During a meal which spanned hours, we were served eight precious pizza slices topped with gel, foam, caviar, molluscs and other ‘interesting’ ingredients. Some of the slices worked while others tasted more like gastronomic experiments than the pizza we craved.
In restropect, we appreciate Francesco Martucci’s desire to push culinary boundaries after decades of mastering the art of Neapolitan pizza making. We’ve eaten reindeer penis at Noma and spherified olives in Barcelona. But pizza is Italy’s ultimate comfort food. The thought of eating pizza slices topped with beet gel feels feels overly esoteric. It’s a pizza parlor, not a science museum.
We had this revelation while eating in the rear of the restaurant next to the pizza station. This proximity gave us a front row view of the outstanding ‘normal’ pizzas that whizzed by our table toward the majority of the more ‘educated’ diners.
Not every slice was a fail. Our first slice, steamed, baked and fried at three temperatures and topped with buffalao mozzerella, fermented lemon gel and a buttery, plump scallop, provided an auspicious start. Its crust was crunchy and it had a nice balance of salt and rich scallop-y sweetness.
The best slice was easily the Futuro di Marinara, one of just two slices available on the regular menu and also the restaurant’s signature pizza. Similarly steamed, baked and fried at three temperatures, it was topped with a medley of roasted tomato cream, olives, anchovies, wild garlic pesto, capers and oregano. The flavor combination worked but, alas, our two slices were so tiny that they were gone in a nano second.
We would have been satisfied had the other slices been equally tasty. Instead, they were adorned with a cacophony of chicory, marmalade gel, beet mouse and fermented mushroom cream. One slice, topped with buffalo cream, beluga caviar and camomile gel, was so bitter that it was inedible.
And the worst part? We were still hungry after our meal was over. Or were we?
