One night in the early 1960s the businessman Peter Boizot, who has died aged 89, was dining with friends at Hostaria Romana in Soho, central London. In those days, pizza was uncommon – it was seen as a peasant dish – in such a trattoria, but it was on the menu that night. Boizot had fallen in love with pizza as a teenager on holiday in late 1940s Italy, and he said that evening what he had often said, that one day, he would open a pizzeria.
Boizot asked Hostaria Romana’s proprietor why it was so difficult to find pizzas in London. A proper pizza oven was needed, said the proprietor. In 1960, at 29 Wardour Street, he went on, the movie director Mario Zampi had set up a restaurant, called it Pizza Express, and invited film star acquaintances such as Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida. They were unimpressed. They did not, they pointed out, come to London to eat peasant food.
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