Neil Rankin launches gourmet deep-pan pizza with 360 degrees of cheese

Neil Rankin has developed a new concept based on his memories of Pizza Hut and Chicago Town deep-pan pizzas.

The chef, who founded Temper restaurants and plant-based brand Symplicity, will introduce the gourmet take on deep pan pizza as part of a six-month residency at the Burnt Faith Brandy House Bar in Walthamstow, London.

Working with From the Ashes BBQ founders Martin Anderson and Curtis Bell, Rankin will serve six-inch deep-pan pizzas packed with cheese and toppings including salami and ragu, mozzarella, nduja and chilli, and tallegio and guanciale.

Rankin said the pizzas were a new concept that captured the nostalgia of pizzas from his youth in a deep-pan pizza that is covered “360 degrees in cheese”.

He added: “Little Earthquakes is a brand new pizza concept showcasing a brand new pizza style that’s designed to capture the nostalgia of pizza from my past.

“I wanted to do a gourmet 2024 Chicago town reboot pizza, make it with wild farmed flour, a sourdough starter, great ingredients and epic flavours.

“We cover it 360 degrees with cheese, so you have cheese on the sides, cheese on top, cheese on the base, cheese everywhere.  So, it’s like a crispy cheese encrusted, fluffy deep-pan pizza, so you get oozy bits, crunchy bits, everything.”

Simon Wright, founder at Burnt Faith British Brandy, said: “We’ve just celebrated a year of the brandy house bar and it’s been great to bring people into our space and showcase really great local offerings and show people what making brandy in London looks like. But we’re a little limited on food options this side of the Beer Mile.

“Neil is a long-time friend and has helped us out with food at events at the distillery, so when looking to add a food offering to the Brandy House bar experience, it was a no-brainer to chat with Neil.

“Of course, he didn’t come up with something easy and obvious. He’s developed a bold new take on pizza that takes hours to make, uses incredibly expensive local ingredients and needs to be served fresh each day, but honestly, taste those pizzas and you’ll know it’s all worth it.”

Due to the complex dough proving system required to make the pizzas, serving times are limited to between 7pm and 9pm at the Burnt Faith Brandy House Bar.