Every Italian chef I have met over the last few years has insisted that only Italian-style pizzas are authentic. The rest are non-pizzas. Chef Aldo Zilli, a Sicilian chef once told me, “Italy has a variety of pizzas—Neapolitan-style from Naples, now part of UNESCO’s intangible heritage list, is rustic with a thicker crust. Rome’s pizza, fit for popes and paparazzi alike, has a dough stretched to the thickness of canvas. The Ligurian pizza is beautifully fluffy due to the milk and a splash of Ligurian olive oil added to it.”

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Pizzas are now a global culinary phenomenon with chefs evolving their own version of this former fast food. Here is my list of pizzerias that are rated as the world’s finest, with some inputs from chefs and critics.

Trattoria Cesari, Nagoya

A few years ago Chef Akinari Makishima of Pizzeria Trattoria Cesari won the top slot in an international bake-off in Naples, organised by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (Association for Genuine Neapolitan Pizza). Nishikawa apprenticed in Campania under Neapolitan pizza masters Gaetano Esposito and Gaetano Fazio. He pizzas are made with imported Caputo “00” flour, San Marzano tomatoes and the special Mozzarella di Bufala from the Campana region. His flat, lightly dimpled, flecked-with-coarse salt pizza gets its flavours from an assortment of cheese such as ricotta, mozzarella, provolone and parmesan.

Prego, The Westin Mumbai Garden City

Italian chef Antonello Cancedda is also known as the ‘singing chef’ because of his love for music with which he serenades his kitchen crew and his guests. As Chef de Cuisine of Prego, he brings his Italian roots to the delicious pizzas he bakes for his patrons that include cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and several Bollywood stars. His signature 55-cm giant Godfather pizza is a happy marriage of his own experimentation and Italy’s pizza-making tradition. “I called it Godfather because it refers to the head of family or group in Sicily, though it has come to represent the head of a mafia family or organisation,” he says. His hand-rolled pizza has four quadrants, each customised as per your convenience. Sometimes it could be loaded with just a variety of amazing ingredients—chicken, lamb, seafood, vegetables and cheese.

Gustoso, Mumbai

This Naples-style diner in Mumbai is another favourite because of the authentic Neapolitan-style pizzas it serves. Arja Shridhar, co-owner and director of Gustoso says that they have imported their wood-fired oven and sauces from Italy and use organic dough. Metre-long, a monster of pizza, has a thin moist base and crisp edges. You can ask for four different pizzas in one. I would suggest a classic Margherita (sauce made from San Marzano tomatoes that grow on the volcanic plains to the south of Mount Vesuvius, mozzarella, parmesan and fresh basil), Diavola (a spicy pizza with Napoli salami, jalapenos, mozzarella, San Marzano sauce and spicy honey), Delizia di Funghi (sautéed mushrooms, delicious Italian truffle oil, mozzarella, arugula and parmesan), and the Capricciosa (Italian ham, San Marzano tomato sauce, mozzarella, Kalamata olives, artichoke and basil).

Napoli Pizza, Delhi

While the Rathee family that run the pizzeria ensures that their chefs use time-tested ‘doughing’ method for the base and import the tomato sauce from Campagna, they have fun experimenting with exotic toppings. The signature Napoli Speciale has a salty topping made using a family secret recipe, besides smoked meat and green chillies. The pizza is laced with spicy honey.

Dry Milano, Italy

Daniel Young, who authored Where to Eat Pizza, an ultimate tome on the best pizza places in the world, mentioned Dry as one of his favourite modern pizzerias. “It has style and substance, much like fashion in Milan,” he says. A slice of Dry’s airy focaccia, a flat oven-baked pizza, is topped with Italian seasonings like oregano and rosemary and freshly grated Parmesan. Created by Simone Lombardi, the focaccia and other pizzas are cooked in an artisan wood oven from Naples and leavened for 48 hours. Milan is also home to several pizzerias that make the supermodel version of Naples' pizzas: mini-pizza pockets called panzerotti which are stuffed with Milanese salami and smoked meat.

Paulie’s Gee, New York

The candle-lit pizzeria has queues that stretch a block long. Its owner Paulie is always at hand to take you through the extensive menu. Paulie’s Hellboy has fresh mozzarella, Italian tomatoes, Berkshire soppressata picante (Italian dry salami), Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (hard and granular) and Mike’s Hot Honey. Cherry Jones is loaded with mozzarella, gorgonzola, Prosciutto di Parma (dry cured ham), blue cheese, cherries and orange blossom honey—and is a little sweet and somewhat salty.

Bráz Pizzaria, São Paolo

Order a Brahma draft beer, an appetiser of warm sausage bread (pão de calabresa) dipped in spiced olive oil, and Bráz’s signature Barra Speciale—a blend of rarely used creamy burrata, fresh tomatoes and salty black olives. São Paolo is known as one of the world’s great pizza capitals and the chefs use local produce for toppings.

Pepe in Grani, Campania

Set in a restored palazzo 30 miles north of Naples, it is frontlined by Chef Franco Pepe who employs the produce of the land and Naples’ pizza culture. Margherita Sbagliata (Mistaken Margherita) is topped with fiordilatte—a cheese made from cow’s milk, basil and tomatoes. Sensazioni di Costiera (Sensations of the Coast) is loaded with dehydrated garlic, hot pepper, parsley, tomato, anchovies and lemon peel.

L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele, Naples and London

There is a huge hype surrounding this pizzeria—its Naples flagship is where Julia Roberts’s character in Eat Pray Love satiates her love for Italian food. Known as a paragon of purism, its history dates back to 1870 and its founder Salvatore Condurro sold pizza fritta (deep-fried pizza) on the street outside his home in Naples. Their handcrafted pizzas have distorted shapes and an uneven distribution of toppings. The pizzeria creates amazing cartwheel pizzas (with a diameter larger than that of the plate beneath it). Their signature Marinara pizza has a doughy crust with crunchy bubbles on top. It has zero cheese; instead, it is slathered liberally with a slightly sweet Marinara sauce made using yellow onions, plum tomatoes and herbs like oregano and basil.

Buon Appetito!

Deepali Nandwani is a journalist who who keeps a close watch on the world of luxury.

First Published:Aug 18, 2018 12:27 AM IST