What that is is to provide an introduction to the Indian who's making the traditional dish of a country he's never visited as authentically as any Italian can.
Enter Deep Kumar, he's 25 and only been in New Zealand three years. It was Rotorua's Waiariki Institute of Technology that drew him, bolstered by Bollywood movies with New Zealand their scenic backdrop.
Deep was hooked. "Everyone in India knows New Zealand's very beautiful but no one knows about New Zealand food, as a chef I wanted to know more."
Waiariki's Diploma of Culinary Arts was to provide his entree into Kiwi cuisine, a paradox now he's so well known for his Italian offerings.
Deep enrolled for post graduate study at Waiariki via an India-based Waiariki agent. He already had a hospitality science degree from Mangalore University and had spent a year working in the up-market Mysore Resort's kitchens.
"The first thing they taught me was how to cut up chicken, my university had been teaching me the technicality of it, not the hands-on practicality."
Big words, we say, for a fellow for whom English is a second language.
"But ma'rm, I am already speaking it [English] like a Kiwi," he insists, just as he insists on addressing us as "ma'rm", Deep says it would be disrespectful not to; we confess to finding it endearing.
But back to Deep's Rotorua arrival. Once settled into Waiariki he began hawking his CV around local cafes and restaurants, Hennessy's Irish Bar's owner, Reg Hennessy, took him on, warning he'd have to start at the bottom.
"I was washing dishes but it didn't change my passion for food, my love for it, I was learning a lot, it was entirely different from my education in India, more updated, then Reg made me a chef at the [now closed] Shed Bar."
With his studies behind him Deep considered a move south "I thought I should see more of the country but when I told Reg he said he didn't want to lose me, that I was really intelligent."
It's a statement Deep delivers with such amusement he choked on his Starbucks tea.
"I'm Indian, I always drink chai [tea], lots of it."
To keep Deep, Reg dangled the prospect of him playing a lead role in the pizzeria his daughter, Sarah Burnett, was soon to open.
"I said okay, Rotorua's a good place, I've been to quite a few other places now but Rotorua's still the best."
And that's how Deep came to be spinning pizza dough at Capizzi. His demos at the Rotorua Daily Post Home and Leisure Show were smash hits.
His admirer, Ray McVinnie, doesn't know this but Deep auditioned for this year's MasterChef, reaching the interview stage, but was knocked back because he lacked New Zealand residency, he's hopeful that's soon to come.
Growing up in India Deep never dreamed of making pizza. "My mum taught me to cook, the first thing I ever made was Kheer, a traditional Indian sweet dish, I was 6."
We quiz him about his upbringing - was it like those kids we saw crawling over rubbish dumps in Slumdog Millionaire? Poor Deep, he's far too polite to take offence, instead he sighs that all Indian children seem to have become synonymous with the 'Slumdog' tag.
"People know all about that but overlook our wonderful history, our culture, it's like curry, New Zealanders think there's only one kind, butter chicken, the English created that, when actually there're hundreds if not thousands of varieties."
His parents took good care of Deep's early years.
"By Indian standards we were middle class, my father's a driver, there were times he didn't have enough wages for his kids' school fees but he still gave us a really good education."
The Kumar family's of the Hindu faith, automatically making Deep a vegetarian, a fact that slides nicely into revealing he's a man on a mission.
Appalled by the number of obese New Zealanders he's encountered, he's determined to trim back our bulging frames. He's begun work on a thesis on the topic, based on "horrifying" Ministry of Health data.
"Jamie Oliver's food revolution's inspired me, he's so concerned about children eating healthily and well, that's what I want to do, go into classrooms, teach them what their parents don't.
"Parents here don't seem to know you can give your kids a nutritional breakfast of an egg and toast for 50 cents, instead they buy burgers, I've even seen people buying fish and chips for breakfast."
We suggest isn't it just a smidgen rich for a man in the takeaway business to be criticising fast food?
"No way, there's healthy fast food and unhealthy . . our pizzas are healthy food."
DEEP KUMAR
Born: Shimla, Northern India
Family: Parents, one brother, three sisters in India, South African partner Jasmine Mul
Education: In his home town, Mangalore University, Waiariki Institute of Technology
Interests: Cooking, travel, cricket "all Indians play cricket", the gym "when I get time"
Favourite thing about Rotorua: "The nature all around it."
Personal Philosophy: "Eat healthily, sleep well, and exercise every day."
