And soon his special pizzas will be available in Bramhall and Ramsbottom
Last week, during Casual Dining Magazine’s National Pizza Awards 2018, fifteen of the country’s best pizzaiolos battled it out to be named ‘National Pizza Chef of the year’.
The chefs took part in a live cook off in front of an esteemed panel of judges who rated them on their signature pizza, technical pizza skills and what each could produce on the day from a mystery box of ingredients.
The bustling family restaurants take their inspiration from the food of Campania
Despite it being his first competitive cooking event, Luigi Marino from Tre Ciccio in Altrincham walked away with the title thanks to his pizza, named ‘Sud’ (main image), inspired by the best ingredients from southern Italy including spicy Calabrian nduja, creamy burrata and ripe San Marzano tomatoes.
Tre Ciccio Altrincham only opened in February 2018, so the accolade is quite a coup for Luigi and his mentor, restaurant co-owner Francesco Scafuri.
The timing couldn’t be more perfect for Francesco and business partners Alan Ritchie and James Gingell (well, the restaurant name translates as ‘three chubby friends’), who currently have their hands full putting the finishing touches to a second branch of Tre Ciccio. This is due to open in Bramhall at the end of October, on the site of the former Mercato Italiano restaurant.
The trio have also just been granted planning permission for a third restaurant site in Ramsbottom, which should be open early 2019.
The bustling family restaurants take their inspiration from the food of Campania and each specialises in Neapolitan pizza and ‘pollo scucchito’, or roast chicken, which they cook in a huge wood fire oven.
Quality of ingredients is key to Tre Ceccio’s menu, so they use award winning, farm-reared Goosnargh chicken from Johnson and Swarbrick’s, which they steep in four secret marinades before slow-roasting to enhance the flavour and tenderness.
As you’d expect, pizzas are all made from a slow-rising 24 hour dough which is baked at around 500˚C in the wood- burning oven, giving them a lighter, more digestible crust.
Due to its immediate success, Tre Ciccio is looking to expand in further suburbs over the next year or so, including Knutsford.
You can read the full Confidential scored review here. For the latest updates, follow Tre Ciccio on Twitter.
