In our country, all international cuisines get ‘Indianised’. Why would the Italian pizza be left behind then?
Much before it became a buzzword, two women started a ‘Gujarati’ version of the dish by replacing the wheat base with a bhakri (a flatbread made of jowar or bajra).
In 1994, Jashuben and Anderben started ‘Jashuben Shah Old Pizza’ in Ahmedabad, making it a popular street food.
While working as a cook at Jashuben’s with her husband Joraver, Anderben expressed a desire to start her own venture.
The former agreed and lent Anderben the initial capital to start the business, which is flourishing in Ahmedabad over three decades later.
These women not only made the pizza 100 percent desi, but also came up with an innovative oven to bake them using a cooking gas cylinder.
The duo designed the tall oven with eight layers. Each pizza is first placed on the first layer, and moves upwards every few minutes.
“It reaches the eighth layer in 15 minutes. The oven could bake 25 pizzas at a time,” shares Rajendra Singh, Anderben’s son-in-law, who runs the business now.
This oven is used even today to prepare the five-inch pizzas! The pizza dough and tomato puree is prepared using Anderben’s special recipe.
The toppings are simple, onion, capsicum, and a generous amount of grated cheese. Interestingly, the cheese is grated on the pizza after it is baked.
They serve seven varieties- Italian, Jain, cheese baked, double cheese, margherita, paneer and pineapple pizza. The five-inch pizza costs about Rs 100.
The outlets also offer sandwiches, burgers and other snacks, selling over 300 pizzas every day, pocketing Rs 30,000 a day.