World champion pizza chef to open Pembroke restaurant

Giovanni Recchia won at the Pizza World Championships, in Rimini, Italy at the beginning of this year.

During the three-day event he competed against hundreds of other pizza makers and was crowned the best in the world in his category.

Giovanni was given a mystery box full of surprise ingredients, with it he had to use some or all of them to make a Classica or Napoletana pizza using any dough he liked.

Giovanni’s box contained mushrooms, asparagus, Campania cheese, basil, oil, parmesan cheese and onion.

He used the asparagus as a base and layered the mushrooms and Campania cheese on top. He then cooked it before adding the oil, parmesan and basil.

The judges were so impressed by both the taste and appearance of Giovanni’s creation they awarded him the top prize and he is now officially one of the best pizza makers of the world.

“My mentality is, my pizza- for me it’s amazing, for my customers it’s amazing but my mentality is to test myself,” said Giovanni.

He says that the secret to a good pizza is the dough and that he likes to think of the pizza as the plate, creating the taste of well-known meals through what he adds to the base.

Earlier this month he entered the Master Pizza Champion in Italy where he made it to the final three.

Now Giovanni is opening his own pizza restaurant in Pembroke on Westgate Hill, opposite the castle, serving his speciality pizza as well as homemade starters and desserts.

Gio Recchia Pizza Contemporania will have a soft opening on Saturday, November 25 with a grand opening the following Tuesday, November 29.

The restaurant, which was originally a pizzeria, has been completely gutted and renovated.

The new restaurant will offer four different types of pizza: pizza on the paddle, a rectangular pizza with a good crunch, a round pizza which has a good crunch on the outside and is soft on the inside; contemporary Neapolitan pizza, and gluten free pizza.

“I love to make homemade and use local produce,” said Giovanni. “I prefer to use the meat and cheese from Pembrokeshire and I make the sausage myself.

“To make my dough highly digestible, I use techniques that are normally used in bread making, giving the dough aromas, meltability, and making the final product unique and highly digestible.”

On Saturday Giovanni will put demonstrate his pizza making skills and is happy to chat to customers about the different typed of dough he uses.

He plans to get feedback from customers ahead of the grand opening on Tuesday.

The restaurant will be open Tuesday to Friday 4.30pm to 9.30pm, Saturday from 11.30 am to 9.30 pm and Sunday 11.30 am to 4pm.