Food
Shopping with a foodie: Thom and James Elliot, founders of Pizza Pilgrims
by Tom Shepherd
We hit the aisles with brothers Thom and James Elliot, founders of the Pizza Pilgrims restaurants and authors of food guide Pizza
OPIHR ORIENTAL SPICED GIN
‘A really different-tasting gin; the main flavour is cardamom. It almost feels like you’re drinking the start of a spice mix from a curry, but in the best possible way.’
HÄAGEN - DAZS PRALINES & CREAM
‘As good as any gourmet ice cream brand, even though it’s mainstream. Have it with hot treacle tart and you’re on to a winner.’
CAULDRON VEGGIE SAUSAGES
'These are the best vegetarian meat product in the biz. The texture is perfect, and they’ve nailed that classic butcher’s banger flavour profile.’
BASIL POT
‘When you buy a basil plant, you can crack it open and repot all the different individual plants – then you can have a sort of basil farm going on.’
BOURSIN CHEESE
‘Just one of those definitive articles – a bit like Heinz ketchup. You can’t really better it. Scatter blobs over dauphinoise potatoes. That’s the way to do it.’
TALIAN BURRATA
‘In the restaurants, we have a dish that is burrata drowned in truffle oil. Then we take our pizza dough and stretch it into what looks like a grissini but just 10 times as fat. So it’s hot fresh bread, white truffle oil, burrata and a good pinch of Maldon salt. It’s glorious.’
FRANK’ S REDHOT SAUCE
‘It goes with everything. If you’re making chicken wings at home, you can use a whole bottle of Frank’s with a whole stick of butter to make the buffalo sauce.’
Pizza Pilgrims’ ‘Pizza in the Post’ home recipe kits are available from pizzainthepost.co.uk.