Born in Perugia and best friends since meeting in Ibiza, Lorenzo D’Abate and Simone Gianantoni combined their cooking skills to create Pizza Boys Ibiza.

For the majority of Italians, an appreciation of good food is inherent. Sundays are spent with the family at grandma’s house. Bowls are bundled high with spirals of steaming pasta and oodles of homemade sauce, and the week’s events are energetically dissected in between mouthfuls. Cooking is an act of love that’s passed down through generations, a cultural force that effortlessly brings people together. This is the landscape that Lorenzo D’Abate and Simone Gianantoni were immersed in as kids, and it subsequently formed the central premise of Pizza Boys Ibiza, the duo’s pop-up pizzeria service that’s taking Ibiza by storm.

Despite meeting in Ibiza, Lorenzo and Simone both grew up among the lush, dramatic hills of Perugia in Umbria, otherwise known as the green heart of Italy. Olive trees flourish in abundance beneath the scorching sun here, resulting in some of the country’s best olive oil, and the delicious cuisine boasts a unique identity that influenced the Pizza Boys-in-waiting from a young age. At 12, Lorenzo was cooking pasta for his brothers while his mum was out at work, while Simone was honing his skills in a restaurant kitchen alongside his father. It proved integral practice for what was to come.

As youngsters, both boys found themselves drawn to Ibiza’s effervescent electronic music scene. “I met Simone the first time I arrived here in 2008,” Lorenzo says. Friendship blossomed, long before the seed for Pizza Boys Ibiza was planted, but in the intervening years, the pair embarked on their own culinary journeys. Lorenzo took cooking classes and ended up in kitchens in MICHELIN-starred restaurants in London, Paris, New York and Copenhagen. Meanwhile, Simone began working at Pacha Ibiza before a series of additional restaurants and eventually, a pizzeria. Then finally, in 2020, both were back on the island, and something clicked.

“I was working as a private chef at the time and because I’m Italian, every time I was with a client they asked me for pizza,” Lorenzo explains. “So, we had this idea to start a mobile pizza service together. In the beginning, we started at the bottom, preparing everything at our houses – we were making as many as 200 pizzas with just two ovens – and then one day we decided it was time to take things to a more professional level, so we created Pizza Boys Ibiza.” Four years later, and their tasty concept is one of the most in-demand mobile gourmet services at weddings and private events across Ibiza.

Whipping up fresh pizza in front of clients may sound simple but it’s a process that takes due care and attention. The Pizza Boys Ibiza’s beloved dough is prepared two days in advance to allow the 38-hour fermentation process. High quality ingredients like tomatoes, mozzarella and olive oil are shipped from Italy, while vegetables for toppings are sourced from local farms. “We always try to bring something from home,” Lorenzo says. “Our mentality is to use the best ingredients. People recognise good quality so it’s important that we match that expectation”.

There are 15 perfectly crafted Pizza Boys Ibiza toppings to choose from. Failsafe favourites include the classic Margherita, the spicy Diavolo, the pesto Caprese, and the Marinara with oh-so-salty anchovies. More elaborate creations include the Flower Power with mozzarella, courgette flowers, mint, rocket, dill, apricot jam, and rosemary oil; and the super-luxurious Golden Caviar – lavished with mozzarella, red prawns, sun dried tomatoes, burrata, caviar, and golden leaf. It’s the dough that really sets these pizzas apart, however. Lorenzo describes their signature base as a cross between Neapolitan and Roman-style pizzas that are lighter than air.

“Neapolitan pizza is very doughy,” he explains. “But Roman pizza is flat and crispy. Ours is somewhere in the middle. People say that they could eat two of our pizzas in one sitting because they don’t leave you feeling too full and heavy. I think that’s what makes it so popular.” Indeed, since starting out, the demand for Pizza Boys Ibiza fare has soared. Their specialist smoke-filled ovens can be seen doling out sustenance to hungry revellers at private events and weddings, to ravers on the corner of the dance floor at Destino Ibiza, and soon, their bases will be available to buy on supermarket shelves.

“Sometimes we end up with extra pizza dough,” Lorenzo explains. “We don’t like waste so we prefer not to throw it away. It made sense that we start to package this up and sell it to supermarkets on the island. Then, all people have to do is add their own toppings.” That Pizza Boys Ibiza has continued to build on its initial success should come as no surprise ­– pizza is one of the world’s favourite foods, after all – but as Lorenzo notes, there’s more to just making pizza than throwing together ingredients. “It’s not easy to make simple food,” he says. “You have to make it with love or passion.”

There’s that nod to the quintessential ethos behind Italian cooking again. “I like cooking for people, and I like to share,” he concludes. “For me, cooking is sharing – when you’re Italian, I think it’s just something that you have in your blood. When we see people eating our pizza and saying ‘wow, this is good!’, it makes me happy. It’s not about money or business. I’m most proud when I see people appreciating the food we’ve made for them. The most memorable moments are always the ones you spend eating with the people you love.”