In town for a four-day pop-up, Roman-born chef Daniele Cason, renowned for The Pizza Bar on 38th at Mandarin Oriental, Tokyo, talks to Stephenie Gee about his upcoming pizza counter at the Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong, and what goes into his celebrated omakase creations
Pizza is a fundamentally simple dish: just dough, sauce and toppings baked in an oven. But in the hands of Roman chef and pizzaiolo Daniele Cason, the formula yields more than the sum of its parts. At his eight-seater omakase pizza counter, The Pizza Bar on 38th, located in the Mandarin Oriental, Tokyo, Cason elevates this humble dish – born in 18th-century Naples as a street food for the poor – to new heights of refinement by applying the same precision, seasonality and craftsmanship that define sushi and kaiseki dining.
“The omakase pizza was a progression and an evolution of the concept that we started 12 years ago at The Pizza Bar. We started with à la carte, then as the time went by, I learned more about the Japanese culture, eating sushi, kaiseki and all those high-end experiences where you have someone who is really studying the market, the farmers and proposing a menu with a very specific selection of ingredients and components. So that gave me the inspiration,” Cason recalls. “But getting there was a journey that took me quite some time. I travelled around Japan meeting farmers, and every trip I would pick up one or two ingredients that I would want to use. Over the years, that list has grown to be quite long, and so two, three years ago, we decided to stop offering à la carte and transition to only omakase.”
Having created one of the finest pizzerias in Asia (the waiting list for a seat at The Pizza Bar is three months), which has occupied the number one spot on the 50 Top Pizza list for three consecutive years in the Asia-Pacific region, Cason is now bringing his celebrated omakase-style pizza to the Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong, with a new pizza bar set to open late next year as part of the hotel’s extensive US$100 million renovation and culinary transformation.
“I love Cantonese cuisine and I have a lot of guests from Hong Kong that come to visit us in Tokyo, so I’m very excited to be opening a pizza bar here,” he tells me. “I think the Hong Kong one will inevitably be better because it’ll be brand-new, whereas the one in Tokyo is an existing space that has been adapted to become The Pizza Bar on 38th. So I feel very fortunate to have this opportunity to create something entirely from scratch.”
Cason says all this from the Gloucester Room at the Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong, where he made his four-day pop-up appearance in June as a teaser of what awaits the public. Positioned across the culinary stage of the makeshift bar, the chef and his team begin with
a delicate composition of sustainable bluefin tuna, stracciatella cheese, morning glory and Assam lemon, topped with baby corn and caviar. Seven pizzas follow in efficient succession. Each guest is served one slice at a time, meaning that every slice is served at its peak.
In true Roman alla pala style, the crusts are fluffy and pillowy, with a distinct aesthetic from the way Cason pinches the dough as he shapes it, creating a back-and-forth bite of crispy and chewy. In Tokyo, these pies are seared in gas ovens, but on this occasion, electric ovens. “The oven is very important. And this is the most difficult part, especially for the pop-up, because it’s always temporary. After doing it a few times, I’m now comfortable working with electric ovens, which holds the temperature quite well and gives me good results,” he says. “I’m not a big fan of cooking with wood because I prefer using a more sustainable energy source to bake pizzas, and I’m not convinced about the smoky flavour addition you get.”
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But the magic to Cason’s creations all comes down to the dough. His high-hydration recipe, made with a ratio of just one gram of yeast and 80 percent water mixed into Italian organic flour, is fermented for 48 hours for optimal flavour and texture. “Our dough is made with a blend of six organic flours. Over the years I have perfected this recipe, and this blend is actually a new blend that we just started this January. And I’m really happy because the dough is even more flavourful but remains still very light. As for the water, I use San Pellegrino water, which imparts an interesting mineral profile because it has a lot of minerality. I also don’t need to worry about the water I’m going to get when I travel because San Pellegrino water is the same everywhere – it’s the same in Hong Kong, in Japan, in Greece. So wherever I go to do an event, it’s always very stable, and that gives me consistency,” Cason says. “But while we have
a perfect recipe with all the procedures and everything is coded, it’s still not enough. The execution of the dough is very difficult because it requires a lot of sensitivity. You need to have certain experience to be able to feel when the dough is ready, which changes every day. That’s the most difficult part.”
After that, it’s all about picking the best of ingredients and produce. Closely following the
tenets of seasonality and quality that are inherent in Japanese gastronomy, toppings are carefully selected at their peak to reflect the essence of the season. “The other component to a good pizza is the quality of the ingredients you use for the toppings and how they are executed. Sometimes you can get the best product from the farms, but if it’s not executed well or treated well, that also can change the value and the quality of the final result,” Cason says. “I like to use whatever is in season from the farmers, and my inspiration comes from the ingredients available, as well as from my travels – sometimes I’ll learn something new during a pop-up overseas and that could make its way onto the menu.”
Cason’s personal favourite, the classic marinara, for instance, is a colourful amalgam of Japanese and San Marzano tomatoes, Okinawa garlic, anchovies and oregano. Another Pizza Bar stalwart, the double-baked pizzino “sandwich” is crisp on the outside, encasing a soft and fluffy layer of mascarpone, provolone, mozzarella and black olives, topped with finely chopped negi (green onion) and a hand-shaved snowstorm of Australian truffle, lending its signature luxurious, earthy aroma to every bite.
The fichi e prosciutto is a showcase of the year’s first Italian green figs, San Daniele prosciutto, gorgonzola foam, tarragon and balsamic vinegar. Then there’s the zucchini with king crab. A standout of the evening, yellow zucchini purée makes for a vibrant base for thin rounds
of green zucchini, grilled fennel, succulent king crab and zucchini blossoms. “Every pizza is different. But in general, I prefer not to use too many ingredients and you’ll find that I frequently use the same ingredients in different ways to enhance the quality of the ingredient itself, rather than combine too many ingredients together where in the end you don’t have a clear message,” says Cason.
And to properly finish us off, a quenelle of fior di latte atop lemon jam and diced Okinawa mango. It turns out that the case can be made for a three-month wait for the hottest, freshest pizza after all.
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