Gary Newborough Pizza, Restaurateur Gary Newborough had food critics raving about the pizzas at the VIP launch of his trendy new restaurant – until he confessed they were in fact frozen and bought from a local supermarket.
Gary, 58, had promised a ‘taste of Italy’ and a ‘pizza with a real difference’ at the bash at La Pizzeria Ristorante in Manchester’s trendy Northern Quarter.
Around 100 local foodies turned up at the first floor eaterie and were waxing lyrical over the free tasters including ‘special’ Pizza Pollo and Pizza Spinaci.
Newborough said he served up supermarket pizzas in a bid to get people talking, adding: “We wanted to see if they could tell the difference between freshly cooked pizzas and frozen ones from stores. Evidently people didn’t know the difference and were taken in because they loved it so much.
“Unfortunately some people at the launch were a little cross when they found out we were serving frozen supermarket pizzas.
“But they weren’t complaining when it was free and they were going through 36 bottles of sparkling wine that I laid on. It was just a bit of fun and it didn’t cost anybody anything to try it. I just liked the idea of doing something that nobody has ever done before.”
Floor manager Chris Alexander said: “Cooking frozen pizza is harder than it looks. The bases need to be crispy and they need to be cooked right each time, so it can sometimes be a little tricky.
“In terms of service and value we can definitely compete with the restaurants around here. It doesn’t matter that the secret’s out, that would defeat the object. We want to show that you can’t tell the difference between the Dr Oetker Ristorante pizzas and proper restaurant meals.
“At the launch most people were complimentary about the taste but we had a few who were a little angry because they felt they had been victims of a prank.”
In an unexpected twist, the restaurant said it will continue to serve up the frozen pizzas until 7 September.
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