Pizzeria Franco Manca opens second venture tomorrow

23rd February 2010, 3:51pm

Pizzeria Franco Manca is to open its second eatery in Chiswick tomorrow (24 February).

Franco Manca's owner, ex-pat Neapolitan Giuseppe Mascoli, has joined forces with Sami Wasif, a key impresario and entrepreneur. 

This partnership, together with the financial backing of Cesare Ponti (first cousin of Mascoli and owner of the bank of the same name), will ensure the gradual expansion of the Franco Manca brand, both as a restaurant dedicated to the artisan production and organic provenance and as a food producer.

The first phase of this programme will see the launch of seven more restaurants in London over the next three years.

Great ingredients are central to the Franco Manca experience. The organic tomatoes are single estate and imported directly from Italy, while the Gloucester Old Spot pork (sourced along with all other meats by David Tomlin, one of the founders of the Rare Bread Survival Trust), is cured on the premises to produce an old recipe cooked ham.

Mascoli and his Franco Manca co-founder Bridget Hugo have even gone as far as importing an artisan mozzarella producer from the southern Italian Apennines to teach the organic cheese makers of Alham Wood Farm in Somerset, one of the only water buffalo farms in Britain.

However, the Chiswick menu will also feature several new additions to the offering.