Wow! Pizza in Singapore is a really hot topic!

Italians in Singapore are estimated to be around 3-4,000, according to the local embassy estimates. Many of them came here to work in the F&B business. Great idea, given the power of the Italian’s cuisine reputation. But this road is not down-hill. Offering food from the best cuisine in the world is not enough in the hyper-competitive Singaporean market. There is plenty of very tasty Asian cuisines available, typically offering good value for money, given the high volume and the local regional sourcing of ingredients they can count on. Even medium level Japanese food, typically on the upper  side of the quality scale, is quite affordable, with a few chains that achieved a good compromise between quality and affordability.

So, it comes at no surprise that, when I threw a simple question on the Facebook page of the largest group of Italians in Singapore, an endless debate was ignited!

I was planning to meet an old friend for lunch. We have this tradition to meet over pizza and, as a Neapolitan, I cannot compromise with less than a real original Neapolitan pizza margherita.

I used to have a favourite spot for my authentic pizza fix: L’Operetta at Boat Quay. This restaurant is owned by a Japanese former investment banker, who got tired of corporate life and started to dedicate his time to the things he loves the most: Italian cuisine, Italian Opera (hence the name of the restaurant), good wine (non necessarily Italian). Not sure about his other passions, these are just the ones he shared with me. The chefs at l’Operetta are solely – surprise, surprise – Japanese! You will wonder how does that make any sense. I understand. But there’s a good reason. Japanese are the only population in the world that worship high quality food as much as Italians. Thus it is very common for Japanese chefs to come to Italy and spend a few years there to complete their practical and “spiritual” training.

That’s what also Seita did. He was the chef at l’Operetta when I first went there. I discovered the place as a Japanese friend celebrated her birthday there. He spend about three years in Italy, mostly in the south, cooking in very traditional restaurants and learning to make an authentic Neapolitan pizza, with home-made yeast, wood-fired oven, top quality extra virgin olive oil, good tomato, etc.

You will be even more surprised when I’ll tell you that even Michelin star Italian restaurants in Italy, such as Mammà of Gennaro Esposito in Capri, Italy, employ Japanese chefs. Of course I trust Gennaro trains and supervises them, and I don’t doubt for a single second the passion, the skills and the quality that these guys deliver in generating amazing food in a breath-taking setting. Still, of course, not everyone may have the same confidence in Japanese chefs cooking Italian food that I have. Many purists may wrinkle up their nose. So it is for this that those two Japanese chefs in Mammà try not to be noticed, and they almost escaped running in the kitchen when I noticed them in the morning and I tried chit-chatting and express my appreciation.

Seita at the end of last year left l’Operetta though. He started travelling again, both to have fun as well as to improve his skills again by exploring new styles and inspirations. The quality of the pizza at l’Operetta is still pretty good, comparable to Seita’s times. At the same time, I said to myself: it is always good to have a back-up, in case things change again. So, as mentioned, I posted a poll on the Facebook group of the Italians in Singapore asking a super-controversial question: “Which restaurants in Singapore makes a true blue authentic Neapolitan pizza?”

The hell started. In a few hours the post reached 50 comments, and now the debate is still progressing, with over 200 comments, all very interesting. Now I am waiting for the debate to cool down, exhaust the main topics, and then I will provide you with a summary. Stay tuned and see you at the next episode of Pizza Napoletana in Singapore!