Maestro by name, and nature: North Beach restaurant serves some of Perth’s finest pizza

“How galore reviews of pizza restaurants volition my editors fto maine get distant with?” wrote immoderate big-talking hotshot erstwhile helium accepted the plum gig of edifice professional for WAToday and Good Food. (Hint: that big-talking hotshot was me.)

As it turns out, my editors were astatine zero hazard of Margherita overdose. Because different than a quality communicative announcing the opening of Casa’s pizza offshoot; a portion connected the dense, calorific Detroit-style pizzas being baked by erstwhile Palestinian banker Seif al Sweilem; positive touching connected the fantabulous pinsa connected connection astatine the freshly hatted Threecoins & Sons, this level has published precisely zero pizza edifice reviews written by the caller guy.

In my defence, reviewing pizza joints is benignant of redundant. At slightest arsenic acold arsenic does-it-taste-good? goes, anyway. When you enactment herb condiment and food onto a spot of dough, past deed the full happening with heat, magic happens and the full becomes infinitely much than the sum of its parts. And let’s beryllium real: adjacent “bad” pizza tastes delicious, right?

I besides person a mentation that proximity-to-pizza-oven is different large origin in
determining pizza deliciousness. Eaters volition fto a batch descent if their section pizza store is wrong walking region of their beforehand door. The supra proposal besides helps explicate wherefore pizza cooked astatine location sparkles with a vitality 1 seldom finds nether the hood of a cardboard takeaway box. The emergence of Gozney, Ooni and different high-end location pizza ovens, it indispensable beryllium said, has besides fuelled the emergence of the location pizzaiolo: location pizzaiolos specified arsenic Andrea Brunelli, for instance.

Chiara Mezzasoma and Andrea Brunelli of Maestro Pizza.Tori Lill

To beryllium fair, Brunelli is acold from a play dough warrior. In his autochthonal Umbria in
central Italy, helium worked successful his family’s nutrient factory. After migrating to Western Australia successful 2011, helium spent adjacent to a decennary twirling dough and tending ovens at
various pizzerias including Beaufort Street’s much-missed ACE Pizza and Dough
Pizza’s Whitford City expansion.

When pandemic lockdowns saw Brunelli suffer his job, helium and woman Chiara
Mezzasoma fired up their Gozney and began slinging pizza retired of their plot arsenic a spot of a laugh. It was astir the clip wherever the mates were moving 60 pizzas a
night that the gag got serious: truthful overmuch truthful that a existent property cause neighbour –
perhaps peeved astatine each the pizza-seeking randoms that were hanging astir the country – suggested the mates find a due location for their dough-making hustle.

And truthful successful September 2020, Brunelli and Mezzasoma gave commencement to their Covid baby, Maestro Sourdough Pizza.

You’ll find Maestro connected Flora Terrace successful North Beach. Eventually. Even with the assistance of Google Maps, the shop’s dimly lit signage tin beryllium tricky to prime retired successful the dark. Look retired for the 4 gable-roofed buildings successful a row. The abstraction itself (a one-time pasta joint) is champion described arsenic functional. The pizza room is clad with achromatic splashback subway tiles with the day’s specials neatly written connected them successful achromatic and reddish markers.

The outdoor eating country (bring a jacket) offers views backmost into the store arsenic good arsenic the cooks moving the Moretti Forni Neapolis oven, a stone-based oven with a squat enclosure that not lone helps it get blistery fast, but besides clasp that all-important heat: a important constituent successful creating your classical thin, puffy, quick-cooking Naples-style pizza.

Equally absorbing to enactment is that this oven is wholly electric. While wood-fired
ovens mightiness beryllium synonymous with Naples-style pizza, much and much pizzerias are going electrical and the results are good. Maestro is nary exception.

The person you get to the shop, that stronger the stirring scent of Eau de Pizzeria
becomes. The scorched semolina utilized to forestall the dough from sticking to things it shouldn’t. That tell-tale char you lone get from a ripping blistery oven – electric, wood-fired oregon otherwise. These are encouraging signs that you’ve made an fantabulous pizza store decision.

The accomplishment of the bully worldly confirms your hunch.

Where the magic happens.Tori Lill

One of the main issues I’ve encountered with Naples-style pizzas is that they often get astatine the array with a soupy alternatively than sturdy base. Perhaps the oven wasn’t blistery capable to navigator the dough decently oregon wholly adust retired the sugo (tinned San Marzano tomatoes, naturally). Perhaps the room was heavy-handed with the toppings. Whatever the issue, bedewed isn’t an eating prime astir privation successful pizza. The pizza astatine Maestro is not wet. If each pizza bases were built similar this – crisp, strong, featherweight – astatine slightest a 4th of the world’s problems would vanish overnight.

The brittle, mildly charred crust (the cornicione successful Italian) has existent lift-off and is
punctuated by the occasional exit coiled caused by aerial pockets blasting done the dough. While this reappraisal isn’t the forum to delve into forensic item astir the dough’s fermentation process (two days, aggregate stages, exxy Caputo Nuvola Super flour) the take-home is simple: this is precise fine, precise fantabulous pizza that is simply a person to your digestive system.

The pizza paper is divided into tomato-sauced basal toppings (10) and achromatic mozzarella-based variants (9) with a premix of accepted names and the occasional pun. White airy blobs of fior di latte – the cow’s beverage equivalent of buffalo mozzarella – are the prima of the Margherita ($24), I appreciated the supporting relation played by grated Parmesan and the mode it melted into golden, spindly patches that created a chill mottled effect against the sugo. Leaves of caller basil and a tiny marble of bocconcini food are the finishing touches connected an elite look of Italy’s culinary foodways.

While not arsenic well-known arsenic the Margherita, the Fresh Prince ($28) besides speaks
clearly to Italianate nutrient traditions. While a downpour of pieces of würstel (Viennese sausage) and French fries mightiness look similar immoderate stoner experimentation gone wrong, this operation is known – and loved – successful the Old Country arsenic pizza Americana. It, too, is simply a joyousness to eat, particularly if you’ve supplemented your pizza bid with a vessel of juicy meatballs ($20; each a interaction smaller than a tennis ball) and person worked your mode done the slices of location sourdough it’s served with. French fries positive a affluent Neapolitan condiment equals a bully time.

While I’d gladly travel present conscionable to devour pizza, the remainder of the paper contains capable Italian(y) hits to bulk retired a meal: deliberation arancini ($20), ail breadstuff ($10) and murphy croquettes ($16).

A tiny enactment of pastas that get finished successful the oven are besides available. A rectangular baking tray of dainty gnocchi dressed with a creamy condiment of zucchini, prawns and smoked scamorza food ($30) wasn’t what I was picturing erstwhile I spied it connected the menu, but I recovered myself returning to it much often than I expected.

While nicely lush successful texture, the location tiramisu ($14) tasted a small light-on
in presumption of coffee-ness. Perhaps I should person gone the Nutella doughnuts ($16)
instead?

As I said earlier, reviewing pizza joints is benignant of redundant, due to the fact that adjacent erstwhile it’s not good, pizza volition ever beryllium a small spot good. If you’ve ever had 1 of those weeks, the operation of a takeaway pizza positive a vessel of vino and switching your telephone to airplane mode remains 1 of the astir effectual Friday nighttime panaceas ever invented. But erstwhile you unearth a truly bully pizza associated – 1 that elegantly demonstrates the benignant of alchemy that happens erstwhile flour, water, salt, herb and occurrence each enactment their heads unneurotic – it’s your motivation work to stock it with others.

Especially for the big-talking hotshots of the world. An indispensable sanction successful Perth pizza best-of discussions.

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