Making pizza with Francesco Mazzei

pizza express 2

Last week, not only did I actually cook (sort of… I was never actually IN a kitchen), but I did it with one of the UK’s hottest chefs.

L’Anima’s Italian chef Francesco Mazzei joined forces with PizzaExpress a few months ago to bring his Calabrian inspired dishes to the pizza joint in the UK that no one can complain about. I went to the launch of the new line of dishes in January, which includes two starters, three pizzas and one pasta, and I was very impressed with Francesco and how friendly and outgoing he was with every single person at the event. Meeting the people who are behind the restaurants and the food I eat ever so often, for me, is one of the best parts of my job.

pizza express 2 According to Francesco, he started working at the age of nine in Italy because he desperately wanted to buy his first pair of Levi jeans. As someone who started a babysitters club to make my own money at the age of ten, I can relate to this man who as a boy worked in his uncle’s ice cream and pastry shop, all in the name of looking shnazzy in a pair of jeans. From there, Francesco went to catering college and started cooking in Rome’s Grand Hotel before moving to London in 1996. His career in London has seen his skills develop in the kitchen of The Dorchester and as the launch chef for the Mediterranean restaurant St. Alban. He now runs L’Anima (meaning soul) in the City of London.

While the starters from Francesco are average (one of them is covered in a less-than-thrilling guacamole), the pizzas are all delicious and one especially is my new favourite on the PizzaExpress menu, the Mia Sofia. Named after Francesco’s daughter for her love of mushrooms, this badboy is a blanco (white) pizza topped with three different kinds of mushrooms (portobello, cup and oyster), plenty of mozzarella, and sprinkled with chives, oregano, basil oil, parmesan and the ingredient that makes this pizza stand out from the rest: truffle paste.

As Francesco showed the small audience how to make the Mia Sofia, the intense, heavenly smell of the truffle paste filled the room and the oh’s and ah’s began. He also showed the group how to make the Calabrese pizza, one I would definitely suggest to meat lovers and those with a taste for spicy food, but unfortunately it’s not one for you if you’re watching what you eat (it contains over half of a woman’s daily calorie allowance… yowza). Thank goodness I only tasted a small slice.

pizza express 3 After Francesco did his pizza-making demo, a group of us got to try our hand at makingone. I went for the Mia Sofia as my love of mushrooms seems be as intense as Francesco’s daughter’s and I have to admit, I had fun. Normally cooking stresses me out and I don’t enjoy it, but I suppose the whole idea that I was in a restaurant, simply placing toppings on a pre-prepared dough with a glass of chianti in my hand had something to do with the fact that I really liked the experience. We were allowed to put whatever we wanted on the pizza but, as always, I followed the directions and the exact recipe from Francesco and made a delicious Mia Sofia pizza which the head chef, Antonio Romano, gave his seal of approval.