Celebrity chef Marcus Wareing says Britain has become a divided nation after Pizza Express served up the best pizza in London – and he’s been eating the same food there for 20 years.
The Michelin-starred chef sparked a heated debate on TikTok channel Top Jaw by expressing his love for the chain’s ‘American Hot’ pizza on a ‘Romana’ base with extra chilli.
Some urged him to ‘give back his star’ or ‘take his Michelin star away now’, while others praised his ‘lack of food’ and said ‘everyone enjoys what they enjoy’.
Meanwhile, food critic Hannah Evans said the 53-year-old MasterChef judge’s comments ‘simply revealed she is out of touch with London’s sizzling scene’.
Others on the video app discussed their favorite dishes at the chain, including Sloppy Giuseppe – which was also supported by host Jesse Burgess – and Calzone ‘Nduza.
And he’s not the only high-profile fan. Hollywood star Eva Longoria once told Jack Whitehall he had the best Italian food at a Pizza Express in Cardiff.
Celebrity chef Marcus Waring tells Top Jaw’s Jesse Burgess about his love for Pizza Express
Waring’s comments sparked a debate on TikTok about Pizza Express, which has 370 outlets in the UK and Ireland and 80 sites internationally across Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
The first Pizza Express (centre) opened on March 27, 1965 on Wardour Street in London’s Soho.
Waring, who owns three restaurants including the Michelin-starred Marcus in Knightsbridge, spoke to Top Ja on Wednesday.
How Pizza Express was founded by an Associated Press worker who couldn’t find a good pizza in London
Peter Boizot is the founder of Pizza Express
The first Pizza Express opened on March 27, 1965 on Wardour Street in London’s Soho, opened by founder Peter Boizot.
He was working in the Associated Press news photography department in Rome and selling postcards from a barrow in St. Peter’s Square, but was said to be unable to find anywhere in London to buy a decent Italian pizza.
He shipped over an authentic pizza oven from Naples and was the first person to import Peroni beer into the UK.
A Pizza Express restaurant, pictured in 1997
The original location in Soho sold square slices of pizza in greaseproof paper through the front window, before opening a restaurant designed by Enzo Apicella with a wine menu and dining tables.
Mr Boizot sold his stake in the firm in 1992 and the company was owned by various entities until Chinese private equity group Honi Capital bought it for £900m in 2014.
The chain has 370 restaurants in the UK and Ireland and 80 overseas sites in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
Mr Boizot died in December 2018 aged 89, and his entire estate was consumed by a £45,000 tax bill owed on his death. He lost most of his money by investing in his struggling local football club Peterborough United and buying a theatre, art gallery and a hotel.
In March 2020, all Pizza Express restaurants in the UK were forced to close indefinitely due to the pandemic.
That July, the group announced that ‘dozens’ of its closed restaurants would not be reopening amid reports that it had piled up £1.1 billion in debt.
The following month, it was announced that the company would close 67 of its UK restaurants and cut 1,100 jobs.
In November 2020, the restructuring of the group was completed and reportedly helped reduce debt by over £400 million. Then in October 2021, Pizza Express said it planned to open 50 new restaurants in a post-pandemic expansion.
In a clip from the interview titled ‘London’s best pizza’, Burgess asked him: ‘What’s the best pizza?’
Waring replied: ‘It’s simple, but you won’t like the answer: Pizza Express. I know I know.
‘I still eat the same pizza I’ve been eating for the last 20 years, American hot, love it, Romana, a little extra pepper, I love it, it has to be a Romana base.
‘And you know what? Every time I go, it’s cooked exactly the same.’
Burgess said: ‘You know, I love sloppy Giuseppe in Romana Bess.’
Waring then replied: ‘You’ve had your taste, I’ve had mine. It works.’
Burgess then said: ‘Pizza Express would absolutely love it.’
The video has so far attracted more than 8,000 likes and nearly 200 comments, with a mix of people agreeing with the chef and others horrified.
Hannah Evans, deputy food editor of The Times, wrote in the newspaper today: ‘I will never be relieved to hear the chef at Pizza Express.
‘It was a fixture of my childhood. I had my birthday party there. But come on Marcus. The best pizza in London. Really?
‘Pizza Express makes the best pizza out there,’ says Jamie Oliver, London’s best Italian. Where’s your inner intel, eh?’
He praised other outlets including Crisp Pizza W6 in Hammersmith, D4100 in New Cross, Chatsworth Bakehouse in Crystal Palace and Flat Earth Pizza in Hackney.
A Pizza Express spokesperson told MailOnline: ‘Our iconic American hot has long been a customer favorite – and now a Michelin-star chef too!
There will always be a marble table named ‘Marcus’ at Pizza Express.’
It’s well known that Wareing likes to go to Pizza Express with her kids, which she’s talked about in other publications before.
Speaking to Spears magazine in 2012, she said: ‘It may come as a surprise but I’m a regular at our local Pizza Express with our kids and I think it’s a great business. I have tried other pizza restaurants but the service is lacking.
‘When I go here I know what I’m getting, how long it will take, the kids love it and it gives me a day off from cooking!’
When asked by The Guardian where she takes her kids to eat, the former MasterChef judge said: ‘They like Pizza Express, which I think is consistently good. and the butcher and grill in Battersea. They get proper food, coloring books.’
Memorably, Hollywood star Eva Longoria once approached Jack Whitehall for the best Italian meal he had ever had at a Pizza Express restaurant in Cardiff.
The 48-year-old American actress, who wrote cookbooks and opened a Los Angeles diner that has since closed permanently, admired the branch while filming the BBC comedy series Decline and Fall in Wales in 2017.
Speaking about her co-star on food critic Jay Rayner’s Out to Lunch podcast in 2021, Whitehall claimed that Longoria was completely unaware that Pizza Express was a popular restaurant chain in the UK.
Whitehall told Renner: ‘He said, ‘Oh my God, I met the most incredible little Italian last night. The owner, I think it’s family owned, was very charming and had the best pasta I’ve had anywhere in the world. It is called . . Pizza Express.”
Speaking to MailOnline at the time, an Italian member of staff at the Cardiff branch, who did not want to be named, said: ‘I’m not surprised he liked Pizza Express.
‘I am from Naples myself and I can tell you that our food is authentic. Our ingredients are fresh and we have high standards. No wonder he thought it was the best Italian meal he’d ever had.’
Pizza Express was founded in 1965 by Peter Boizot, who returned to London from Naples, Italy with a pizza oven and a chef from Sicily.
The chain, which opened its first restaurant on Wardour Street, now has 370 restaurants in the UK and Ireland and 80 sites internationally across Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
In July 2014, the group was sold to China-based private equity firm Hony Capital in a deal worth £900 million.
Five years later, Pizza Express hired a financial advisor to prepare for negotiations with creditors after experiencing financial difficulties following a decline in takeout demand.
In March 2020, all Pizza Express restaurants in the UK were forced to close indefinitely during the Covid pandemic.
That July, the group announced that ‘dozens’ of its closed restaurants would not be reopening amid reports that it had piled up £1.1 billion in debt.
The following month, it was announced that the company would close around 67 restaurants in the UK and cut 1,100 jobs.
In November 2020, the restructuring of the group was completed and reportedly helped reduce debt by over £400 million.
Then in October 2021, Pizza Express said it planned to open 50 new restaurants in a post-pandemic expansion.
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