It’s not often that I am blown away by a new product that’s entered the market. And I certainly could not have guessed that it would be pizza that overturned my takeaway prejudice!
I have no problem with takeaway pizza off the street in Italy, the wallet sized dough folded up and shoved into my mouth, but somehow Aussies’ view of pizza is too often morphed into a cardboard-like crust topped with everything we can think of. That image was about to be shattered.
‘How good can a supermarket pizza be?’ I thought. ‘Am I wasting my time going to look at this?’
The next few words clinched the deal: “We’re Maki and Michael Dackw, former owners of Gallura Italian Restaurant in Tweed Heads.”
One word: ‘Gallura’ and the warm fuzzies flooded through me in memory of the many wonderful meals we’d eaten at this exceptional restaurant; meals so excellent that I knew that this couple couldn’t possibly make an inferior product. So, I drove down to their factory in Murwillimbah to check out their production facility and to hear their story.
Maki and Michael’s story is one of love – love for each other and love of great food. Visiting Milan for work, Adelaide-born Michael met Maki, who owned a restaurant. They fell in love within 24 hours, Maki deciding to sell her restaurant and join Michael in Australia where, since their arrival, they have jointly owned restaurants in Sydney, Brunswick Heads and Tweed.
“Maki has been in hospitality for 27 years, 14 of them with me,” Michael tells me. “But we’ve always wanted to have a product of our own in the market.”
During the pandemic, Michael and Maki realised that dining behaviour was changing. Restaurants slowed down, and Michael and Maki took the time to think about their future.
“People were dining out less often and spending less. We saw this as an opportunity to start a new business that would fill a gap in the market,” Michael says. “People were looking for niche products that provided restaurant quality food in the convenient environment of their own home. We wanted to produce fabulous pizza that was 98% cooked, snap frozen, and could be quickly and effortlessly finished off in a home oven to reach restaurant quality.”
Working with their business partner, James Brown from Adelaide, they have spent the past 2 1/2 years developing the product to excellence, securing a production premises, ordering Italian ovens and packaging line, and preparing to launch, at the same time preparing to hand over their restaurant to new owners…(but that’s another story). James, (voted as one of Gourmet Traveller’s Top 50 influential creatives in Australia), has been responsible for all their amazing graphic design, marketing and socials.
Ammazza Pizza is the first product I have tasted that brings us freezer to table restaurant quality pizza in just ten minutes. It’s revolutionary, and as amazing as its name implies.
Australian made and local family owned, Ammazza Pizza uses top quality ingredients from local and Italian suppliers: Byron Bay Mozzarella Co, Salami Australia, local Tweed pesto, and house-made sauce. The handmade dough is fermented for 72 hours to make it more easily digestible, toppings are added, then it is pre-cooked to perfection in an Italian Moretti Forni oven, snap frozen and packed ready for purchase. There are five varieties of Ammazza pizza: Margherita, Pepperoni, Donna Verde, Hawaiana, and Sausage and Truffelino.
From your freezer, the instructions are simple: Place the frozen pizza on a wire rack in your 200-degree pre-heated fan-forced oven for 10 minutes and your amazing pizza is ready, the aroma wafting through your kitchen.
And when you put great food and convenience together, possibilities just pop into my head: a quick dinner for the kids, unexpected guests, sleepover, afternoon drink with neighbours, date night in, hens party, midnight pizza fetish, footy on TV, Mum’s night off… The list goes on and on. It’s a game changer.
You’ll find stockists as a highlight on @ammazza__pizza Instagram page. Yum! I’m sold!
Ammazza Pizza, Unit 1, 22 – 36 Kite Crescent, South Murwillumbah, NSW, Ph: 02 6677 1804
NOTE: Good Food Gold Coast visited Ammazza Pizza by invitation.