Dr Oetker pizzeria pretence causes confusion in Manchester

Much excitement in Manchester last week, as a new pizza restaurant - the imaginatively named La Pizzeria Ristorante - threw open its doors.

The restaurant promised the critics invited to launch night “a real taste of Italy”, and handed out free tasters. Generous.

But it was a trick! The pizzas weren’t handmade in the kitchen by moustachioed dough-twirling Italians, but on an industrial estate by a German multinational. The diners had in fact been enjoying Dr Oetker’s frozen Ristorante pizzas, in an actually-pretty-impressive marketing stunt.

And the good Doctor is sticking with the plan, branding the pizzeria and keeping it open as a ‘pop-up’ until September.

It poses quite the teaser for Manchester’s laziest: what takes less effort - sticking a pizza in the oven or walking to the end of the road and paying someone to do it for you? They’ll be doing takeaways next