IT’S FREE AND FAIR

We know that taste is a subjective thing, and for this tasting we invited pizza-loving readers for a blind tasting. For a fair comparison, like needs to be judged with like and as retailers stock a wide range of different pizza, we opted not to do a competitive tasting, rather the tasters rated each pizza out of 10, judging appearance, taste, base, topping and whether they would buy it. Each pizza was prepared exactly as per package instructions by a group of chefs at HTA cooking school in Randburg, sliced and served to the tasters. In many samples the heating instructions weren’t sufficient to give a good crispy base and could have done with extra baking. To ensure we had professional input, we asked two chefs to join the panel: Chef Heinz Brunner, previous vice president of the South African Chefs Association and a great lover of this Italian original, and Chef Mkhacani Richard Baloyi, pizza expert and owner of La Mama’s Pizzeria in Randburg.