From Naples With Love (and Fire): Pizza Duo Ignites a New Era at The Campus, Ampang

If there’s one thing Malaysians will always bond over, it’s good food — but for Mark Lee and Aina Ghani, “good” wasn’t good enough. Their story didn’t start with a business plan or a boardroom pitch. It started with a birthday, a road trip, and a burning obsession with perfect pizza.

Back in Italy’s Piedmont region, Mark surprised Aina with what might be the most romantic (and carb-loaded) gift ever: a pizza pilgrimage. The plan? To eat their way through every top-rated pizzeria scoring 90 and above on the Gambero Rosso list — Italy’s version of the Michelin Guide. There are fewer than 50 of those in the entire country, which meant a crash course in the fine art of pizza-making, straight from the masters.

“We’d stop at all these pizzerias — some traditionally Neapolitan, some more contemporary — and really dive into the craft just to see what a pizza could be,” recalls Mark Lee, Co-Founder of Pizza Duo.

When the world hit pause during the MCO, that same fire found a new home — in their kitchen. “We’ve always loved eating pizza, but that’s when we started making our own,” shares Aina Ghani, Co-Founder of Pizza Duo. What began as a quarantine hobby turned into late-night experiments with dough fermentation, humidity control, and temperature precision. Before long, their living room turned into a mini test kitchen where friends came over for pizza-tasting nights — ten flavours, zero regrets.

It wasn’t long before the couple decided to take things up a notch — all the way to Naples, the birthplace of pizza itself. Over consecutive summers, Aina and Mark trained with Italian pizzaiolos, mastering the rhythm of dough hydration, the art of oven heat, and the unmistakable soul of Neapolitan pizza. Those lessons didn’t just shape their technique — they shaped Pizza Duo’s entire philosophy: a love letter to Italian tradition, rewritten in Malaysian style.

From those early Bamboo Hills days came Pizza Duo: The Campus — the couple’s new flagship at Ampang. It’s a bold next step for the proudly homegrown brand, marking their evolution from a small pizza counter into one of Malaysia’s most talked-about Neapolitan pizzerias. The new space is a beautiful contradiction — intimate yet buzzing, family-friendly yet sophisticated. It’s pork-free, alcohol-free, and powered by passion (and two massive ovens).

But not just any ovens. Pizza Duo is now home to not one, but two custom-built Stefano Ferrara ovens — making it the first pizzeria in Malaysia to fire up a pair of these legendary beasts. Painstakingly handcrafted in Naples and shipped to Ampang, the ovens are more than kitchen tools — they’re the brand’s fiery heart. Known for their perfect heat retention and signature stone craftsmanship, they represent generations of Neapolitan know-how baked into every crust that leaves the oven.

Pizza Duo is, in many ways, a love story — between two people, between two cultures, between craft and curiosity. It’s a reminder that great pizza isn’t just about what’s on top; it’s about everything that happens before it hits the table — the road trips, the sleepless nights, the trial-and-error doughs, the spark that refuses to die out.

And at The Campus, that spark burns brighter than ever.