Naomi Osaka's Favourite Pizza: Inside the PST Experience
What makes a pizza memorable enough that you seek it out every time you're back in Tokyo?
For Naomi Osaka, the answer is Pizza Studio Tamaki.
The four-time Grand Slam champion has spoken openly about her love of food in Japan, but one restaurant keeps coming up: PST.
When asked where someone should visit first in Japan, Naomi's answer was Pizza Studio Tamaki. She has also described PST as “arguably the best pizza I’ve ever had” and says it is normally her meal whenever she returns to Tokyo.
Her go-to pizzas?
The Bismarck and Diavola.
But watch Naomi experience PST and you begin to understand that there's more behind her enthusiasm than simply choosing a favourite pizza.
There's a particular way Tamaki pizza is made. And even a particular way to eat it.
It Starts with the Crust
A PST pizza doesn't look like an ordinary pizza.
Around the edge you'll see an airy, dramatically blistered cornicione marked with dark leopard spots.
They're intentional.
PST's dough is fermented for 30 hours before being fired at extreme heat in a wood-fired oven. The pizza cooks rapidly, creating the contrast that defines the PST crust: charred and textured outside, yet light and chewy within.
It's one of the characteristics that makes Tamaki-style Neapolitan pizza immediately recognisable.
And then there's something else happening inside the oven.
The Salt Punch
Watch Chef Tsubasa Tamaki closely and you may see him throw salt directly onto the floor of the oven immediately before launching a pizza.
That's the Salt Punch.
PST uses Okinawa salt, connecting the pizza back to Chef Tamaki's Okinawan roots. Rather than simply sprinkling salt over the finished pizza, the Salt Punch places salt on the oven floor before the pizza is fired.
As the base meets the salted surface, it creates another distinctive element of the PST crust.
It's an unconventional technique, but that's precisely the point.
Tamaki-style pizza isn't about copying Naples. It begins with respect for Neapolitan tradition and applies a distinctly Japanese approach to refinement, precision and flavour.
And Then There's How You Eat It
A Tamaki pizza arrives with a beautifully puffed crust and thin centre.
So how should you eat it?
At PST, we like to say:
Gently press the airy crust.
Fold the pizza.
Take a bite.
Folding brings the crust, centre and toppings together so you experience their different textures and flavours at once.
Of course, there is no pizza police at PST. Eat it however you enjoy it.
But if you want the full Tamaki experience, give it a try.
Why Naomi Keeps Coming Back
Perhaps that's what makes Naomi Osaka's affection for PST so interesting.
She isn't simply talking about a famous restaurant.
She's talking about somewhere she genuinely chooses to return to.
In interviews about Tokyo, PST repeatedly appears among the places she recommends. And when someone who travels the world eating at extraordinary restaurants describes a pizza as arguably the best she's ever had, it makes you curious about what she's discovered.
Sydney doesn't have to travel to Tokyo to find out.
The same philosophy that made Pizza Studio Tamaki a favourite in Japan has arrived at 259 George Street in Sydney.
The 30-hour dough.
The wood-fired heat.
The leopard-spotted crust.
The Okinawa Salt Punch.
And the unmistakable Tamaki approach to pizza.
Naomi has her favourites: Bismarck and Diavola.
Now there's only one question.
What's yours?
