Oro Bianco has customers flipping out over unusual wood-fired menu
Don’t ask Kappa Hegazy for his pizza dough recipe — it’s a “closely-guarded” family secret. But the restaurateur divulges enough to make the menu at his booming Dandenong pizzeria sound irresistible.
South East
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Kappa Hegazy was warned against opening a restaurant in Dandenong.
“People told me I belonged in Fitzroy or on Chapel St,” Mr Hegazy said.
“They said no one would come to Dandenong because of its bad reputation.”
But he didn’t listen and his seven -month-old eatery Oro Bianco is booked solid on weekend nights with customers queuing for a table.
“The only trouble we’ve had has been with parking,” Mr Hegazy said.
“But even then people found a way to get here.”
The parking issues have since been resolved with Greater Dandenong Council changing restrictions along Lonsdale St from one hour to two.
Mr Hegazy said Oro Bianco’s wood-fired cooking was a big draw card.
“We do all our cooking in our Mesiano woodfired oven — meatballs, lasagne, gnocchi, vegetables — not just the pizzas,” he said.
“It gives the food a beautiful, smoky flavour and locks in the juices.”
Mr Hegazy masted the art of pizza making as a youngster living in Italy.
He settled in Melbourne about six years ago and opened Ono Bianco with life and business partner Megan Harper late last year.
Mr Hegazy said his pizza dough recipe was a closely guarded secret, as Italian tradition demanded.
But he did reveal it was not so much the quantities of flour, water, air and yeast but rather the way it was “worked” that made it special.
The dough ferments quickly in 24 hours forming a bubbly base that cooked in about a minute in the 400-degree heat of the customised wood-fire oven.
“The toppings are the best quality. We import San Daniele prosciutto and use herbs we have grown ourselves,” Mr Hegazy said.
He said the team was now considering opening a second restaurant.
“It’s incredible to think we would be thinking about that in our first year of business,” he said.
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“But we’ve had a lot of interest from developers and property owners wanting us to move into their buildings.”
Mr Hegazy said he was still considering the best location.
In the meantime he was looking forward to seeing Lonsdale St continue to develop.
“It has a lot of potential to become a really good strip,” he said.
“We have a gelataria going in next door to us next month which we really excited about.
“It will complement us perfectly.”
Oro Bianco is at 175 Lonsdale St, Dandenong.