Pizza Profiles: Imported Mozzarella and International Recognition are Pizza Plus's Claims to Fame

Kyle Mullin | Oct 9, 2015 5:06 pm | Add a comment | 2177 reads

In the run-up to the Beijinger's 2015 Pizza Cup, we are profiling some of the best pies in Beijing so that you, our faithful readers, can try as many as possible before we ask you to make your choice for the best.

Today we tell you about the pizzas on offer at Pizza Plus, one of the restaurants selling their wares at our two-day pizza festival Oct 17-18 at Galaxy Soho. Xiaobo, the Operations Manager, gives us a lowdown on their pies:

How long have you plied the trade?
Pizza Plus started three years ago, in September 2012. And I have been here that whole time.

What's your style/pizza philosophy?
We do real Italian pizza. One hundred percent of our main ingredients are imported from Italy. We have a world champion chef, Fabrizio Montori. He won the first place in the World Pizza Games in 2011 with his Forest Pizza: it has mushroom, sausage, walnut and truffle cream. I highly recommend you come taste it for the Pizza Cup. In addition, our Italian boss owns another company that does international trading, so we can import all our main ingredients ourselves: tomato sauce, olive oil, truffle cream, and so on. Believe it or not, we even use Italian imported water, Sparea, to make pizza dough.

Also, we sell by the slice. In Italy, the pizza is sold by the slice, thus you can choose several different flavors and different slices in one meal. People are not limited to choosing one whole pizza. It is very convenient and fast for people to enjoy their meal.

In a market crowded with over 100 different pizza shops, what do you do to stand out?
First of all, the quality should be high standard. Our head chef used these pizza recipes in Italy for 20 years, and won lots of awards. We keep using 100 percent Italian imported ingredients to ensure the authentic flavor of the pizza. Additionally, we provide warm service and keep intimate relationships with our customers. We do free delivery, and our price is affordable by almost any standard, with an average cost of RMB 45 per person for a meal, and RMB 15 for a slice for most flavors.

What would you say your style is?
Roman style.

What's the secret to your sauce?
We use only healthy, traditional ingredients, directly imported by ourselves from Italy.

What kind(s) of cheese do you use and why?
We use only 100 percent Italian mozzarella cheese (fiordilatte and buffalo), made with milk of EU origin by a factory in the south of Italy with over 250 years of experience and tradition. The mozzarella cheese is imported directly by our company, to ensure full traceability. Most of our competitors in Beijing use cheeses which are made in New Zealand, Australia or Germany from milk surrogates, which is milk decomposed and recomposed in a laboratory. Many of them also use milk powder. Few use fresh milk.

Tell us about your standard pizza
Its name: We call it Margherita.
Thick or thin crust? Thin.
Type of sauce? Tomato pulp (Polpa di Pomodoro) made with 100 percent Italian tomatoes.
Type(s) of cheese? Mozzarella Fiordilatte (from cow milk) and Buffalo Mozzarella (from buffalo milk).
What other things make it special? A traditional recipe, healthy ingredients, traditional equipment—our ovens are also imported from Italy—-along with our chef having more than 25 years of experience in the industry.
How many sizes does it come in? We offer two choices: slices and rounds. One slice is about 20cm by 10cm in a rectangle (RMB 13); the round is 13 inches across, about 33cm (RMB 49).

Tell us about your most unique pizza
Name: Forest pizza.
Thick or thin crust? Thin crust.
Type of sauce: White base with mushrooms.
Type(s) of cheese: Mozzarella.
Additional toppings: Mushroom, sausage, walnut and truffle cream.
What other things make it special: It won the first place award in the 2011 World Pizza Games.
How many sizes does it come in? RMB20 per slice (20cm by 10cm), and RMB 72 for a round (13 inches/33cm across).