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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
A restaurant in the Polish town of Pabianice has been named as the best Neapolitan pizzeria in the world by an Italian association devoted to the famous dish from Naples.
The True Neapolitan Pizza Association (Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, AVPN) each year names one pizzeria as the best in the world following assessment by expert pizza makers from the association itself, which counts around 1,100 restaurants as members.
This year’s contest was won by Zielona Górka, which is run by husband-and-wife team Jędrzej Lewandowski and Lilianna Lewandwoska. It is only the second time a restaurant outside Naples itself has won the award (after Leggera Pizza Napoletana in São Paulo, Brazil in the last edition).
“I never expected such a distinction in my life,” Lewandowski told the Polish Press Agency (PAP). “It is huge publicity for the restaurant that I run with my wife, but also for Pabianice and the entire country.”
The owners are architects by training but, a decade ago, decided to switch careers and open a restaurant in Pabianice, a town of around 65,000 inhabitants located near Łódź, Poland’s fourth-largest city.
At first, their menu included a variety of dishes, but over time they focused mainly on pizza, with Lewandowski spending two years in his garage perfecting his pizza-making skills.
A pizzeria in Poland has been ranked among the 100 best in the world for the first time.
Zielona Górka, run by a husband-and-wife team in the town of Pabianice, was also rated the 20th best pizzeria in Europe https://t.co/irsT1RkB3c
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) September 20, 2024
Zielona Górka was last year named among the 50 best pizzerias in Europe and the 100 best in the world in a ranking by 50 Top Pizza, an Italy-based organisation that makes anonymous tasting visits to pizzerias.
“Our success in the ranking has given us recognition, we have guests from all over Poland and abroad,” Lewandowski told PAP.
Poland is developing a growing reputation as a culinary destination. The number of restaurants in the country to hold a prestigious Michelin star doubled last year in the latest version of the guide.
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Source: Zielona Górka/Facebook
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
