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Pizza
Gregg Wallace is in Italy at an enormous pizza factory, where they produce 400,000 frozen pizzas each day.
Gregg Wallace is in Italy, at an enormous pizza factory where they produce 400,000 frozen pizzas each day. He mixes up a 450 kilo batch of dough for the bases; enough for 180 000 pizzas. He watches as each one is stretched to exactly 26 centimetres in diameter, then pricked with 522 holes, each 4mm deep, before they’re topped with tomato and disappear into the wood fired oven. It’s 25 metres long and the floor is made of rotating panels of volcanic rock heated to 450 degrees Celsius. Gregg’s pizzas emerge fully cooked after just 80 seconds. They’re topped with cheese, pepperoni, chillies and onions, then frozen and dispatched on their 1000 mile journey to the freezer compartments of British supermarkets.
Meanwhile Cherry Healey is asking if mozzarella – the traditional choice for pizzas - is also the scientific best bet. She finds that not all cheeses are equal, and that to melt well they must sit in a pH zone between 5 and 5.9. This explains why blue cheese and feta don’t work on pizza but mozzarella and gruyere do. In Austria, she transforms 400 kilos of pork into pepperoni. She learns that this preserved sausage is fermented and salted to give it a long shelf life. A production process that takes more than 2 weeks.
Historian Ruth Goodman is investigating the technology that allows frozen foods like pizza to be transported across the globe. 150 years ago we were all 'locavores', eating locally sourced food. But in the 1880s the game-changing invention of freezer ships meant that lamb and beef could be shipped from New Zealand and Australia. Combined with the 1938 arrival of the freezer truck, this created the worldwide cold chain that we rely on today. She also meets the man who popularised pizza in the UK back in 1965 when he opened his first restaurant in London’s Soho.
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Holy pepperoni!
Duration: 01:15
Music Played
Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes
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00:00
André Rieu
That's Amore
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00:00
Ed Sheeran
Castle On The Hill
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00:02
Joël Perri
Azzurro
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00:02
Josh Abrahams
Addicted To Bass
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00:04
David Holmes
Holy Pictures
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00:06
Dizzee Rascal
Dance Wiv Me (feat. Calvin Harris and Chrome) (feat. Calvin Harris & Chrome)
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00:07
Bad Sounds
Zacharia
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00:07
Eurythmics
Sweet Dreams
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00:08
Rita Pavone
Geghege
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00:11
Quadro Nuevo
Tu Vuo Fa L’Americano
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00:12
Taylor Swift
We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together
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00:14
Arctic Monkeys
Fireside
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00:15
Joël Perri
Che La La
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00:17
Example
The Answer
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00:18
Calvin Harris
Certified
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00:20
Codes in the Clouds
Don't Go Awash In This Digital Landscape
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00:21
Olly Murs
Better Without You
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00:22
Ray BLK
Doing Me
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00:22
Anne-Marie
Boy
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00:23
Pharrell Williams
Gust Of Wind
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00:24
Joël Perri
Funiculi Funicula
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00:25
Little Mix
Nothing Else Matters
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00:27
Donna Summer
Hot Stuff
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00:29
Another Level
Freak Me
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00:32
Years & Years
If You're Over Me
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00:33
Anne-Marie
Breathing Fire (Explicit)
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00:34
Bad Sounds
Couldn't Give It Away
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00:36
Dua Lipa
Hotter Than Hell
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00:37
Fyfe
Stronger
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00:38
Fickle Friends
Glue
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00:40
Shawn Mendes
Something Big
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00:40
Mabel
Come Over
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00:41
Hudson Taylor
Run With Me
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00:42
MARINA
Girls
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00:44
Fickle Friends
Swim
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00:46
Tinie Tempah
Illusion
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00:47
Bad Sounds
Hot Head Chippenham
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00:48
Avicii
What Would I Change It To (feat. AlunaGeorge)
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00:51
Ed Sheeran
Sing
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00:52
whenyoung
Heaven On Earth
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00:53
André Rieu
Bella Tarantella
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00:56
Little Mix
I Won't
Credits
Role | Contributor |
---|---|
Presenter | Ruth Goodman |
Presenter | Cherry Healey |
Presenter | Gregg Wallace |
Music | Steve Tait |
Sound | Geraint Lewis |
Sound | Simon Cross |
Sound | Rafick Affejee |
Director of photography | Chris Titus-King |
Camera Operator | Rhys Plume |
Colourist | Carlotta Rio |
On-line editing | Ian Goff |
Dubber | Michael Wood |
Video Engineer | Charlie Perara |
Post-Production editor | Matthew Holland |
Post-Production editor | David Blakemore |
Runner | Richard Coffey |
Researcher | Daisy Fordham |
Production Coordinator | Rachel Drew |
Production Coordinator | Ally Young |
Production Manager | Samara Friend |
Film Editor | Tim Hansen |
Film Editor | Victoria Sankey |
Film Editor | John Payazidis |
Director | Simon Cheuk Pong Lee |
Director | Taylor Richardson |
Assistant Producer | Rob Myler |
Producer | Phil Stein |
Producer | Philip Smith |
Executive Producer | Jenny Midl |
Executive Producer | Sanjay Singhal |
Director | Michael Rees |
Series Editor | Amanda Lyon |
Director | Phil Stein |
Broadcasts
- Tue 5 Mar 2019 20:00
- Sun 10 Mar 2019 17:00
- Wed 3 Apr 2019 01:25
Learn more about the history of the factory and how it has evolved with an interactive from The Open University.
The fascinating stories behind the production of some of our favourite products.