Will you ever trust a press launch invite again? Not if you're a food blogger in Manchester, that's for sure. Lured by the promise of free prosecco and pizza at the latest pop-up joint, La Pizzeria in the city's Northern Quarter, foodie VIPs were well and truly hoodwinked when it turned out the pizza they were "enjoying" turned out to be Dr Oetker's finest, sourced from the local supermarket. The most remarkable bit (read brazen - apt as it's the name of the PR company behind the stunt) was that the restaurant announced it at the end of the drinkies. "Ha ha ha HAAAAAA all you poncey food bloggers", you might think (Obviously not if you are one. You might be quite indignant. Fair 'nuff). But it was about more than bringing some crashing food bores back to earth with a bump.
The stunt was dreamed up by restaurant owner Gary Newborough (who also owns the Market Restaurant downstairs, specialising in local Lancashire produce) for reasons that seem mostly to do with publicity and little to do with a unique and interesting exposé on our cultural expectations on eating out, but then, who thinks that far ahead? Open only for a month, he will be offering the frozen pizza as part of a lunch or dinner deal with side salads, bread board and soft drinks for a surprisingly reasonable £4/£10 respectively. He is quoted as saying "'I had no intention to deceive. The pizzas are called Ristorante and we had Dr Oetker signs on the walls - it’s just a bit of fun for a month and I think it’s bloody good value. Great value, great service and in great surroundings - with no horse meat in sight. What more could you want? These are the best frozen pizzas around and at least we know what’s in them. I see people carrying boxes of burgers into restaurants and in big letters they say "contains only 30% beef". Why does no-one ask what the rest is?" However, Gary can claim the upper hand when it comes to his beloved local sourcing. Dr Oetker pizzas are made just up the M6 in Leyland and are no slow-coaches in the frozen pizza market, selling £16million worth every year. In Italy, they're the favourite frozen pizza.
Gary makes a fair point. After all, the ingredients, natural or otherwise, are listed on the side of the box for everyone to see and frankly, £4 for a pizza and salad for lunch is a bloody bargain - and not that different from what most of us might have eaten at home anyway. We feel they let the side down a little on the floor manager's impassioned argument that - even though the secret's out - they are proving most people can't tell the difference between frozen pizza and "proper" [read own-cooked] restaurant meals - well, as long as you don't blunt their tastebuds first with gallons of cheap prosecco first... Apparently many of the city's food bloggers are feeling a little aggrieved at their shoddy treatment: stories - amazingly - differ here with the restaurant claiming foodies "raved" over the pizza; bloggers later claiming they thought it "dry", "cardboard-y", and knew all along it was frozen pizza.
So if the concept is clearly marked (and nobody's blind-drunk on free prosecco) and you're prepared to pay for someone to heat you up a quote "surprisingly tricky to get right" frozen pizza for lunch, what's the problem? Shouldn't we be more upset about what's going on behind our backs? The ubiquitous pre-prepared frozen lamb shanks that grace menus up and down the land, the frozen chips, the frozen pre-made deep-fried starters, the pre-prepared salads... All of these are more invidious and permeating than an up-front frozen pizzeria, no? Maybe we should be up in arms about the restaurants - and they are legion - serving unstated, unannounced, unacknowledged, unwelcome frozen and pre-prepared food instead?
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