Yesterday marked the closing date for Domino Pizza’s competition to find a new pizza. Part of their sponsorship deal with Britain’s Got Talent, the delivery service asked the public to suggest topping combinations which would be sold from their stores next year as the official Britain’s Got Talent pizza.
Much like the show itself, the competition has thrown up entries which are inspired, curious and certifiable, sometimes all at the same time. The suggestion of reindeer with mushrooms, peppers and leeks sounds pretty plausible but it’s hard to imagine what kind of sick mind suggested that a pizza should be topped with salami, avocado, doughnuts, apples and peas.
Sweet toppings were also worryingly prominent among the entries. It’s easy to imagine a child genuinely suggesting that pizza should be topped with jelly, custard, cream and then sprinkled with hundreds and thousands. It is more difficult to see anyone genuinely keen to eat a pizza featuring berries and muesli fried in butter. Having said that, DJ Talent somehow made it through to the latter stages of Britain’s Got Talent so anything is possible.
In an unusually sympathetic review of Portobello Pizza in the Sunday Times, AA Gill reckons that any pizza toppings should just be the condiments which add spice to the main event of the base. It’s not a view which is shared by the people at the Pizza Toppings website which lists a chocolate and marshallow topping pizza among their more exotic offerings.
In Edinburgh and Glasgow, the pizzas tend to be more conventional. In Edinburgh, Centotre, Gusto and Zanzero can all do the biz while Glaswegian pizza fans are spoiled for choice. Amarone, Antipasti, Ask, Di Maggio’s, Fratelli Sarti and Il Pavone are just a small selection of the many 5pm members serving pizza which are much more appetising than ones topped with butter-fried muesli.