Pizza. Pizza chefs and the most famous recipes in the world.

The pizza is definitely one of the most popular foods around the world. There is no country that doesn’t serve it in a thousand of different ways.

The history of pizza is now known almost at all, but if in doubt, please let me refresh   your memory.

In 1889, chef Raffaele Esposito created the pizza “Margherita” in honour of the Queen of Italy Margherita di Savoia, topping it with tomatoes, mozzarella and basil, the three Italian’s flag colours.

Some says, however, that pizza Margherita doesn’t take its name from the Queen, as stated above, but by the arrangement of mozzarella as a daisy flower over the pizza.

Surely the most famous pizza in the world you can enjoy is in Naples, where there are many famous pizzerias that serve it.

One of the most famous is the pizzeria “da Michele” founded in 1870, which offers only two versions of the pizza, “Marinara” and “Margherita”, which are the only two recognised by the pizzas “purists”.

Even “Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana” recognizes these two pizzas as the only two worthy of note, and it has also established some rules to prepare them according to tradition: categorically, pizza muste be cooked in a wood-fired oven at a temperature of about 485 degrees for no more than 60-90 seconds. The base must be drawn by hand without the help of a rolling pin and the dimensions must not exceed 35 centimetres in diameter. These are general rules to follow (or try to) If you want to prepare a good Neapolitan pizza DOC.

As I said before, the pizza is famous throughout the world, there are many pizzerias offering a great product prepared and served as if you are in a real pizzeria in Naples.

For example, one of the most famous Pizzerias in New York is Kestè in Bleecker Street, award-winning of a lot of famous gastronomic newspapers reviews.

Or, if you’re currently in Melbourne, or you are planning to go there, you cannot miss the pizza by Johnny Di Francesco, owner of the  pizzeria “400 degrees”, which has just won the first prize for the best pizza in the world in the World Championship which has just been held in Parma, beating Italians and people from alla around the world.

But in addition to traditional pizzas, those that more or less we all know, there are also the “weirdest” pizzas: the squid ink pizza, for example, that the restaurant “Memoirs” in Singapore offers to its customers, besides the one topped with Curried Chicken and yogurt or with pineapple and caramelized onions.

Then there are the super heat pizza like the one that among its ingredients has a whole “Happy Meal” of Mc Donald ‘s on top, or the “Cheesburger” pizza (do I really have to mention the ingredients?), and finally the pizza with grapes, gorgonzola and port liquor  (which personally I would try!)

You could really go on endlessly in search of the strangest toppings you can put on the pizza, but let me dwell for a moment on “Pizza Royale 007”. No, it’s not the wrong title of a James Bond’s film, but the name of the pizza that until some time ago it held the record as the world’s most expensive pizza.

Domenico Crolla, owner of pizzeria “Bella Napoli” in Glasgow, decided to invent this pizza for benefits purposes.

In fact his pizza costs around 3500 pounds, nearly 4000 euro and is made with ingredients, of first choice and quality: caviar marinated in champagne Dom Perignon, Scottish smoked salmon, lobster marinated in cognac, fine quality balsamic vinegar and finest venison. Once he had the idea, he auctioned the pizza on Ebay and all the foundraising went to charity.

But this still isn’t the world’s most expensive pizza. In fact the Italian pizzaiolo Renato Viola invented a pizza that costs nearly EUR 9000, the “Louis XIII“.

The ingredients? Even here on the quality we can’t complain: 3 types of caviar (Iranian sturgeon, Caspian sturgeon-Danubian of which fishing is prohibited over 100 specimens per year, and a variety of Ossetra caviar, which costs around 2000 dollars per Kg), lobster  “Palinurus Elephas “one of the most valuable commercially, mozzarella di bufala treated with Australian Murray River pink salt, and cognac Louis XIII Remy Martin, only for connoisseurs.

In the price of pizza, including the “service”. In fact, at home, comes not only the world’s most expensive pizza, but also a chef, pizza chef and a sommelier, you will taste a delicious bottle of Krug, the most expensive among the champagne.

Here you can find a pizza version suitable for Celiacs: http://www.angelinaincucina.com/pizza-col-cavol-fiore/

Here a version of pizza super fast, suitable for last-minute guests: http://www.angelinaincucina.com/pizza-senza-lievitazione-superbuonissima/