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Day 1

9:00am: I arrive at LLK and make a round of coffees for Team LLK before preparing our onsite demo kitchen for my new client’s arrival.

10:00am: Ciao, studenti!

My typical cliental are restaurateurs who are new to the world of pizza and wish to educate themselves before launching their pizza operation. Once I have greeted the guests and welcomed them to the LLK demonstration kitchen, the course commences! Before starting the practical element of the course, our customers need to get to grips with the theory. This means starting right at the very foundations of pizza, from the fascinating properties of flour to the chemistry of dough maturation and proving.

12:00pm: Once the clients have understood the science behind making the perfect pizza, it is time for them to get stuck in with refining the type of pizza they want for their site. Prior to the session I prepare two different options for their dough based on the customer’s target market and pizza oven type demonstrating to the customer how different kinds of dough cook up into totally different styles of pizza.

12:30pm: It’s lunchtime (how convenient??), so we get stuck into the important task of taste testing an important process for deciding which of the different pizza styles was the one for their operation.

13:00pm: Now the clients have been reenergised, it’s time for them to go from theoretical to practical and learn how to hand-make the dough of their chosen pizza style!

14:00pm: While we let our dough prove, my students get into the tough stuff- hand stretching. I demonstrate the standard hand movements for the perfect circular pizza base and my clients copy. Once they have the movements down, ripetere, ripetere, ripetere! I step back and only intervene to guide them back to the technique should they fall off it. Once they’ve got the standard technique nailed, I’m more than happy for them to follow a style that feels natural to them if it produces a beautiful result.

16:00pm: Once my client’s muscles have memorised the act of hand stretching, they can hang up their aprons and head home for a well-deserved rest. But work doesn’t stop for me just yet! Time to stick the leftover dough in the fridge and clean the demo kitchen top to toe. A short moment to admire my freshly mopped, sparkling floor before heading home.

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Day 2

8:30am: The second day of consultancy begins with a field trip- I meet the clients at a local ingredients supplier where we locate the items, they need to make an incredible pizza. The lesson that I want the client to take away from this experience, along with their delicious purchases, is the importance of prioritising quality! You won’t make a top-quality pizza with poor ingredients.

10:30am: We take our shopping bags back to LLK and I try my best to ignore the service engineer shaped shoe prints trodden across my beautiful floor (WILL!!). My students are now ready for one of the most fun parts of the course- learning how to make a pizza with their very own hands from dough to dish! This involves flexing their new hand stretching skills on the dough they made themselves the day before and loading their bases with their quality tomato sauce, buffalo mozzarella and chosen toppings.

11:00am: It’s time to turn up the heat! Our fully functional demo kitchen kitted out with our range of catering equipment enables me to offer an authentic pizza cooking learning experience which simulates how the procedures will work in their own operation. Our LLK demo site has everything from our basic pizza ovens such as the Cuppone Tiziano pizza oven up to our ‘Ferrari models’ such as our Cuppone Caravaggio aswell as our range of living flame pizza ovens. This is fantastico! As it means that I can demonstrate the exact cooking procedure for the LLK oven they have purchased or, if they did not purchase their oven with us, we can use an oven closely similar to the one they have.

11:30am: Once they know all the steps, all that’s left to do is ripetere, ripetere, ripetere! Pizza perfection can only achieve through consistent practice- I couldn’t call myself a pizza professional if I hadn’t made at least a million!

16:00pm: Day 2 draws to a close and my hardworking students can finally put the pizza making on pause till tomorrow.

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Day 3

8:30am: Its an early rise for the final day as this is when all my lessons come together – it’s menu building time! My clients show me draft 1 of the menu they put together themselves and I offer them constructive advice as to how we can develop it so it fits their operation’s needs even better.

10:00am: After we’ve settled on draft 2 of the menu, we bring it to life by prepping and cooking every single dish. Now, you guessed it- ripetere, ripetere, ripetere! As we practice, we continue to experiment and adapt the recipe until the exact desired finished products are achieved and the menu’s development is complete.

12:30pm: A vital part of the menu development process is taste testing every item to check it is delicious enough for the customer. Thankfully, since I began at the company, Team LLK has acquired sophisticated pizza tasting palettes and are more than happy to volunteer their expert opinions.

16:00pm: About 100 pizzas and 100lbs later, my students are ready to graduate from my consultancy course and bless the world with their new pizzaiolo skills. I always conclude my course confident my students are equipped with the knowledge they need to achieve their vision. I assure them the consultancy does not truly end here- I am always on the other end of the phone should they need any further support!

If you would like to work with Fabio on developing your menu or training in pizza cooking and correct equipment use, book in by calling 0161 633 5797 or emailing kitchens@linda-lewis.co.uk.

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