A chance for Indians to make Italian dough

Pizzas were first mentioned about 1,000 years after Cleopatra’s triumphal visit to Julius Caesar’s Rome and her affair with Mark Antony, but the beautiful queen did at least create a precedent of Egyptians coming to the aid of Romans.

It is entirely befitting, therefore, that faced with a shortage of pizzaiolas to make this staple comestible in that country’s 25,000 pizzerias, Italy has handed over its dough to the Egyptians. Pizzas have “cousins” all round the Mediterranean littoral from the French pissaladiere to the Turkish lahmacun, so it is not surprising that there are enough kneady people with the requisite skills who are willing to sweat it out at the ovens for 12 hours a day to make the three billion pizzas Italians consume every year.

The opportunity that the shortage of 6,000 pizza-makers presents for Indians is manifest. Though current relations between India and Italy are fraught, pizza is now definitely as Indian as Sonia Gandhi.

Thanks to its resemblance to the north Indian naan, local talent to spin out pizzas in India is never hard to find either. Now that there are plenty of positions vacant in Italy, Indians should also consider enrolling for pizzaiola training, instead of leaving it to the Egyptians. Then it may not be long before Italians find themselves cultivating a palate for desi toppings.