From Durban to the world: How a couple turned South African flavours into award-winning pizza
For Durban couple David and Ishara Chetty, taking the spices, flavours and recipes that shaped them and turning it into an award-winning pizza is a proud celebration of their South African roots.
Durban is rich with flavour. The city is known for its love of spices, bold flavours and recipes passed down through generations.
For David and Ishara Chetty, the founders of Doughed Durban, making pizza is not only about putting food on the table. It is also about preserving the local flavours that have shaped them and proudly showcasing what Durban and South Africa have to offer.
The couple recently made South Africa proud after placing ninth at the 2025 Campionato Mondiale della Pizza in Parma, Italy, an international competition that attracted hundreds of entries from around 55 countries. And when they travelled to Italy to compete, they made sure they took a taste of home with them.
“We took our culture dough and spices from here. We flew with them,” Ishara says.
Speaking about the dough, the couple says it took them three years to perfect it and ensure that they serve something unique.
It is this hard work, being intentional about sticking to their local flavours with a spin, and pouring a lot of love into their pizza that they believe helped them stand out against their competitors. They were also the first pizzeria to represent South Africa in the competition.
Competing with the Italians
The couple’s decision to enter the competition was also driven by a desire to test themselves against some of the best pizza makers in the world.
“The reason why we entered the competition is because we almost had imposter syndrome. We were like, what are we going to do? So we saw the international competition. We were like, what’s a better way to find out if we can really make pizzas is by competing with the Italians.”
And competing in Italy came with its own experience.
“It was the first time South Africa entered and they were so fascinated and made us feel so welcome.”
The competition was held over three days in Parma, a city renowned for products such as Parmesan cheese and Parma ham.
For the Chetty's, it was not only about competing, but also about witnessing the passion and culture surrounding pizza in Italy.
“For Italians, pizza is culture. It’s not just like a food you eat. So they took it super, super seriously. It’s like a whole, I can’t even describe it. Almost like a religion.”
A business that started in a garage
Doughed’s journey began long before the couple competed in Italy.
David and Ishara both had corporate jobs, but Ishara’s passion for food followed her.
Her colleagues became the first people to experience her cooking.
“The release for my passion was cooking for my colleagues and then having our year-end functions in my house, because they wanted me to cook for them and the company would pay me. So it was more than my hobby; it was really what filled my cup,” says Ishara.
The couple eventually began hosting dinners from their garage, turning the space into a small eatery.
“We started these dinners while we were working from our garage, and we used to host them once every three months. So we turned our garage into like a little eatery. We used to have three-course to five-course to seven-course meals from there.”
The business grew from there.
During the pandemic, they saw an opportunity to turn their passion into something bigger, eventually launching what would become their restaurant.
“We didn’t know it was going to take off and become what it is today. We were just hoping to sell pizza -actually hoping to sell bistro fine dining and pizza on the weekends only. But the third week of opening, it just literally took off and momentum built in terms of the [Neapolitan] pizza.”
Finding their pizza
Their pizza journey was also shaped by a trip to Italy. The couple had visited Italy for their honeymoon and developed an appreciation for foods they struggled to find back home.
“So because we’d been to Italy prior for our honeymoon, we also used to cook and make cannolis because nobody else could. We couldn’t get that anywhere else. So we used to crave it.”
That inspired David to experiment.
“David, out of his own accord, decided to start experimenting because he’s like, okay, what pizza can we make? Everybody’s making the same pizza. I think we should do [Neapolitan] pizza because nobody’s doing it.”
Their dough has since become one of the defining features of their pizzas.
David began working on their starter dough years ago, constantly tweaking the recipe and learning how to work with the complexities of fermentation.
The dough takes 72 hours to ferment, with factors such as humidity and temperature affecting the final product.
“When we started in the first year, we had endless problems with it. The doughs would stop behaving in terms of start tearing. The gluten structure would fall apart. The dough would either overrise or underrise. It used to be almost like every day he was like a mad scientist and trying to figure out how to get this right.”
The couple’s different strengths also play a role.
Ishara describes herself as passionate about food and flavours, while David is more focused on systems, processes and the technical side of the business.
“So together, it’s like the technical and the creative and then that’s how we create.”
The pizza that earned them international recognition
The pizza that ultimately earned them their ninth-place finish was the Cavolo Rosso, which has since become the restaurant’s most popular pizza.
The couple also emphasise the handmade nature of their food, with fresh pasta and other dishes prepared artisanally.
Their restaurant also accommodates children, despite not having a traditional kids’ menu.
They offer options such as smaller margarita pizzas and mac and cheese, while allowing customers to make small adjustments to dishes.
For the Chettys, their ninth-place finish meant more than a position on an international leaderboard. It helped them overcome the doubt they had about whether their food was good enough to compete on a global stage.
“We are proud Durbanites. I think becoming top 10 almost gave us a pat on the back and made the imposter syndrome go away.”
They also had to learn how to run a business while navigating competition in Durban’s food scene.
“When we opened, we didn’t know how to run a business. We just thought that cooking food was what we needed to do. So we learnt the hard way about customer service, running an overall business and experiencing competition.”
Celebrating our heritage
The Chettys believe South Africa’s greatest strength lies in its diversity, and that diversity is reflected in their food.
“I think it’s the mix of culture that makes this place so rich in flavour. I know it’s been said before, but when people come from other countries, it’s not a thing that people say, it’s a thing that they feel.”
“For me, that feeling when they get of the amalgamation of cultures and how warm the people are, it translates into the food.”
And what makes the couple's story bigger than pizza is taking pride in their roots and taking what comes from home, understanding what makes it special, and being confident enough to share it with the world.
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