I’ve always been a firm believer of indulge in what you love (within reason) so when Pizza Club was invented I knew I wanted in. Unfortunately I’ve been keeping this delicious secret to myself, not wishing to spill the beans or share a slice of the pie as it were. Except on instagram.
Pizza Club itself is simple. A gathering of some of London’s biggest pizza fans – initially Vicky, Connie, myself and Claire – we get together to catch up over a few slices of the good stuff whilst we natter and solve a few of the world’s problems. (Don’t believe me? We sorted global warming over a slab sized tabletop of pizza in Shoreditch a couple of months ago – it’s just a shame that the latest developments in American politics may going to undo all of our hard work…we’ll just need to organise our next session sooner than planned)
Disclaimer: We were invited guests of PizzaBuzz but all of my discerning levels of Pizza addiction are entirely all of my own making (and volition)
Calling themselves “the Subway” of gourmet pizza purveyors, PizzaBuzz is a brilliant concept. You take-a-de-pizza-base-and-add-a-delicious-toppings-dat-you-a-love.
For those not experienced in Pizza Club lingo it goes like this.
The idea is simple.
Pick a base. It can be as uncomplicated as selecting one of 4 essence bases or using their flavor suggestions.
+ Get some meat in ya pie (or go totally Vegetarian/Vegan – I promise you there is no judgement behind the counter.)
+ Add a little cheese, or a lot. (The Pizza Club official stance is go hard or go home.)
+ Select a few delicious toppings.
+ Watch as your meal is flamed by the experienced crew in their custom pizza oven.
And et voila!
A feast fit for Pizza Club princesses.
Lured by memories of an amazing pizza we had on honeymoon in the South of France *whisper* 3 evenings in a row *shhhh* I let the Pizza Buzz gurus guide me with an untampered White Forest. It felt like a lighter option with a white sauce base, sprinkled with mozzarella, Merguez sausage and broccoli. It was my favourite of the night, and tasted even better the next day.
We ordered an Irish Mist, a pesto based pizza topped with Mozzarella, Spicy Sausage, Boiled New Potato, Rosemary and Fennel Seeds (but sans the Fennel Seeds, they are anathema to pizza club members and are the 6th item in our charter ‘Thou shalt not Fennel Seed our feast” next to the “Thou shalt enjoy an alcoholic beverage.”)
At this point we went wild in order to stretch and contrast our feast – Connie & Vicky got all spicy with a classic Margherita base liberally treated with mozzarella, goats cheese, caramelised red onion with n’duja (our favourite) and fresh chilli, whilst Claire started with an Italian foundation for the prettiest pizza sprinkled with tomato, garlic oil, Buffalo mozzarella, prosciutto di Parma, and adding green peppers and
broccoli to make it an original composition.
Our appetites for Italian carbs sated (they have nice gluten free bases and can make their pizzas coeliac friendly by using toppings uncontaminated by stray gluten afflicted crumbs) we sampled a selection of their ice cream flavours. With a selection of base recipes using Cow milk, almond milk and goats milk, we enjoyed the zing of cherry, mint choc chip, vanilla and pistachio. They were delicious (and well worth saving a couple of slices for the next day.)
Verdict: Delicious, nutritious and featuring a magical soft drink machine with approximately 72* flavours.
Proudly carrying my hexagonal parcel of delectable slices home, I savoured my lunchtime treat the next day with even more gusto…
* Totally made up number.
Ps. if you happen to bump into any of the #PizzaClub crew in a dark alley, and find yourself protecting your Italian dough, throw fennel seeds at them. Strange but true.
