Beginning in November, British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver is expanding his restaurant empire in Budapest with the first unit of his international pizza chain in Continental Europe. In addition to the popular Jamie’s Italian restaurant that opened last year in Buda’s Castle District, our city will soon also feature a high-quality pizzeria in downtown Pest’s Gozsdu Udvar complex. We were invited by Jamie’s Hungarian team to learn the secrets behind making his exquisite pizzas that will soon be available in the city center.
After opening in Budapest’s Castle District in spring of 2016, Jamie’s Italian immediately became a popular place for expertly prepared Italian meals, served alongside a selection of gourmet pizzas. The British star chef also has several restaurants in other parts of the world that focus exclusively on pizza, including three in Great Britain and one in India, but these work independently without belonging to a complex franchise. Now a new goal is set: to open pizzerias in Europe that are similar to the brand of Jamie’s Italian, but having a unified concept, cheaper prices, a more laid-back ambience, and kitchens that use only high-quality ingredients. This new chain will launch its first unit in Budapest, and the Hungarian team – which is none other than the prestigious Zsidai Group, the proprietors of Spíler, ÉS, and several other Budapest hotspots – has an important role in designing the brand and the international website. The first restaurant will open its gates in Gozsdu Udvar, just across a courtyard from Spíler.
We were invited to a pizza-baking session hosted by Jamie’s Italian chef Roland J. Takács, who introduced us to the secrets of making great pizza while sharing information about the upcoming opening. We not only learned why it is essential to generously top a pizza with salami and meats (because otherwise the melting fat soaks it), but also what kind of pizzas will be on offer at the new eatery. They will have a thin-but-crispy crust, and more generous toppings than the original Neapolitan versions, but will not be too overcrowded either (aka Hungarian style). The team is primarily thinking about simple versions like margarita, pepperoni, prosciutto, chicken, mushroom, carbonara, and Jamie’s big favorite, fennel-seed pizza.
The pizzas’ most important element will be the dough, which will be leavened for eight hours and will be baked fresh to order in an electronic oven. Therefore it is clear that Jamie’s Pizzeria will not be a place where we can line up for a sliceat 2am after partying. However, there will also be light salads, pastas, and Italian desserts, as well as pizzettas, meaning a half portion of pizza and salad. The ingredients are selected just as strictly as at Jamie’s Italian; it is fundamental that the meats come from free-range animals, and the fruits and vegetables come from sustainable farms. Everything needs to go through Jamie’s own rating system, the JOSIE scale. Most of the ingredients – like the tomatoes and the flour – come straight from Italy: the Parmesan is Reggiano, the prosciutto is San Daniele, while the salami comes from Levioni.
They will provide home delivery, and the prices will be a little lower than at the Castle District restaurant, where at the moment the pizza prices vary between 2,640 and 3,280 forints. With this new franchise, Jamie aims at reaching out to another, less-wealthy layer of society. Furthermore, the Zsidai Group has really specific ideas about the future: they would like to create a whole network of restaurants in Budapest, and then even expand to the countryside.
