don’t just dish out slice after slice.
asserted
Pascarella → dish → slice
Methods are tweaked at each course.
asserted
Methods → tweak → course
A traditional Neapolitan dough calls for 00 flour and only a two-minute whoosh in the oven at 400C, but the next slice is a world away, with a crispy base of barley and rye that requires far more water and is harder still to sculpt and deliver.
asserted
that → call → water
This pizza is steamed, then baked, then fried before arriving topped with a hockey puck of mozzarella di bufala and dotted with wild garlic pesto and tomato jam (and dried oregano).
asserted
pizza → steam → pesto
It’s messy, gladiatorial food.
asserted
It → ’ → ?
One brings a green, zingy soup of barattiere, a Puglian melon harvested unripe so it’s extra refreshing and mouth-puckering.
asserted
it → bring → barattiere
Later comes a cleanser in the form of sgroppino: Venetian lemon sorbet with prosecco and vodka.
asserted
cleanser → come → prosecco
And we’re taken elsewhere in Italy, to Torino, for a folded focaccia-like pizza sandwich filled with slices of veal — breast, not loin, so more tender — and a heady tuna sauce amped up with anchovies.
asserted
we → take → anchovies
It’s umami-maxxing stuff, bagna cauda on a memory foam mattress.
asserted
It → ’ → mattress
Whatevs, find me someone capable of declining the savoury finale — a riff on Pascarella’s signature ragu, deep with cuts of beef and pork and painted with a spiral of parmesan fondue — and I’ll find you a chill Italian.
asserted
I → find → Italian
More so given Pascarella’s dessert trio includes a mini-Magnum.
asserted
trio → give → Magnum
I cannot chef’s kiss enough.
asserted
I → kiss → ?
Read More
What you say
Wiktoria Tupta
“Without a doubt, the best pizza place I’ve ever been to.
asserted
I → read → doubt
The dough was absolutely incredible: perfectly crispy on the outside while staying soft and airy inside.”
asserted
dough → stay → outside
“Probably one of the best Neapolitan-style pizzas we have had.
asserted
we → have → pizzas
“I used to think there would be no better place for pizza in London than L’antica da Michele, but this place surpassed expectations!
asserted
place → use → expectations
…and 1 more, not listed.
The Aporia
