COWABUNGA! Cinema chiefs are flying a Scottish pizza chef to Australia so he can make snacks for the stars of the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie.
Glasgow-based Domenico Crolla, 46, has been cast by the creators of the latest instalment of the blockbuster to create pizzas to promote the film.
The makers, Paramount, called Domenico’s restaurant on Thursday after they spotted a pizza portrait he’d posted of Ninja Raphael online and traced him. And now they are shelling out a fortune to fly him to Australia for the film’s big red-carpet bash Down Under.
“When I picked up the phone I thought it was a spoof at first,” said award-winning chef Domenico. “But as the guy at the other end continued speaking I realised this was Paramount, for real. They want to fly me out to Australia to help promote Ninja Turtles and this was an offer I couldn’t refuse.
“Details of my agenda are still to be confirmed, but they’re taking my wife Genny and me out to Sydney for a big Turtle-related promotion that’s happening on December 8 and 9.”
Film bosses have asked Domenico who specialises in creating pizza portraits if he can make special one-offs of the film’s stars including Hollywood beauty Megan Fox, 28, who plays April O’Neil.
He’ll also create Ninja stars Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael in pizza format in front of an audience. Pizza is the favourite food of the sewer-dwelling turtles. In the past the chef-artist has created pizza-alikes of other film stars including Marilyn Monroe, Marlon Brando and even The Sunday Post’s very own Oor Wullie.
Dad-of-two Domenico, who was also chef to Pope Benedict during his visit to Glasgow in 2010, added: “As far as I know, I don’t have any Italian artist ancestors but that’s one to check out if I ever trace my family tree.”
Creating masterpieces on pizza is also trickier than it looks. “A centimetre or two out with the sauce can wreck someone’s appearance
badly,” he smiled. A gold leaf pizza he made fetched £2,150 for the Fred Hollows Australian charity for the blind in 2006. It was named the world’s most expensive pizza.
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