The 450-degree pizzeria in Turku is among the top 50 in Europe

The 450-degree kitchen at the pizzeria in Turku Market Hall is not large. Eeva Paljakka

A failed pizza can be a little caught up, in a matter of seconds.

If the pizza maker’s attention is distracted for a while, the pizza may already be burnt at the edges. Neapolitan pizza does not forgive the slightest mistake.

Turku market hall pizzeria 450 degree entrepreneur Angelo Tursi know this.

By the way, he wouldn’t make the 36th best Neapolitan pizza in Europe.

The 450-degree pizzeria in the Turku Market Hall reached the list of the 50 best pizzerias in Europe in its second year.

450 means the temperature at which the pizzas are baked. If pizzas are usually baked in a restaurant for 3-4 minutes, Neapolitans are in the oven for only 80-90 seconds. Therefore, the baking shift does not flash to the sides.

The pizzas are quickly baked in a hot oven over a live fire to keep the base airy and soft, but the surface becomes crispy. As is the case with Neapolitan pizza.

But it has sometimes proved problematic, as sometimes the customer complains about a pizza with a soft base. It is often imagined that the base of all pizzas should be crispy. Therefore, the first thought is that Neapolitan pizza is poorly made.

Another factor that sometimes amazes customers is the ingredients placed on top of the pizza only after baking.

But Tursi can patiently explain that this pizza is just as it should be. Parma ham is placed on top of a hot pizza from 450 degrees.

When the Italian Top 50 pizza competition first selected a pizzeria among the top 50 pizzerias in 450-degree Europe in 2020, Tursi had no information about it.

The placement message sent by the organizers had gone into the spam email. It wasn’t until Tursi’s phone rang one evening and it was said there was time to be on the air that the situation was clear to him.

In 2021, 450 degrees reached the same list. Now Tursi is wondering if it will succeed for the third time.

– This is great and horrible at the same time, Tursi laughs.

He doesn’t know when they’ve been or who’s been eating. You cannot enter this competition yourself. Another Finnish pizzeria on the list is Luca.

450-degree sales are the same as other pizzerias, but the size of the restaurant is something completely different: about 12 square feet. Those squares accommodate a bakery, dough-raising cabinets, pizza filling and baking. In addition to Tursi, five employees.

On the best days, up to 300 pizzas are baked.

Tursi describes the Turku market hall as a big family for which he has lost his heart. The market hall has a unique atmosphere.

– I take advantage of other merchants in the hall. I walk five meters and am in a fish shop. I buy vegetables and, for example, venison from the seller of the hall. But the flour comes from Italy.

Flour is the main ingredient in pizza. And the dough the hardest. Making the dough also takes time, over 30 hours.

– The secret of our pizza is in the dough process. From the beginning, the flour and water are at a certain temperature, as is the room where the dough is made. The finished dough must also have a certain temperature, Tursi says.

When the first Top 50 pizza listing came, everyone wanted to come and eat at 450 degrees.

– The queues were the entire length of the market hall, Tursi shakes his head.

The queuing times were in line with that, you had to stand in line for an hour. It was a stressful time for the entrepreneur. If something went wrong, the customer had to queue for an hour and four minutes, which he was angry with.

– Understand that.

Tursi, originally from Calabria in southern Italy, moved to Finland 15 years ago. He started making pizzas because he could not find pizzas of his own taste in Finland.

– If I had stayed in Italy, food would not have played such a big role in my life. Fortunately, I moved to Finland.