(spoon clanging)
(egg simmering)
(rock music)
- Hello and welcome back to Sorted Food
Today we have the creative geniuses
behind Pizza Pilgrims, James and Thom.
- Hello.
- [Ben] Welcome to the studio.
- Thank you very much.
- Thank you for having us.
Now, let me explain what's
about to happen because we've got two of our normals,
Jamie and Mike,
going head to head in a creative challenge.
It's an ultimate pizza hybrid battle.
- Right?
- [Ben] So they've worked with our food team
to come up with a combination
of a pizza dish
and something else, delicious.
And they've got to put them together.
- So you're taking the 300 year old tradition
of traditional pizza making and moving it forward!?!
(laugh)
- [Ben] So look, we're going to put you guys
in charge of judging the end results.
Do you want to do the honours and count them in?
- Well, I just really want to say
ready, steady, cook,
but I'm sure they'll scold me.
(laugh)
Ready?
Steady,
Cook!
(horn blares)
- Okay.
- [Jay] Well.
- How come the music doesn't actually start,
when you're actually here,
I thought the music starts
(jazzy guitar music)
- Possibly the hardest job
in the kitchen is toasting pine nuts.
So I reckon he's going to burn those.
- [Thom] Oh, whoa!
(Judges laugh)
- I called it!
- [Ben] That pan preheated.
- You cannot do pine nuts on an electric hob.
It's impossible.
- [Jamie] Sorry, boys.
How, how far into the battle was it before Mike
burnt something,
just out of interest.
- [James] So Mike,
you're playing with our dough there.
I'm, I'm worried.
- [Mike] I'm currently weighing out dough
because this needs to be precise,
and I'll tell you why, because my hybrid recipe
is a dough ball croquembouche.
- [Thom] Oh c'mon.
- [Mike] So, the croquembouche,
a French patisserie dish made out of profiteroles.
So what we should be left with is essentially a cone
of delicious garlic buttered pizza dough balls
topped with tomato, basil, cheese, and pesto for dipping.
- Have you set yourself a height, a dream height
you're aiming for?
- No, I think what we, what you get is what you get.
(judges laugh)
- Jamie, what's your, what's your match
for the croquembouche pizza then?
- Match? It's not a match, first of all.
- Okay, what's your like knock out of the park?
- We all know how great pizza's are.
- Mhm.
- I mean that's why we're here.
- Correct.
- But What else is great?
Doughnuts.
- Okay.
- And what would be really great
is a pizza doughnut.
So I'm taking your dough.
I'm going to then fill that dough with a mushroom duxelle.
- Stop it.
- A tomato sauce, smoked ham,
mozzarella, wild garlic,
all wrapped up into a bowl,
deep fried for a few minutes until it all gets crispy
on the outside and soft and melty in the middle.
- That sounds excellent.
And that is actually got like, that's actually a bit rooted
in Naples tradition.
There's a bit of, they do a bit of like frying
pizza dough over there.
- First up, it's all about my fillings.
I'm starting with a mushroom duxelle.
To do that,
I'm going to re hydrate some porcini mushrooms
in some boiling water, I'll roughly chop some chestnut
mushrooms, finely dice a shallot all into a pan
with some oil and butter.
I'll pouring in white wine and let that reduce
by about half.
In the meantime,
I'll add the liquid from my re hydrated porcini
mushrooms, then roughly chop the porcini mushrooms.
Chuck them in as well.
And that is my mushroom duxelle that can fry away
for about eight to ten minutes.
And so it becomes really absolutely delicious.
- [Ben] So far,
Mike has rolled out an awful lot of the dough.
What's so special about the pizza pilgrims dough?
- [James] It's the amalgamation
of all of the pizza chefs that worked
at pizza pilgrims have all kind of had there little touch
on it and kept moving it forward.
Good dough should only be four ingredients.
It should be flour,
really good flour.
So this is Caputo flour, which is a zero
zero flour from Naples,
And then it's cold water.
And then it's salt and fresh Baker's yeast.
And we use the key, one of the keys
to our dough is that we use a tiny amount of yeast.
So for a big 25 kilo sack of flour
we'll use 12 grammes of yeast,
which is kind of the same size as a sort of bean.
- And then just loads of time presumably.
- Yeah, yeah. And proofing it for longer.
- We double ferment it.
So it gets a batch, it gets a batch ferment first.
And then we ball it and proof it a second time.
And then it has, it spends time in the fridge as well.
So it's kind of a sort
of 72 hour process by the time we're all done with it.
- So now I've measured the dough.
I'm rolling it out into spheres.
They go onto a semolina lined baking tray covered
with oiled clingfilm and leave them to proof
Next, it's onto one of my dips... pesto.
I've got my cooled pine nuts in a mini chopper.
I'm going to add to that garlic and Parmesan.
Pulse it together.
Then add basil and olive oil and season it to taste
at the very end to make sure
that it's good enough for these guys.
- After about eight to ten minutes
my duxelle has dried out nicely.
I'm going to transfer that to a plate and put it
in the fridge to cool down,
so we can put it into our donuts later.
- [Ben] So pizza pilgrims is a great set
of restaurants in London that we love.
We've featured several times before started
by Thom and James, after pilgrimage around Italy
learning everything they could about pizza, right?
- The idea was drive all the way
through Italy, learn everything we could about pizza
but we'd, we'd use Google maps to figure
out how long the drive would take.
And it told us like, oh, that'd be eight days.
So we're like, great.
We got home six weeks later because we had to go
over The Alps in what is essentially a tuk tuk.
And we went three miles an hour all the way up The Alps.
And then to be fair hit up top speed
on the way down The Alps.
- Yeah.
(upbeat music)
- For my tomato sauce I've peeled
and finely diced an onion.
I've added that into a pan with some oil.
That's fried up until it's got soft and translucent.
(bender spins)
I've then done exactly the same with a clove of garlic.
That's gone in.
It's frying for a couple of minutes.
I'm now adding in some tomato purée.
- I'm sorry, were you saying something?
- [James] Can we try it?
(upbeat techno music)
- Whoa.
(Thom laughs)
- It's kind of like a nut butter.
You know when you eat peanut butter
and it kind of sticks to the roof
of your mouth?
It's not the classic consistency
I would have guessed for a kind of drizzling thing.
It's kind of more a peanut butter.
- I think these guys are worse than
Ebbers and James.
- [Mike] Yeah, I agree.
And I'm now far more worried
than I was before we started this.
(judges laugh)
And I was already quite worried.
I always preferred Homeslice
(hysterical laughter)
- With my onion, garlic, and tomato purée mix
having fried off for a couple of minutes,
I'm now adding chopped tomatoes.
Let that simmer for about 15 minutes and then
add in white wine vinegar, sugar, and salt
to taste to get it all balanced, seasoning triangle...
Ebbers...
That will then go into a blender, blend it all up
make it nice and smooth into the fridge.
Chill down.
(exhales heavily)
In the meantime,
I can reset everything
and get ready to roll out my dough.
- We should point out that
all three normals came up with a pizza hybrid,
recipe.
- Yeah.
- And we picked the best two to go
into this battle today.
Barry didn't make it.
So in a strop he left.
(judges laugh)
- Before I roll out my dough,
I'm going to cube my mozzarella.
And that's the final bit of prep that I can do
before my tomato sauce, and my duxelle are ready.
How's your tomato sauce coming on?
Because mine's still got another 10 minutes or so.
- Oh mate, I've done it.
- How... you, but you haven't made that?
- Is the tomato sauce here shop bought, or pre-made?
Very important distinction.
- It's the same one that I'm making, but he outsourced it
to a chef to make.
- Proper pizza, isn't actually a tomato sauce.
We don't do cooked tomatoes.
It's just really great, really great tomatoes with salt.
- Guys coming up to half way through.
- [Mike] What?
- Thirty minutes remaining.
- Dough's proofed, I need to get a wiggle on
because I've got half an hour left.
So they're going into the oven five to seven minutes.
- [James] So, not everyone has the luxury
of a pizza oven at home
but we've got our oven up as high as possible.
What's the next best thing?
- We really believe in the frying pan method.
So get a frying pan on the hub,
get it super hot,
get your dough in the, in the pan,
put the toppings on.
Wait for the dough to, to puff up,
and then get under a really hot grill.
So you're kind of trying to create that like mega heat
of a Neapolitan oven
but almost like in
- Two stages... from underneath and above
- In stages, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Everyone's got a frying pan.
Don't buy a pizza stone.
If you put a pizza on a pizza stone
once the cold dough hits the pizza stone,
all of that heat just falls away
and it doesn't get replenished.
So you don't get a raise from your crust.
So that's where the frying pan keeps the heat
coming through.
- Yeah
(rock guitar plays)
- So, dough balls are now in, five to seven minutes.
In the meantime, I'm going to heat
up some sugar that has been just covered
with some water and I'm going to make a caramel.
Once that's turned lovely golden amber and become caramel,
take it off the heat,
chuck in some chilli flakes
because that's going to give it sort of another dimension
with the sort of bitter, sweet caramel taste.
- [James] Ooh.
- [Mike] Hello!
- I don't like to see that coming out of an oven.
Look at that.
- That is amazing.
(judges laugh)
- [Mike] I don't stand a chance.
- I mean, some people, I don't, I'm not saying who
but some people could say, if you kept a closer eye on it
and turn them around slightly more frequently
than you have been doing,
then maybe they would be more even cooked.
- Whole of one side except for a centimetre,
which has burned.
Can I use that oven?
(indistinct chatter)
Can you, do you mind just preheating it
as hot as possible, please.
- That's fine that you outsource your dough balls
and your tomato sauce,
and you know maybe you can stack them up at the end.
(judges laugh)
- Maybe you'd get a little badge or something for it,
a stacking badge.
Here's my order.
Ham , wild garlic, tomato sauce.
Mushroom duxelle, mozzarella.
Basil leaf.
Not in the recipe, but I think it's going to add
a little
vol-au-vent.
And then roll up one.
Repeat however many doughnuts we want.
- [Thom] So you're going to roll that up first,
then wrap that in dough.
- Yes.
- [Thom] Sort of a double, double protective layer.
- Exactly.
- I've lowered the temperature of my oven now,
and my Parmesan is going in.
Basically I've just grated over a whole load of Parmesan
on to a Silicon mat.
And once it's cooked through for about eight minutes
it's going to snap it into shards.
I'm gonna use that to decorate my croquembouche.
If we even get to a croquembouche.
- Oh wait, I've got tiny little violin down here somewhere.
(plays violin)
- [Mike] No, that's your (beep).
(metal clangs)
- And you've got 20 minutes remaining.
- [James] Should we try and set out some rules?
- [Thom] I think we should.
- [James] So we've got idea, execution, and visuals.
Flavour, and then would anyone actually eat it?
(judges laugh)
She would do three of each?
Three a piece?
- Just one of those things?
- [James] Yeah.
- Three points in each category.
- Yeah, three points in each category.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Can we give out 1 point to deliverability?
(hysterical laughter)
- [Mike] Oh, hang on a second.
I wasn't told this criteria.
My garlic butter is melted butter
garlic, parsley,
all stirred together.
And that's literally it.
Just gonna dip the dough ball in that before construction
- Last 15 minutes.
- I'm sticking the dough balls together
with my chilli caramel.
Obviously putting the burnt ones in the bottom.
I've got to get a move on.
- [James] I'm very impressed that the,
having watched Sorted videos before,
any you kind of think, in the edit
that maybe they've made the drama.
The drama is real.
(hysterical laughter)
- It is white heat in there.
- [Ben] They are competing all year to win skills badges.
And today they are competing for the hybrid badge.
If the dish delivers.
(heavy rock music)
- [Mike] I'm now brushing my croquembouche
with garlic butter.
- Last eight minutes.
Mike you've got to make yours look even better.
J, you've got to cook yours.
Interesting that I feel like the Parmesan crisp
only needed another minute or so.
- [Mike] Oh no!
- [Ben] And then he left it five.
It looks, it looks totally fine.
You've nailed it.
- [Mike] That, well, it's about time I had some luck.
I now want to drizzle tomato sauce
and literally just make this look like
a messy sort of pizza-y stack.
- [Jamie] Doughnuts are going into a pan of oil.
I've had to get an induction hub to get it hot enough.
It's about 170 ish.
They're gonna need four or five minutes
and constant floofing.
- [James] What's that going on there?
- [Mike] So now I'm just putting some Ricotta.
- [James] I like that my brain's just fully given
in to the idea of the croquembush now.
I'm not questioning it.
It's like,
- Yeah.
(heavy rock guitar plays)
- [Ben] Last 30 seconds.
- [James] I'll tell you what, the two dishes
couldn't look more different, could they?
(rock music plays)
- 10 seconds.
- This actually might work.
- [Ben] Five, four, three, two, one.
(buzzer blares)
- Step away from your hybrid pizzas.
(techno music)
- Ah.
- Well, we made it.
- We didn't.
- Two...
- Yeah, you didn't make anything.
- We all made it to the end of the video.
What we have is two incredible,
hybrid pizza efforts.
- What are your first thoughts?
(hysterical laughter)
- Oh man.
- Oh, now that's just rude.
- [Jamie] Way to start positive.
- Laugh in my face.
- It is, everything,
everything I imagined it was going to be.
- Can't be asking more than that, can you?
It's quite an impressive achievement.
We're going to start with this one.
(upbeat music)
I don't think
we're going to get,
we're not going to get a cheese pull.
- [Ben] No cheese pull,
but is the cross-section there.
- [Thom] It's pretty dreamy as a cross-section
The little parcel within a parcel has worked.
- I mean, if we go back
and read the terms and conditions
there was never a cheese pull guaranteed.
Oh, Oh, Oh.
- [Mike] Hang on.
- Hang on a second.
- Okay, we take it back.
- Excuse me.
- It does exist.
- [James] It's legit.
- [Mike] But as you said, it doesn't really matter,
does it?
Whether there's a cheese pull or not.
(judges laugh)
- Alright, cheers, cheers!
- Cheers!
- That is delicious.
- That's completely, completely, delicious.
Smoked ham and the mushroom going well together.
- [Thom] Yeah.
- That sauce you can really taste it's homemade
which is lovely.
(hysterical laughter)
- Tang of sauce. And do you know what?
I think the porcini saved you as well,
because it is super mushroom-y.
- Saved you?
- [Jamie] Saved me?
- Not saved you, but,
it's punching on strong mushroom
and that's a good thing.
- The dough is cooked through, I think.
I think there was quite a lot of working of the dough
which I think made it quite,
- It's a bit tougher.
- It's quite, it's a bit more chewy.
About 13 seconds before the end of you making that,
it did not look anything like what it kind of became
right at the end.
You really pulled that out the bag presentation wise,
in the last ten seconds.
It's what happens when you have a presentation badge
though isn't it?
You just, oh sorry.
It's what happens when you have a presentation badge
isn't it Ebbers?
- Right.
Before there's any fisticuffs let's move on to
Let's move on to the next one.
- [Thom] To be fair.
- [Mike] It's a hot mess, which is ironic
because it's actually got quite cold since
it's been sat there, but.
- So are you saying that the man who created this has
not got a presentation badge?
- No. I have not yet.
- I mean, surely, surely we could just
rectify it right there in front of you.
- I mean, we invite guests in to judge battles, but
if you think that's worthy of a presentation badge
and a plating badge,
I'm happy for you to give it to Mike.
- You have got to give a plating
and presentation badge for that.
- Yes!
- There's a curve ball we didn't see coming.
- [Mike] That's amazing! Thank you!
- It's an amazing achievement.
- Barry's going to be even more gutted
than he was before.
(hysterical laughter)
- Dig in and make sure you get a chance to dip as well.
(all groaning)
- Makes it easier. Makes it easier for everyone
- Someone had to do it, someone had to do it.
- [Ben] Alright cheers
- I was gonna go with a one, but.
- [Thom] Caramel and pesto is a thing.
- Have you put something in my water?
Why does everything tasting so delicious?
- [Thom] I was expecting this to be nice,
and it was really nice.
I was not expecting this to be nice,
and it totally is.
(outward laughter)
it's delicious.
- It really plays to the sweet-salty thing, doesn't it?
- [Thom] Yeah.
- Because the caramel,
with a little bit of chilli,
and it's, it's not sweet caramel.
It's that burnt, bitter caramel.
- [James] That's not what I'd accounted for... the caramel is actually quite bitter
so it's not like overly sweet.
The dough is obviously great.
I can't, I can't judge that, our own dough.
But I think again, you've fallen foul
of the overworking of the dough.
The key with great Neapolitan pizza dough
is you want to , sort of, after its proofed
and it's relaxed, you don't want to mess with it
because it will go quite tough.
- Or it could've done with a longer proof.
- Could've done with a longer proof.
But then there's a very satisfying chew to the kind of,
there's a denseness which I'm not hating.
(laughter)
- Not hating, well done you.
So look.
With, with badges in mind of the hybrid battle,
I don't think there's any doubting that both
dishes tick that box.
And I am giving both of you the hybrid badge.
(soft applause from judges)
to add to your surprise plating badge.
But we're here for the battle.
And the battle winner, which is up to you guys.
Do you have a winning dish?
- We thought that this was a great idea, although it
sort of exists in some way but it tasted amazing.
You would absolutely 100 percent order it if you
saw it on a menu.
We might even steal it and put it on our menu.
All in all we thought really, really good.
9 points out of 12, we got.
- Yeah.
And then this one.
Unfortunately isn't quite going to make it onto our menu.
- You can't afford it.
- [James] Just by a hair, by as a hair as it made it.
But, in terms of being a pizza croquembouche,
100 percent, that's exactly what that was.
(suspenseful music)
- Just edged it and 10 points.
So, very, very, happy to announce,
the croquembouche.
(loud applause)
- Which also doubles up as a trophy.
(subtle laughter)
- [Thom] Your prize is, to have the balls to dream it up,
and pull it off. Sound plate.
(judges and competitors applaud)
- Well done, mate, well done.
- And close, yours is making the menu.
- Yeah. We need to discuss profit share
of mine being on the menu.
(hysterical laughter)
- As much as that was nosebleedingly stressful for me,
it's been amazing having you guys in and sharing
some of your insight.
So thanks so much for stopping by.
- Pleasure.
- And thank you for making the right choice at the end.
A lot of fun.
- Well. That was a rollercoaster of a challenge.
And I think I enjoyed myself right up until
that last second.
- I also think I enjoyed myself throughout
the whole video.
Did you enjoy yourselves?
Give the video a like.
What did you think of our guests?
Do you think we should do more of these?
If you think so, then comment down below.
- It will be nice to get some proper chef's in here
wouldn't it
- Harsh!
- [Mike] Oh, Absolutely!
- You've been a little (beep) on the side,
all video, so you deserved that.
- That's my job!
- Look, you guys know that we love Pizza Pilgrims.
And we've done loads of their stuff before, but,
if they want to find more about you,
where are they going to find it?
- Instagram.
I run the Instagram account @pizzapilgrims
so follow us there.
- Or you can try one of our frying pan pizza kits
at home at www.pizzainthepost.co.uk.
- Highly recommend that.
- Give it a go.
- [Narrator] Since filming this, the guy shave thrown
in 20 percent off the "pizza in the post" kits
for you lovely sorted viewers using
the promo code SORTED.
This is not a hashtag ad, they are our actual
friends being nice.
Links are below.
- It's now three chefs trying to dissect
where someone's (beep) up.
(metal clanging)
The lowest common denominator
is going to be, Mike (beep) up.
Oh.
(cheeky laughter)