#MensFolioMeets Liling Ong, the Restaurateur Behind Wild Child Pizzette - Men's Folio
Lifestyle, Wine & Dine

#MensFolioMeets Liling Ong, the Restaurateur Behind Wild Child Pizzette

  • By Bryan Goh

#MensFolioMeets Liling Ong, the Restaurateur Behind Wild Child Pizzette
I’ve heard some pretty obscure food terms in my life — Scotch woodcock (“…oh it’s just scrambled eggs, anchovies and toast”), clootie dumplings (which is really just a pudding) and spotted dick (the English really have a bizarre sense of humour). However, nothing prepared me for the term pizzette. A pizza with flair? A pizza that has been twirled like a member of the Bolshoi? Some fangled term that is trending on TikTok?

Well, according to Liling Ong — the restaurateur behind Wild Child Pizzette — it is apparently just a small pizza. But don’t take her words lightly, the newly launched Neapolitan pizzette joint is heavy on the flavour.

Here, Ong tells us more.


Hello! To be frank, when I first heard about Wild Child Pizzette, I thought “Wow, a pizzeria that’s going to blow my mind.”
I guess we picked the right name!


How did the name Wild Child Pizzette come about then?
The name is really a reference to each brand we create as “children”, and after creating a rustic chic trattoria (Cicheti), a contemporary pasta bar (Bar Cicheti) and a modern-day, family-style osteria (Caffe Cicheti), we wanted to get our hands a little dirty and give my partners Aun and Ronald — who manage the food and beverage direction for the group respectively — a platform for them to tap into their passions and go crazy doing what they love. In this case it’s Neapolitan pizzas (which we’ve decided to downsize into 10-inch pizzette) that allow us a platform to explore more contemporary toppings and styles from the new school of Italian cuisine.

Being in the CBD, we wanted a friendly beverage programme that would allow Ronald to pursue his passions — the beverage list at Wild Child leans towards natural wines, ancient sakes and craft beers. I’ve always promised Aun a pizzeria when we first started out with Cicheti almost 10 years ago, and we created Wild Child to scale — so poetically you could say this is where one full circle ends and the start of hopefully many more to come.


A lot of chefs will say “I perfected it blah blah” but strangely, some are unable to quantify it exactly. Are you able to quantify how perfected the Wild Child Pizzette pizzas are?
Perfect is subjective, but it’s pretty damn good to us, good enough that we want to share it. It really boils down to the pizza dough. Our dough recipe and philosophy has honestly been close to 10 years in the making — something we’ve worked on tirelessly every day since we first opened Cicheti in 2013. As all Neapolitan pizza crusts go, it’s best enjoyed 60 seconds out of the oven but the pandemic has forced us to adapt.


From a traditional Italian pre-yeast Biga, our pizza dough undergoes two stages of naturally leavened fermentation — a process that takes no less than 60 hours each time. Each pizza is individually blast cooked in our our wood-fired oven to seal into a divine leopard spotted crust its unique flavour profile, and impart and irresistibly moist, airy and pillowy texture that yields to a bite — chewy and crisp all at once.

All this without leaving you feeling stuffed and heavy. That’s the sign of a well-fermented dough made by the hands of a true pizzaiolo.


What the heck is a pizzette for those not in the know?
A small pizza — that’s it! We saw how well today’s diners received our starter portions of pastas at Bar Cicheti which allowed them to order more and share amongst the table. We believe going small is one of the many ways modern day dining is moving towards and wanted to offer our pizzette in the same vein.


What makes a Neapolitan pizzette, a Neapolitan pizzette then?
A Neapolitan pizzetta is a smaller Neapolitan pizza that’s ordinarily defined by its light, fluffy dough. On the flip side, a thin crust pizza which New York pizza takes after is less chewy, less complex in its base and dough fermentation methods. A Neapolitan pizzetta by and large is always baked in a specific wood fired oven, whereas a typical pizza can be made in an electric oven.


In addition, the leopard spots that impart that classic toasty flavour to the pizza can only be produced if the dough is cooked with wood fire.


How were the flavours developed then and most importantly, which is your favourite?
We’ve grown a sturdy reputation in Cicheti with traditional Neapolitan pizzas and their respective toppings, so we wanted Wild Child to offer toppings that represent a new school of Italian cookery. We still offer a traditional Margherita D.O.P. for sentimental reasons but also offer a Margherita B.I.G. — an amped up version with fried Neapolitan pizza dough and more pronounced flavours that still pay homage to what makes a traditional Margherita great.


Out of curiosity, is 10 inches the standard length for a pizzette?
There is no official size for a pizzette. We felt 10 inches was a perfect size and fit for what we were going for.


Lastly, if Wild Child Pizzette was a person, what would be the song of his life?
“Juicy” by The Notorious B.I.G!

Once you’re done with this story about Wild Child Pizzette and checked a Neapolitant pizzette out, click here to catch up with our August 2021 issue!