Black Sand Pizzeria and Bistro in the Taranaki town of Oakura has been accredited as a member of the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana – the Association of Neapolitan Pizza – one of only three restaurants in the country to be honoured in this way, and one of only 750 in the entire world.
Chef Martin Barlok, originally of Slovakia, was taught his pizza-making method by an Italian woman and, after arriving in Taranaki five years ago, turned it into a business. He said that the secret to success is to keep in simple.
“The simplicity of Naples pizza is that you don’t have to overload on ingredients or toppings,” he said. “It’s a quick, healthy meal with local ingredients – what can go wrong?”
Barlok compared Neapolitan pizza to Champagne.
“It is about preserving the traditional methods, and protecting the heritage of a craft which have been handed down through many generations.”
However, not all the locals are up to date on what makes a true Neapolitan pizza, with a common complaint being that the pizza is ‘burnt’.
“They come and tell me ‘my pizza is burnt’, after they have eaten it. So I sit them down and explain it is how traditional Neapolitan pizza should look. Our dough is a very heavy with a lot of water, with very little yeast, no sugar and very healthy. When the pizza is put in the oven the dough lifts and the water explodes, and that produces black blisters, or air bubbles, as the water is pushed out by the intense heat.”
