London embraces pizza with a curried twist

London is finally carving out a pizza identity – and it’s curried. The Etna curry pizza at Bar Etna, a recently opened restaurant on Newington Green, is rather unusual. Its crispy base is firmly inspired by America’s East Coast, but the toppings are not. Spinach, cream, spices, cheese – it tastes like something from an Indian takeaway.

The city’s pizza scene has undergone a monumental transformation of late. Where once Neapolitan, with puffy crusts and soft, almost soupy interiors, dominated, now American pies rule – specifically the thin, crispy, charred versions found in cities like New York and New Haven. Crisp, originally in Hammersmith and now in Mayfair, and Vincenzo’s, which first opened in Bushey and now has a branch in Shoreditch, borrowed heavily from the American canon, sparking a movement that has inspired countless others.

As a city with a long history of pizza but little originality, the notion of a “London style” pizza has never really caught on. Gastronomically, the nation has always been a magpie, adopting things we like and turning them into something British. Proponents of London style pizza saw it as borrowing elements of New York and Naples and creating something new. Others argued it wasn’t enough to create an idiosyncratic style – many new-gen pizzas, while great, feel more tribute than sui generis.

Over the past two years, the author sampled as many of the new London pizzerias as possible, and the preference was for the latter theory – London’s pizza makers were making brilliant pizza, but it felt overwhelmingly American: cheese, pepperoni, hot honey, ranch dressing dips. But Etna’s curry pizza, while not perfect (it could have used a little Indian-style mint sauce to balance the searing heat), was a lightbulb moment. Perhaps a distinct style is emerging, one whose crispy bases borrow heavily from the East Coast repertoire, or even Naples, but whose creative toppings don’t ape Italian or Italian-American standards.

At Vincenzo’s in Shoreditch you’ll find excellent pepperoni slices, but to me the most interesting is the spanakopita, which sees a feta and creamed spinach base topped with garlic oil and scotch bonnet honey. Elements of Greece, a twist of the Caribbean – very London. Slice Circle at the Old Nun’s Head in Nunhead has a Tamil pie, with a masala vodka sauce and a lemon, yogurt and coriander dressing. At Dough Hands’ new site at All My Friends in Hackney Wick, an aubergine and harissa pizza uses the London-based Lamiri harissa, while Crust Bros has launched a harissa, spiced lamb and zhoug number that reads like an Ottolenghi recipe. At a pop-up a few months back, the author ate a pizza made by Kit Delamain of Circus Pizza in St John’s Wood topped with lamb offal mince, chilli and raw onion, reminiscent of the Turkish flatbread lahmacun – about as London as it gets.

It is telling that the founders of Slice Circle met while working at Bad Boy Pizza Society. After a spell at Dough Hands, Angus Whitfield and Methun Chelvan joined forces last summer, running pop-ups before taking over the Old Nun’s Head. Whitfield fell in love with New York pizza on research trips with Bad Boy Pizza. “The inspiration for our pizzas is definitely New York,” says Whitfield. “But we’re trying to do it with a more thoughtful, British-led, seasonal take. We use a few different flours, we use some whole wheat and a natural leaven. In New York, they wouldn’t use wholemeal.”

Does he see London pizza as a distinct style? “I don’t really see it as a thing in a way that New York or Neapolitan is. I’d say, and Hannah [Drye, from Dough Hands] has said this a few times, it’s more like an attitude towards pizza.” But the Tamil pie, he admits, feels very London, with perhaps a touch more irreverence than you might find in New York. It was inspired by Methan’s Indian heritage, the tomato sauce cooked down with a masala using a special recipe from Methan’s mother. “It’s one we’re really proud of,” says Whitfield.

Whitfield points to East West, which has branches in Tufnell Park and Shoreditch, and brings Indian flavours to its pizzas, including one with a butter sauce base, mozzarella, paneer, red onions, roasted peppers and green pesto. Although some places Whitfield visited in New York were experimental, the vast majority, even modern ones, focused on classics like cheese, pepperoni or sausage and onion. “There aren’t too many doing things differently, they’re often not inspired by cuisines from around the world,” he says.

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Bar Etna is partly an American import, having been co-founded by Joe Beddia, who launched an eponymous pizzeria in Philadelphia in 2013. Unlike many American pizzaioli, he has always experimented, using seasonal ingredients to create new pizzas, such as a renowned corn pizza. Fellow co-founder Ed McIlroy, of the Plimsoll and Tollington’s fame, says their mutual approach to sourcing the finest ingredients is a key driver in Etna’s pizzas, which borrow from the East Coast style but use the likes of Coolea, an Irish gouda.

Does he think London has its own style? “Pizza chefs are going to hate me for saying this, but I think we’re just getting pretty good at making pizzas in London. This boom has been amazing, I like Dough Hands in particular, I love Crisp. I’m a Londoner and I like the idea of there being a London style, I think it’s a bit cheeky.”

Before speaking to McIlroy, the author had assumed he invented the Etna curry pizza. In fact it was Beddia. “He’s nailed it, then. He came up with that in Philly. His idea of London was curry. I love that pizza. Every bite is like that end of the curry when you’re mopping up your plate with a naan bread. It’s got sag paneer vibes. That could be a London pizza.”

Each month, Slice Circle put on a special. Currently, that involves a pizza with ricotta, guanciale, mozzarella and blue cheese. So far, so Italian. But on top, you’ll find pickled rhubarb and blitzed bacon fries. Next month, in a collaboration with Mamapen, it will feature Cambodian-inspired aubergine and mince, with a lime and fish sauce dressing. Both, in their own way, are as London as it gets. Perhaps, finally, a London style pizza is here.