A Peckham pizza place that only just opened has been crowned the best in the UK.
After opening in April 2021, Mike’s Peckham blew the National Pizza Awards judges away with its Roman-style Dondini pizza – and you can try it for just £4.50 a slice.
The winning pizza features in-house ‘nduja, roasted corno peppers dressed with white balsamic vinegar, house-pickled jalapeños, sheep’s milk ricotta and finocchiona salami.
The Dondini dough, made up of Tipo 2 Buratto, stoneground spelt and emmer flour, is cold-proofed for 24 hours, shaped and then cold-proofed for a further 24 hours, while topped with Mike’s tomato sauce.
Cooked by chef Francesco Canzini during the awards final, Mike’s Peckham beat out competition from fourteen other pizza places across the UK.
“Francesco has worked so hard to make a dough as special as it is,” said Mike Davies, co-owner of Mike’s Peckham and sister site The Camberwell Arms. “It’s a little bit different from the other kinds of pizzas that were in the final, so it’s nice to have that kind of representation.
“Roman-style pizza – especially pizza Italia, which is the kind of pizza that we make – is really not an old tradition; it’s probably about 40 years old.
“The thing about Roman as a tradition is that there are less rules, so it means that we can be a bit more flexible with toppings.
“You’ll find things that you wouldn’t necessarily find on a more classic pizza. I love all kinds of pizza to be honest, but I’m quite excited by the idea of something a bit less traditional getting the credit it deserves.”