Careers aren’t always a graceful arc of steady progress. Sometimes they happen in fits and starts like a sputtering old car running out of gas. That’s what happened to me. My old job was giving me fits and I needed a new start.
My new start was in the food business. Not just any food, but the most popular food on the planet. The National Institutes of Health and the United States Department of Agriculture agree that pizza is the most popular food around the world.
Why this obsession with pizza? Because I’m fascinated by the infinite variations that can be coaxed from four simple ingredients; flour, water, salt and yeast. Because it connects me to centuries, even millennia of cooking history. Because pizza made people happy then and now. I want to be a part of that.
The bread and pizza course at ICIF lasted three weeks followed by a 5 week stage.
My goal was to become a professional pizzaiolo. The path to that meant seeking mentors, attending culinary school, and working in pizzerias. Italian pizzaioli like Franco “Sancho” DeLellio in Fiumicino, Patrick Ricci in Torino, Bernardo Garafalo from Ragusa and my teacher Massimiliano Saeiva in Madrid all offered their advice along the way. I took classes and collected certificates from culinary schools in the US and Europe. I did a stage with Massullo (www.massullopizza.com) in Sacramento, California. That’s where I learned how to play with fire and treat dough with the respect it deserves.
I thought I knew what I was doing. I bought a wood-fired oven, mounted it on a flatbed dually truck. I christened this rig—The Warthog. The Warthog was going to carry me to pizza fame and fortune. I was friends with an Italian El Dorado winemaker and asked him if he’d like me to make pizza at his tasting room. He immediately said yes so I popped up at his vineyard in the Sierra foothills. It was my first season and my first steps in my journey as a professional, a real pizzaiolo. Like I said, I was sure I knew what I was doing.
The Warthog is a rolling wood fired oven ready to bake anywhere.
Working outdoors does not mean the weather will work for you. In the mountains, a morning low of 35F and an afternoon high of 85F means that dough maturation goes from slow to high speed. Dough management becomes an issue. Without refrigeration, you are at the mercy of the elements. Dough is much better mannered when you control temperatures in the fridge and indoors.
After the first season in the Sierra Nevada, I moved to the Coast, south of San Francisco. That’s where I learned that wind is a factor too. When I was making pizza outdoors in the harbor we were right on the shoreline. I’d check the weather report daily for gale warnings. When gusts blowing along the Coast are above 15 mph we had to stop making pizza. Ash flying around the oven does not make a great topping. The embers can fly out of the oven too and the flapping canopy can be a hazard. It once went airborne and decapitated my chimney 30 minutes before dinner service.
The temperatures drop quickly in the evening by the ocean and the dough that stretched easily in the afternoon becomes cold and grumpy at night. Time and temperature are everything in the dough business.
Panificio’s Moretti Forni deck oven is perfect for pizza romana and more.
I finally opened a brick and mortar pizza joint called Panificio. By this time I was confident that I did not know what I was doing. I needed help. Help arrived in the form of Massimiliano Saieva, master of pizza romana. I met Massimo years earlier at the best smelling trade show in the world, Pizza Expo. For three days I wandered the floor tasting tomatoes, cheese and toppings. Every oven had a pizzaiolo at the helm, baking discs of joy. But Massimo was different. His pizza was rectangular, crispy and light as air inside. He was baking pizza al taglio or the cut pizza of Rome.
Massimiliano Saieva of ASRpizzalab is one of the best in the world. Learning pizza romana from him was game changing.
During the pandemic Massimo and I did a one week intensive class. We baked simultaneously, me in California and Massimo from ASRPizzalab in Madrid (https://asrpizzalab.com/). Zoom was never so much fun. Armed with new technique and pizza knowledge I opened for business.
Hard work, yes but it has many rewards. Customers that become friends, staff that is like family and most of all the smile on customer’s faces that comes after the first bite. Making people happy is the essence of my work. It is hard work but I love it.
I’m good at my craft because I stand on the shoulders of giants. I am incredibly grateful for their help along the way. In the coming weeks and months I’ll be telling their stories, sharing the tips I’ve learned from them and celebrating baking and pizza. But above all my pizza journey isn’t over. There is always more to learn.
Links
Most popular food in the world https://www.oklahomafarmreport.com/okfr/2023/04/11/%F0%9F%8D%95-taste-the-world-new-study-reveals-the-most-popular-cuisines-of-2023/
Franco “Sancho” Di Lelio https://www.pizzeriasancho.it/
Patrick Ricci https://patrickricci.com/
Bernardo Garafalo https://www.ragusanews.com/2012/05/28/attualita/bernardo-garofalo-campione-mondiale-della-pizza-a-fiumicino/27095
Massimiliano Saieva https://asrpizzalab.com/
Robert Massullo www.massullopizza.com
ICIF, International School of Italian Cuisine https://www.icif.com/en/
San Francisco Baking Institute https://sfbi.com/
Big Dream Ranch https://www.bigdreamranch.info/
Dogpatch Dispatch 