Roughly 80 percent of the toppings are sourced within Japan from a network of nearly 70 farmers, producers, and foragers stretching from Hokkaido in the north to Okinawa in Japan’s far southern archipelago. Cason strives to meet the makers to forge a closer relationship and glean a better understanding of their craft, and he sometimes takes his team along for more hands-on expeditions, such as foraging for mushrooms. “It’s good for them to learn how hard it is to pick them compared to how easy it is to eat them,” he says.
Travelers from all around the world dine at The Pizza Bar On 38th; in fact, the restaurant is garnering so much interest that Cason is taking the concept around the world this year for a series of pop-ups at other Mandarin Oriental properties in Singapore, Abu Dhabi, and Hong Kong. He also opened Pizza Sapienza this spring at the Mandarin Oriental at Costa Navarino resort in the Peloponnese region of southern Greece.
Wherever Cason goes, he wants to challenge the boundaries of pizza. Take the final bite in my omakase: A small square of crust piled high with chestnut mascarpone, candied chestnuts spiked with grappa, and chocolate. I didn’t expect those flavors on a pizza, much less at a pizzeria in Tokyo, but that was exactly the point.
