Watch out, the pizza police are out there

Italy has a very non-nasty habit of turning everything into art - whether on a catwalk or plate. Which is why even pizza - essentially toppings on flatbread - has been elevated to high culture. But as with all art, there's always a lurking fear: what if it gets diluted, industrialised, churned out like the latest line of Jeff Koons? Enter Italy's pizza detectives, a covert squad of sleuths sworn to sniff out imposters and preserve authenticity. These aren't your average food critics. They're trained at Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (AVPN), the Vatican of dough and mozzarella. Founded in 1984, this body exists to 'promote and protect' a precise vision of Naples' most famous creation, down to the exact mm of crust rise. Thanks to them, Neapolitan pizza is officially recognised by Unesco as part of humanity's intangible cultural heritage.

In all likelihood, these detectives are yet to make landfall in India, where pizza runs neck-and-neck with biryani in popularity. And when they finally do, they must abandon their obsession with 'original pizza' and revel in creativity. Where else will they find paneer tikka pizzas, butter chicken toppings, schezwan spice explosions, chilli-cheese bursts, or dessert pizzas dripping with Nutella and gulab jamuns? If Kolhapuri chappals can walk the Prada ramp, surely, pizza can survive a paneer tikka makeover.