Pizza Express mocks Eva Longoria for saying the BEST Italian food she’s eaten was in their restaurant

Pizza Express kindly mocked Hollywood star Eva Longoria for once telling Jack Whitehall that the best Italian food she’s ever had was at one of their restaurants in Cardiff.

The 46-year-old American actress, who writes cookbooks and has opened a restaurant in LA that has closed permanently, praised the branch as she filmed the BBC comedy series Decline in Wales. and Fall in 2017.

Speaking about her co-star on food critic Jay Rayner’s Out To Lunch podcast, Whitehall, 33, claimed that Longoria had no idea that Pizza Express is a popular restaurant chain in the UK.

Yesterday, tweeting a link to the podcast, Pizza Express said: “Listen to this brilliant podcast from @ jayrayner1 and, 30 minutes later, @jackwhitehall reveals the name of what Eva Longoria considers one of the best Italian restaurants. of the world . It is a small family run place in Cardiff.

The account ended the tweet with a blinking emoji.

Whitehall told Rayner: “She said, ‘Oh my God, I found the most amazing little Italian boy last night. The owner, I think it’s a family business, he was so lovely and I had the best pasta I have ever had in the world.

” ‘It’s called. . . Pizza Express. ” ‘

Whitehall also revealed that Longoria believed Cardiff was near London when she was on the comedy set. MailOnline has contacted representatives for Longoria for further comment.

Speaking to MailOnline, an Italian staff member at the Cardiff branch who asked not to be named said: “I’m not surprised she liked Pizza Express.

“I am from Naples myself and can tell you that our food is authentic. Our ingredients are fresh and we have high standards. No wonder she thought it was the best Italian food she had ever eaten.

Pizza Express was founded in 1965 by Peter Boizot, who brought a pizza oven from Naples and a chef from Sicily back to London from a trip to Italy.

By opening its first restaurant on Wardour Street, the chain now has more than 470 restaurants across the UK and another 100 overseas in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

In July 2014, the group was sold to China-based private equity firm Hony Capital in a deal worth £ 900million.

Five years later, Pizza Express hired financial advisers to negotiate with its creditors after experiencing financial hardship as demand for restaurants declined.

In March 2020, all Pizza Express restaurants in the UK were forced to close indefinitely during the Covid pandemic.

In July, the group announced that ‘dozens’ of its closed restaurants would not reopen amid reports it had accumulated a debt of £ 1.1 billion. The following month it was announced that the company would close around 67 restaurants in the UK and cut 1,100 jobs.

He was picked up by his bondholders in a debt-for-equity swap with former owner Hony Capital.

In November last year, the group’s restructuring was completed and reportedly helped reduce debt by more than £ 400million.

Longoria played the role of Margot Beste-Chetwynde in the 2017 television series that follows Paul Pennyfeather (Whitehall) as a student at Oxford University in the 1920s.

Longoria has a child Santiago with her husband José Antonio Bastén, 53 years old.

The Brooklyn Nine-Nine actress and the Mexican businessman tied the knot in 2016. She was previously married to General Hospital star Tyler Christopher from 2002 to 2004.

Longoria married an NBA star in 2007, but filed for divorce in 2010 after finding out her spouse had been unfaithful.