Dah Lee Dishes up Gourmet Pizza in Phnom Penh

From a kitchen on Phnom Penh’s Sothearos Boulevard stocked with homemade tomato sauce, cheeses and an array of “gourmet” ingredients, veteran restaurateur Chinese-born New Zealander Dah Lee is trying to heighten the Cambodian capital’s pizza palate.

Lee says that his new delivery-only Pirate Pizza is bringing “upmarket” and “handcrafted” pizza all over town.

Having opened and run multiple restaurants in New Zealand, Australia and Cambodia, he says it was his “passion” for trying out new restaurant ideas that led him to create Pirate Pizza.

“Local people know what pizza is but not as a gourmet taste yet,” he says.

“If people understand good pizza with cheeses like parmigiano-reggiano or robiola, they won’t go away,” he says. “We have a simple goal: to give you the best hand-crafted artisanal pizza in Phnom Penh, delivered to your door. Some of our ingredients are imported, and the best salmon is imported here from Canada.”

Lee is a member of the New Zealand Asian Leaders (NZAL) Association and is the founder of BIGGERCOMMS-Online media.

He is also founding president of the New Zealand Cambodia Business Association.

Original article by Vandy Muong, The Phnom Penh Post, January 13, 2017.

Photo by Sahiba Chawdhary.