Pizza Express has always been my favourite pizza restaurant. Maybe it is because there has always been a lovely friendly branch literally four minutes walk from my front door. (My son’s favourite take-away throughout his childhood was a ‘margherita with extra tuna and ham’…).
Or maybe it is because way back in the dawn of time when I used to do a regular recipe slot on LBC Radio, Pizza Express’ founder, Peter Boizot, a great LBC enthusiast, used to treat me to the occasional lunch in the original Pizza Express in Wardour Street.
Or maybe it is just because they not only serve excellent pizzas, but they also serve nice salads and a decent glass of wine quickly and at a very reasonable price.
Anyhow, for whatever reason, they have always been my favourite and I have been becoming increasingly frustrated at their failure to accommodate their freefrom customers – although I did completely understand their concerns over contamination. Since they do roll out all their pizza bases on site, there are permanent clouds of flour emanating from the pizza kitchens – which are situated in the middle of most of the restaurants!
So I am particularly delighted that they have not only finally bitten the bullet but have done it in an extremely comprehensive fashion – and with the imprimatur of Coeliac UK. They have not just created a gluten-free pizza base but a whole gluten-free menu, including starters, salads, oven-baked dishes, gluten-free brownies and gluten-free beer!! (One of FreeFrom Food Awards winners Green’s pilsners no less!)
But – and this is the master stroke – they have also solved the flour contamination problem. How? By, as of today, using gluten-free flour for rolling out all their pizza doughs, be they gluten-filled or gluten-free, in all their restaurants. This will not affect the taste of the normal pizzas as literally it is only a dusting, but it means that the apparently insoluble contamination problem ceases to exist.
The new menu goes live tonight, in all of their 420 odd restaurants, and I am very much looking forward to trying it – although it may not be till the end of next week. However, we will be investigating the whole process they have gone through (which included taking on board feedback from concerned bloggers) in more detail on FreeFrom FoodsMatter once we have tasted the new pizzas – and the beer!!
Then we will need to start talking to them about creating not only a gluten-free menu but a gluten and dairy-free one….
Meanwhile, if anyone else gets to try them out before I do, I would love to know what you think!
Bloody brilliant! I too am a huge fan and have been able to have their chicken salad with no issues. Looking forward to trying so,etching #GF very soon. I love Pizza Express
This is really great to hear Michelle. I think we will pay our local branch a visit at the weekend. It has been such a frustrating restaurant to visit until now, from a freefrom perspective, with such few allergy friendly options. Great news!
Can’t wait. Hope they have managed to get some real crunch into the gluten free dough..!
We enjoyed our meal and were pleased with the level of staff understanding ref gluten free dishes. We think the menu needs work to make things clearer and agree they need more V/DF and GF items and to highlight what else is GF or can easily be adapted. All in all a great move that we have more faith in than other GF chains as they have gone the extra mile and used GF flour in the kitchen for their normal pizzas. We hope they evolve the menu and keep engaging bloggers and keep up the good staff training.