The secret to a good pizza is keeping it simple!
Nom Nom on Long enters the Porcupine Ridge Pizzeria Challenge
Seven years ago Olga Antoniceva and her partner Guy Blaylock decided that they’d had enough of the London rat race, working jobs in interior design and banking respectively. Not to mention the UK’s dismal weather! So they quit, bought a pizza place, sight unseen, in the Mother City’s ‘party central’ and Nom Nom on Long Street opened its doors in 2017.
Says the Latvian-born Antoniceva:
“There’s something about having your own small business: you never switch off. I’m always thinking about it – even when we go out to eat elsewhere, I’m constantly comparing it to what we do or thinking how I could steal the idea to incorporate it into our menu!”
That inability to switch off, also led to Antoniceva signing up for this year’s Porcupine Ridge Pizzeria Challenge in a quest to establish Nom Nom as one of the city’s go-to venues for pizza hungry locals and tourists alike.
Now in its fourth year, the Porcupine Ridge Pizzeria Challenge has the public voting for their favourite local pizzeria via a dedicated website. The restaurant with the most votes is crowned South Africa’s favourite pizzeria, picking up ultimate bragging rights and other fabulous prizes.
With its loyal customer base and much talked about pizzas, Nom Nom could be a shoo-in to make it into this year’s top 10 list at least!
Says Antoniceva:
“We keep it simple. Nothing is too exotic, and everything comes down to the quality of the pizza, particularly the crust. The dough recipe is basic, and we make it in-house every day. Central to everything is the oven and the firing of the pizza. From late afternoon and into the night, the pizzas just get better and better as the oven warms and keeps the heat. So possibly the best pizzas are in the wee small hours which is why we are open until 4am.”
After the doors close, the oven is cleaned out and another fire started mid-morning for the lunchtime crowd.
“Because of our location in Long Street, our trade happens mostly at night and into the early hours and, although much of the custom is repeat business, we do get a lot of tourists who are staying in the hotels and backpackers nearby. But we have a solid chunk of regulars, many of whom are waiters and bar staff who work in other hospitality joints in Bree Street’s restaurant row and pop in for a nightcap and a pizza before heading home.”
Antoniceva concedes it’s been a steep learning curve – from perfecting the dough to firing the pizza, controlling the oven temperature and changing the cheese component!
“When we started out we only used mozzarella, but we now use about 20% to 30% cheddar because of the flavour that it adds. Mozzarella is great for that stringy texture that everyone loves, but it adds little to the taste of the pizza itself because it’s quite bland. Cheddar, especially when charred and a little smoky from the fire, adds the most wonderful flavour.”
Something patrons are generally not aware of is the skill required to turn out a perfect pizza when it’s made in a wood-fired oven. The fire is generally on one side so obviously the pizza has to be rotated in order for it to cook evenly.
“There’s definitely a technique. My team sometimes have to monitor and cook eight pizzas in the oven simultaneously, which means keeping their wits about them,” she laughs.
Thin crusts are standard at Nom Nom, ones that are crisp and crack with each bite, from rim to molten centre. The most popular menu items are the bacon and avocado option with the Apollo running a close second with its mushroom, chicken and avocado topping. Other regular choices include the Regina (ham and mushroom), Tropical (ham and pineapple), Mexican (chilli beef mince and jalapeno), Tikka Chicken (tikka chicken, coriander and yoghurt).
Antoniceva’s personal favourite? The straightforward Margherita, with a few mushrooms if she feels like living on the wild side! Partner Guy also sticks to Margherita but tends to add pineapple and salami.
“That’s his ‘go-to’ but if we’re sharing, I’ll pick the pineapple off!” she admits.
As a small business it’s important to respond to consumer trends so there’s a solid section of Nom Nom’s menu devoted to vegan pizza. The Red Hot Chilli Peppers (red pepper, red onion, chilli and garlic) is enough to tempt anyone’s palate, as is the Antipasti (mushroom, olives and peppadews).
But it’s in the gourmet section that things get interesting! There’s the Honey Badger (pepperoni, bacon and hot honey) named after a regular whose nickname in Afrikaans is Ratel and when he mentioned to Antoniceva that she should try the new craze sweeping New York – drizzling hot honey on a pizza – she decided to give it a try , loved it, added it to the menu and named it after him! If that’s not your bag, other options include the Porky (salami, chorizo, ham and cherry tomatoes), Roaring Rocket (peppadews, feta, avo and rocket), Hot Salmon (smoked salmon, garlic, chilli and yoghurt), the Mountain (salami, bacon, garlic and avo), Meat Extreme (beef mince, chicken, bacon and ham) and Yami’s pizza which tops a tomato barbecue base with mushrooms, chicken, bacon, garlic and avocado.
“Wine is a natural accompaniment, isn’t it? After all, being such an Italian food, it begs to be enjoyed with wine – which is why we entered the Porcupine Ridge Pizzeria Challenge 2024,” says Antoniceva.
A new introduction to this year’s competition is additional prizes for all top 10 restaurants, with each one receiving R1,800 in vouchers for their staff plus three cases of wine to award to their top, Porcupine Ridge-selling servers.
Restaurant-goers voting for their favourite venue, can also win weekly prizes of a mixed case of Porcupine Ridge wine and EarthFire pizza accessories, with one lucky voter selected Grand Prize Winner at the end of the competition to claim an EarthFire Tabletop Pizza Oven, pizza for a year from their favourite pizzeria (to the value of R2 000) and five cases of Porcupine Ridge for a combined value of R10 000. For more details visit the website.
