THE rumours won’t go away. Sourdough pizzeria success story Franco Manca is eyeing up Manchester. Job adverts have appeared for an assistant manager position in the city. We can smell the tomato sauce – almost.
The chain with 34 London branches (Aldwych pictured above) and nine more nationwide is keeping tight-lipped about any move into what is a hotly contested pizza scene at the moment (for what it’s worth our favourites are Rudy’s, Ciaooo and Tre Ciccio).
Franco Manca means ‘Franco missing’ in Italian. The brand, lauded by The Observer a offering the “best pizzas in Britain”, was created a decade ago after the takeover of a Brixton Market pizza stall called Franco’s. In a phenomenal rise they’ve even found time to publish a Franco Manca cookbook , subtitled ‘Artisan Pizza To Make Perfectly at Home’.
Co-owners Giuseppe Mascoli, a Neapolitan expat, and Bridget Hugo pride themselves both on the quality of their slow-rising dough and their ingredients, which range from Umbrian wild boar salami to free range pork sausages from Yorkshire. They even make their own mozzarella and import Italian tomatoes to create some of the most affordable pizzas around – tomato, basil and oregano for just a fiver?
This year, in collaboration with Ferrarelle sparkling water Franco Manca are inviting some of Italy’s too chefs to create specials. Their latest ‘guest pizza’ was curated by Antonino Esposito and features rare breed fennel sausage, mozzarella, Gragnano tomatoes and lentils. Sounds like they mean business.
