The team at Ireland’s tallest restaurant-bar, Little Pyg – which takes up the entire centre of the Powerscourt Townhouse, in Dublin 2 – is celebrating this week, after its pizzas were voted number one in Ireland for the second year running, and number 15 in Europe, at the Pizza Europa Awards, held in Madrid.
Little Pyg is now the only Irish restaurant to make the top 50 for two years in a row.
‘So Proud’
“Winning this Best in Ireland award, judged by some of Italy’s top food critics, means so much to us, and to be the only Irish restaurant to make it into the top 50 two years in a row makes us so proud,” said Paul McGlade Jr, Little Pyg’s owner.
“We import the best fresh produce from Italy every week and are very passionate about what we do.”
World Championships
The award ceremony in Madrid is an annual event that seeks to reflect the highest echelons of European pizza every year.
The awards ultimately dictate the group’s Top 50 Guide, the management of which has been entrusted to Italian food critics Barbara Guerra, Luciano Pignataro and Albert Sapere.
Each of the pizzerias selected for consideration is reviewed anonymously by one of the awards’ 2,000 judges.
Having made the top 20, Little Pyg will now compete for the top global pizzeria accolade at the world championships in Naples, in September 2024.
Global Team
Little Pyg’s head pizza chef, Federico Rapali, has assembled a team from all over the world.
It took owner McGlade Jr over five months and multiple trips to Italy to convince the world-class pizzaiolo to move to Ireland and take up this position within the Little Pyg family.
‘Expert Secrets’
“Our enormous pizza oven was brought over from Naples and took over 14 men to build,” said Rapali. “It is even made from the rock of Mount Vesuvius. The dough of each Little Pyg pizza is left to ferment for 48 hours before cooking.
“It is these types of expert secrets, and the time and dedication spent, that make our pizzas so noticeably incredible, and now being internationally recognised at the highest levels for this is just amazing.”
