Italy has always been my favourite holiday destination and the Italian kitchen my favourite dish. I had built wood ovens before and perfected my pizza’s in my home-electric oven.

Now a new challenge came by, one that I had to grab. Willem Veldhovens MediaMatic, started a restaurant - featuring a prominent wood oven - yet without a dedicated pizzaiolo.

Vegan, you heard it right, NO mozzarella, NO anchovies, NO prosciutto, NO salami, etc. So we had to reinvent the recipes for both base and toppings … here we go:

Nero: base of coconut milk, topped with mushrooms, spinach, fermented black beans, sautéed red union and garlic.

Rosso: base of pommodori, roasted caramelised pumpkin & sesame seeds, red pepper, red fermented tofu & basil.

Acqua: base of silky tofu, ginger & mint, topped with home-smoked & grown catfish, lemon.

Paradiso: base of cocoa & cinnamon soya milk, topped with chocolate, chickpea merengue & flowers.

After four months the oven was making black figures. I handed over to an incredible talent, and my recipes are still on the menu.

* Attentive viewers will ask: "What's with the fish on your hero image?" MediaMatic was running an aquaponics with catfish ... every so often the fishtanks need to be purged. On these occasions, the most senior fish made it to becoming a pizza topping.