Pizza is one of the world's most popular foods and definitely the most photographed. Even Michelin star chefs have dabbled in creating the food of everyday people; the results are nice but usually only slightly fancy.
Michele Benigna is an Italian visual artist living in New Zealand. A passionate foodie, he wanted to create a series of pizzas inspired by the signature dishes of chefs with the highest rating in the Michelin galaxy – three stars.
“I wanted to combine my passions and elevate pizza to the level of fine dining by recreating these culinary masterpieces and shooting them like art,” he says. He even provides full recipes for the dough he creates to complement each pizza on his website so you can make them yourself!
Lobster Raviolo inspired by Gordon Ramsay
"The dish that put Gordon Ramsay on the map is lobster ravioli; lobster perfumed with basil, nestled in a pillow of fresh pasta poached in a shell stock, placed on tomato chutney and garnished with microgreens. I love Ramsay’s down to earth approach in striving for perfection. His skills and passion come together in this dish and I paid homage to it by playing with ingredients and colors from the original dish. The yellow from the turmeric in the dough resembles the pasta cooked in stock, and the pea tendrils are a link to the pea velouté that the dish is served with at the table."
Sound of the Sea inspired by Heston Blumenthal
"Heston pushes me to be a better cook... I love that he is self-taught and questions everything. One of his most famous dishes is called Sound of the Sea - sashimi on a bed of tapioca served on top of a glass-covered box of sand. Each serving comes with a seashell in which a hidden iPod plays the sound of crashing waves. I had a lot of fun foraging for herbs on my local beaches to experiment with; my version has a seaweed dough and on my website, you can play a piece of music I chose for you to enjoy while eating it!"
Ageings of Parmigiano inspired by Massimo Bottura
"Massimo Bottura is considered one of the top chefs on the planet. I've always loved how he presents iconic traditional dishes in a totally modern way. Voted the Italian dish of the decade, Bottura’s signature dish is the Five Ages of Parmigiano Reggiano in Different Textures and Temperatures and features aged parmesan served five ways: as a demi-soufflé, creamy sauce, fluffy foam, crisp wafer and a cloud created from the broth of Parmigiano rind. My version was an exciting way to play with cheese and focuses on different textures and consistencies on a base infused with parmesan broth. It’s really the ultimate cheese lover's pizza!"
Il Rosso e il Nero inspired by Gualtiero Marchesi
"Known as The Maestro, Gualtiero Marchesi is considered the father of Italian cuisine and is very creative with food. Being Italian, I have admired Maestro for years. He loved art, so many of his dishes are inspired by paintings and sculptures or artists like Pollock and Warhol. For Il Rosso e Il Nero he was inspired by the work of Lucio Fontana and Alberto Burro, using monkfish stained black by squid ink on a square of tomato sauce. Tomato lends itself well to pizza as a base and I had a few test runs playing around with charcoal powder to make the pizza dough as black as possible."
Beetroot Salad inspired by Daniel Humm
"New York’s Eleven Madison Park is home of Swiss chef Daniel Humm. His beetroot salad may look simple but actually consists of multiple complete recipes and requires a nitrous oxide canister for ‘charging’ the mousse. It contains roasted beets, goats cheese mousse, caraway tuiles, and rye crumble. I always look for elements from the original dishes for inspiration and for this I created a dry pre-fermented dough with rye flour and caraway seeds. The flavors and aroma that comes out are incredible, and with the sweetness of the beetroots and the saltiness of the cheese, it’s a real treat. It’s my favorite from the series."