It’s already been hailed as the ‘best pizza’ by one devoted fan
Jeremy Clarkson visited Manchester restaurant Ciaooo earlier this week(Image: Instagram: @ciaooopizzamcr)
The owners of a top independent pizza place in Manchester said they were ‘honoured’ to be visited by Jeremy Clarkson.
The former Top Gear host and current Who Wants To Be A Millionaire presenter, 65, made a surprise appearance in the city earlier this week – with Ciaooo, on Swan Street in the Northern Quarter, becoming one of his destinations of choice. Owned by Lory Grigori and head chef Stefano Mordecchi, the Neapolitan pizza venue has been heralded in the city since first opening in 2018. It’s already been visited by a host of big names including Manchester City star Rúben Dias and actor James Nesbitt.
Now joining the list of famous faces to have enjoyed Ciaooo’s delights, Jeremy’s visit went down a hit with the owners. Posting on Instagram, the restaurant wrote: “Thank you for visiting @jeremyclarkson1. We’re honoured you chose to dine at our pizzeria. Hope we see you again.” The post was accompanied with a photo of Jeremy and Lory, and was met with responses from the restaurant’s followers. One person wrote: “Giants live amongst us!!” Another commented: “I bet you will, the best pizza!”
At the Italian Awards last year, which is considered to be one of the big celebrations of the British Italian community, Ciaooo Pizza was shortlisted in both the Best Family Business and Best Pizza awards. The nominations have helped put the venue on the culinary map amongst some of the other leading restaurants and bars across the country.
Ciaooo Pizza are known for their Neapolitan delights(Image: Ciaooo Pizza/Instagram: @ciaooopizzamcr)
When Lory and Stefano re-opened their second Shudehill site earlier this year, they said they wanted the Ciaooo By The Slice location to champion the style of Romanian pizza that they used to serve up at their original Italian venues. Their creations feature a range of flavours, including pulled pork, truffle oil, pepperoni and their own homemade hot honey featuring a combination of scotch bonnet and scorpion chillis.
At Ciaooo By The Slice, the pizzas are baked low and slow on large trays in an electric oven, before then being cut into 9×6” slices ready to be snapped up by customers. It was described as being ‘very good value’ in a recent review of the place, with particular praise given to their portion sizes.
Their original spot on Swan Street, meanwhile, features pizzas made with San Marzano DOP tomatoes, known for being the best and most authentic, with Fiordilatte mozzarella. Their popular flavours include the Polpettina – featuring meatballs, chorizo and wild boar salami – and the Contadina – including sundried tomatoes, olives, artichokes, red onions and extra virgin olive oil.
Jeremy Clarkson visited Manchester restaurant Ciaooo earlier this week(Image: Instagram: @ciaooopizzamcr)
“All the ingredients are from Italian suppliers,” Lory told the M.E.N earlier this year. “It’s really important for us because you can taste the difference – it makes you feel like you are eating a real part of Italy. It is a taste of Italy in the UK. These are the same ingredients we used in our restaurant in Italy, and they are the kind of things they are using in Rome now. They’re selling the same.”
In fact, Lori also said that many did not believe that Ciaooo initially had what it takes to last in Manchester. She explained: “We did have a lot of people tell us in the beginning that we weren’t going to last. We called it Ciaooo for the Italian words for hi and goodbye, which is the same thing, and, at the beginning, the three O’s on the logo were the Italian flags. We thought it sounded nice that it is a longer ciao – a longer hello or goodbye to people that visit. Many told us that with our name, we would shut down soon. They did not believe it would work. But we are still here. It has been seven years since we first opened.”
Ciaooo is on 62-64 Swan St, Manchester M4 5JU, whilst Ciaooo By The Slice is on 93 Shudehill, Manchester M4 4AN.