The Pizza Box set to open tonight [April 2] inside the Salts Meats Cheese warehouse will help shape our understanding of just how good contemporary pizza can be.  Forget ham and pineapple. Think just-stretched mozzarella, house-made chorizo and generous glugs of garlic oil.

On a recent trip to Italy, Salt Meats Cheese co-director Stefano De Blasi found many modern Italian pizzerias are now applying a bit of creative retouching to their pizza toppings. While De Blasi still favours a pillow-soft old-school Napoli-style base, he is also excited to offer pizzas that better reflect the movement in his mother country toward a more contemporary take on toppings.

De Blasi says many of his young Italian contemporaries don't really care what's on a pizza, as long as it tastes good. "Our customers will still be able to get at traditional margherita but we are also very excited to start experimenting with layering pizza and focaccia with top-quality ingredients and innovative pairings," says De Blasi.

"I found a lot has changed in the eight years since I moved to Australia from Italy. I went to a place in Milan called Princi. It's a beautiful, contemporary bakery that makes the most amazing focaccia and calzones. There is another place called PizzAltero in Bologna and what they are doing is incredible. I had a square of pizza with white peaches and aged prosciutto and it was tutto pazzo [totally crazy]," he says.

The Pizza Box menu also includes: fennel salami (caramelized fennel, tomato, Spanish onion and buffalo mozzarella), Salmon focaccia (focaccia, spreadable gorgonzola, walnut, rocket, capers and hand-cured smoked salmon) and Wagyu bresaola (shaved reggiano, wild rocket on white pizza topped with balsamic reduction onions). Di Blasi says the lobster-tail pizza with fontina, mozzarella, garlic oil and fresh thyme is his personal favourite.
 
The Pizza Box will be open from 6pm until 10pm to cater to those who live in the high-density inner-urban areas surrounding the Alexandria food emporium. Customers who shop during the store's extended opening hours will also be offered a 20 per cent discount on grocery items. In keeping with the rustic warehouse theme, the Pizza Box has had exhaust fans installed and features a fully retractable server and industrial-sized Rangehood.  

For media enquiries, please phone Amanda Merlo: t: 02 9690 2406.  

Recommended hashtags: #saltmeatscheesepizza #thepizzabox #saltmeatscheese #alexandria #food @saltmeatscheese

Salt Meats Cheese 12/41 Bourke Road Alexandria 2015