Anyone for a €1800 pizza?

A gourmet pizzeria in Malta’s capital city of Valletta is selling a pizza made with white truffles, 24-carat gold leaf and buffalo mozzarella over a thin crust base for a jaw-dropping €1800.

Claude Camilleri, owner of Margo’s Pizzeria in the Mediterranean island’s capital, said the idea for the gourmet pizza came about last winter when he and pizzaiolo Giovanni Staiano were handling truffle at another restaurant which Camilleri owns, according to the Times of Malta.

“We were nosing the truffle and enjoying its smell, and said, wouldn’t it be nice if we had this on a pizza, and bring out the amazing flavour of truffle – and if we really want to be vulgar, put gold leaf on it?” Mr Camilleri said.

According to Mr Camilleri, the €1800 pizza has been ordered twice already by a local hotelier, who reportedly had to be persuaded not to have tomatoes on the pizza, since their acidity clashes with the taste of the truffles.

The pizza’s hefty price tag is mainly attributed to the weight of the white truffles used in its preparation. The truffles are currently priced at €6,500 per kilo, and chef Staiano says 50 to 100 grams of white truffle are placed on the pizza.

“We’re trying to draw attention to the quality of the food,” Mr Camilleri said.

“Having truffles on a pizza which is not the best pizza possible would be a travesty, a sin. And to put truffles on a Margo’s pizza, you need to be confident that what you are creating is an exceptional masterpiece.”

The gourmet pizza, which is available from the Margo’s Pizzeria menu, must be ordered a week in advance, and the truffle is delivered via courier especially for the pizza.

But despite its €1800 price, Mr Camilleri claims the restaurant will not make any profit from the pizza, adding: “even if we make money from that pizza, we are determined to give that money away. We get enough return from making that pizza through the exposure we get”.

Camilleri and Staiano are looking to make their way into the Guinness Book of World Records for selling the most expensive commercially-available pizza in the world.