London's Spiciest Pizza Is A Heady Mix Of All Sorts Of Chilli Deliciousness - We Try It

We Try London's Spiciest Pizza And Live To Tell The Tale

There is no official record for the world's spiciest pizza and as such there have been a few contenders claiming the crown over the past couple of years.

The 'Death By Pizza' is supposedly 120 times hotter than a vindaloo and the 'Saltdean Sizzler' claims to be three times hotter than police pepper spray.

Ouch.

Looks harmless enough

The latest hopeful is a much more refined affair coming from the chef behind the Mayfair Pizza Co.

Michael Lecouteur's creation is a fiery mix of three of the spiciest chillies on record as well as some of the finest hot sauces London has to offer.

Atop the 12 inch base are Scotch Bonnets, Naga Vipers and Reaper peppers. Each of these hellish little fruits ranks far hotter than your average Jalapeno or Tabasco Sauce.

Here's some context - a Jalapeno ranks around 8,000 on the Scoville Scale whereas a Scotch Bonnet can tip out at 350,000.

That's still nothing compared to a Naga Viper which can reach over 1,000,000 and a Reaper which can hit over twice that.

For the topping we have ’Nduja Italian sausage, spicy pork rib and naturally, more chilli this time in the form of dried flakes.

As if that wasn't enough, the base is lathered in London favourite, The Ribamn's 'Christ on a Bike' and 'For The Love of God' hot sauce.

Oh and there's also some rocket and a bit of creamy burrata cheese.

Tough going but oh-so worth it

So it is with some trepidation that myself and a brave/foolish friend venture down to Mayfair Pizza Co to sample this... delight.

We are seated and quickly informed by the manager that we may as well not drink water while eating as it won't make any difference to the heat.

Reassuring.

Also, the waiter serving us says he managed half a slice before giving up and only 10% of people ever finish the whole thing.

A Naga Viper in its raw state

Doubly reassuring.

And then it arrives. It looks and smells delicious. But this must just be a deliberate deception to lull us into a false sense of culinary security before tearing our mouths to shreds and inducing a chilli-triggered stroke.

So we begin. And yes, it is spicy. Really, really spicy.

BUT!

I've done spicy food challenges before, most notably the Red Dog Saloon's hot wing challenge which basically destroyed my face.

This is different. There's no waiver to sign and you don't have to wear gloves to eat it. In fact, it's not even sold as a 'challenge' as such.

What Lecouteur has managed to do with this pizza is create a dish which admittedly is insanely spicy, but isn't just hot for the sake of being hot.

Carolina Reaper - the world's hottest chilli

It tastes incredible. The heat is intense but beneath it the flavour of the chillis really come through without overpowering the meat.

There's a real richness to the sauce that is offset by the nicely cheese which are little islands of relief amongst the heat.

And the base is beautifully done, crispy yet light.

If you like and can handle spicy food then this is the dish for you. Enjoyable as part of a night out without becoming the night out itself.

But one piece of advice - you will get a reminder of it the next day.

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