Doctor Dough celebrates the opening of his new restaurant by giving out free pizza slices

The Doctor Dough logo is painted onto the window of the soon-to-open pizza place

Visitors to Devonshire Road are invited to try his New York style pizza in advance of the official launch

On Wednesday 5 August, from 12noon to 3pm (or until the pizza runs out), Sonay Ali – better known as Doctor Dough to his Instagram followers – is inviting locals to drop by 19 Devonshire Road to try a slice of his famous pizza for free.

“We’re giving out one hundred slices,” he said. “But it’s first come, first served, so we’ll stop when we run out.”

“This pizza will change Chiswick,” said Haden Gaynor, a friend who was visiting Sonay at the almost-finished restaurant when The Chiswick Calendar went by for a sneaky peek. “There’s nothing more zeitgeist than a New York style slice.”

It was lunchtime, so I was privileged to get a taste of the famous crust myself, which I have to say is incredible for a committed ‘hands-on’ eater like me. Unlike other types of pizza it doesn’t collapse and is perfect for eating with your fingers. And I loved the crunch!

Sonay shows me how it’s done and rewards this hungry reporter with a huge 18-inch pizza

Artisanal pizza is food made by people not factories

As someone who enjoys cooking, I was excited to get a demo in the kitchen. I especially liked the Ferrari of spiraling dough machines, the Sunmix from Italy, which can prepare 60 kg of dough – more than I weigh – to make 240 pizzas.

“At my last residency, we were always selling out,” said Sonay, “so I’ve invested in a machine that is much more powerful than my previous one.”

Sonay is an academic at professor level when it comes to dough and I’m astounded at how much craft goes into each and every slice. Doctor Dough uses three types of flour, but won’t tell me the ratios as that’s the secret part. There’s also a three-stage fermentation process; it takes six and a half hours to make his specially developed dough even before it starts its overnight ‘bulk ferment’ in the fridge.

Perfecting the tomato sauce is an obsession, needing exactly the right balance of taste and texture

Fresh ingredients are so important

For Doctor Dough’s early-bird promotion on 5 August, it is still to be revealed exactly which flavour will be served and Sonay is busy testing out a new oven as well as experimenting with tomatoes for the pizza sauce. The following week, on Wednesday 12 August, the restaurant will open for business with a soft launch that will start with pizza, dips and soft drinks. In the autumn, the offering will be developed further to include alcohol, cocktails, starters and desserts, though it’s possible – licence pending – that alcohol might be available sooner.

“We’ll do the classic pizzas that were so popular at our residency – Margherita and Pepperoni – but there will also be a tomato pie, white pie and vodka pie as well as the famous New Haven-style pie,” said Sonay.

Connoisseurs of pizza will nod with appreciation. The rest of us will begin to appreciate Sonay’s homage to pizza greatness when we learn that the ‘New Haven’ is a very thin and crispy coal-fired Neapolitan-style pie that originated in 1925 at the Frank Pepe Pizzeria in New Haven, Connecticut. In fact, Sonay travelled to Pepe’s when he first researched his pizza dough as well as visiting other pizzerias in the region.

READ MORE: Instagram sensation Doctor Dough is to open his first restaurant in Chiswick.

But vodka pizza?

“Yes, vodka,” confirms Sonay. “The alcohol is burnt away and you’re left with a perfect crust that will be topped with caramelised onions, butter, double cream, garlic and olive oil.”

Now that’s a pizza I’ve got to try!

Doctor Dough is at 19 Devonshire Road, W4 2EU. The opening times, from 12 August, will be Wednesday to Friday 4pm to 9pm; Saturday 12pm to 9pm; Sunday 12pm to 6pm.