Dark kitchen launches Joey’s Pizza.

SECLUDED and self-isolating with the long-suffering George during a never ending lockdown, the most exciting event this week for me was the arrival of two scrumptious pizzas from newly-opened Joey’s Pizza, in Harare. Created by whizz kid foodie Joe Bunga and entrepreneur Kuda Musasiwa of Fresh in a Box, Joey’s Pizza is offering stone baked pizzas delivered directly (via Munch) from a wood fired oven to your doorstep.

Luscious Regina pizza from Joey’s Pizza.

For now, you can choose from four popular flavours – Regina (mushrooms and ham), Lorreto (vegetarian), barbecue chicken and Hawaiian. On completion of Joey’s new high tech pizza oven, large enough to bake sixteen pizzas at a time, more varieties such as quattro stagione (four seasons), Napolitana and Margherita will be available. A large pizza is priced at ZWL225, and add ons, such as coleslaw, barbecue sticky wings and garlic bread cost in the region of ZWL89. Feta salad costs slightly more. Our meal was delivered by delivery service Munch, which added another ZWL225 to our bill.

Suitably clad in reflective gear for night driving, the Munch motorcyclist wore a face mask but no gloves. Before handing over the pizzas, he took a bottle of sanitiser out of his pocket, and rubbed his hands thoroughly as demonstrated by Dr Sanjay Gupta. For reasons of hygiene, I should have tipped him using EcoCash, but he seemed content to receive a fistful of new bond notes.

Although authorities claim that pizza tastes best eaten out of the box, I lifted them out onto warmed plates. Both the Regina and the Loretto had brown and crispy crusts, a must for a great pizza. A generous topping of ham and mushrooms covered the luscious tomato and mozzarella cheese base of the Regina, and the Lorreto pizza glowed with red and green peppers, cheese, tomato and mushrooms.

Because Joey’s Pizza is operating from a dark kitchen, aka ghost restaurant, food is available only online at www.joeys.co.zw and via home delivery. Operators of dark kitchens don’t need to pay rent, employ waiters or upgrade the decor, but the quality and consistency of food when it leaves the kitchen can be affected by the logistics of the delivery service. Home deliveries are a boon during the dark days of lockdown, but many of us will be looking forward to a time when we can eat out and socialise again at our favourite restaurants.

Joe Bunga, the man behind the dark kitchen, is another success story from the Bulawayo Hotel School. After graduating in 1997, he became banqueting manager at Meikles Hotel, Harare’s only 5 star hotel. This experience gave him the ability and confidence to launch numerous on-going ventures relating to food, restaurants and the hospitality industry in Zimbabwe. ZOL Restaurant Week and the opportunity to enjoy fine dining at discounted prices at selected Harare restaurants has alway been an event to look forward to, and the Battle of the Chefs reality TV show, launched in 2015, has provided compulsive viewing and launched the careers of numerous talented Zimbabwean chefs.

The synergy and partnership between Joe Bunga @josephbunga and Kuda Musasiwa @begottensun comes at a time when many of us depend on a delivery service for great meals, and for fresh vegetables at an affordable price. Next week I’ll be ordering vegetables from Fresh in a Box, and tasting some of the red peppers, mushrooms and tomatoes that make Joey’s Pizzas so special. Charlotte Malakoff A Matter of Taste

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