Pizza evolution: How London learned to eat Neapolitan style

The Italian Eating House off Leicester Square claimed the title of London’s first Italian restaurant in 1803. No word on whether they served pizza, but in 1965, Pizza Express paved the way as the first pizza chain in Britain, opening its doors on Wardour Street.

But it was just a decade ago when the pizza game really exploded, and with one clear champion: the Neapolitan pizza.

Neapolitan pizza is an art form. The dough is a simple combination of flour, water, yeast, and salt. Using a very specific kneading technique, it is transformed into a soft, elastic, and slightly chewy marvel. And let’s not forget the rising process—slow and patient, resulting in a crust that’s light as a feather.

Now embraced for its authenticity, I embarked on a trip to its birthplace in Naples with Pizza Pilgrims to explore how the founding brothers brought the now staple, to London.

In 2013, the Pizza Pilgrims founders, brothers James and Thom Elliot, made a short pilgrimage through Italy in a tiny Piaggio Ape three-wheeled tuk-tuk, learning the secrets of Neapolitan pizza — and the Italian way of life — along the way.

Thom explained how when they first came to Naples and tried a pizza at Da Michele, they were convinced it was the best pizza they’d ever tried. From then, they knew they wanted to bring the sense of the Neapolitan street food to our very own London food scene. But there was one problem — they knew nothing about pizza.

That’s when the brothers made a bold decision to quit their jobs and began the pizza dream.

With just six weeks, a homemade pizza oven, and a stall in the heart of Soho, they gave many Londoners their first taste of Neapolitan pizza.

It wasn’t all as easy as it sounds, however, Londoners weren’t used to the “fold method” required of Neapolitan pizza. This new way of eating a messy, mozzarella-filled pizza slice wasn’t the typical British way of eating.

“Neapolitan pizza is its own style,” James explains. “That kind of chewy crust, very bready, crispy.

“That Neapolitan style has massively exploded in London. So I feel like people have really embraced Neapolitan pizza. It was when we started, I remember having a lot of trouble with customers coming in, ordering a pizza, and then expecting the more kind of New York style.”

He continues: “Because our dough is very sort of soft, and then like very sloppy as well, because the mozzarella is very wet, and they were like: I can’t pick up the slice, I can’t eat this pizza.