LET’S START A PIZZA REVOLUTION!
PIZZA FANS, LOVERS AND PURISTS UNITE!
Who exactly doesn’t like pizza in some way shape or form across this globe? Weirdos, that’s who! But you’re not a weirdo, that’s why you’re here!
Whether you like your pizza hand tossed, pan or thin crust; whether you like your sauce on top, non-existent or where God intended (between the cheese and the dough). we have you covered here at Learn-Pizza.com!
But who the heck are you?!
I am glad you asked.
I am Fatboy, but my mom calls me Allan. I have been in the pizza business for over 30 years and I keep trying to convince myself that I have seen it all now, but just then, some yahoo comes around and wants vanilla pudding slathered all over his ham pizza.
I started in the pizza world with a delivery gig at a big chain pizza company and I loved the pizza business right from that very first delivery. I fell in love with the people of the business; both the customers and my fellow employees. I loved the camaraderie of it ALL!
I went on to be an assistant manager, then got to run my own store and even took on a supervisory role with big chain pizza but there was always a burning desire to do it for myself.
I learned a lot about the business side of pizza from my time at big chain pizza…..what I learned is how to sell a pizza, not what it took to make a pizza starting with a tabletop and pound of flour by my side.
We certainly learned the mechanics of “how to make a pizza” but I knew next to nothing about what goes on before that doughball hits the table to be stretched out. We never made our own dough in store, it got delivered on a truck basically frozen with a 7 day “fresh dough” shelf life on it and it was delivered along side every other product we needed to become very efficient at selling pizza.
I had only learned how to run a big chain pizza company….not the art of pizza making.
I had a choice to make.
Stay in my “comfortable” supervisory job OR take the leap and do it myself and become a REAL expert.
I started learning everything I could about dough. Types of flour, hydration, yeasts, temperatures….it all played and, MAN, it was confusing to begin with. I worked with an old school Italian bread guy, other pizza guys and read every article I could find from bakers every where. I didn’t just want to learn pizza dough, but how the WHOLE system of bread worked!
In 2008 I finally opened the doors to my very own mom and pop shop in a little town in the hills of Western Maryland.
I had my core products down but never did stop learning. I fiddled with every concept I could think of and most that I even heard of. Basically, I got to run my own test kitchen for years and years. Anything that hit my head, I tried…even the vanilla pudding slathered on top of ham pizza, by the way, do not try that at home, even us experts can’t make that edible.
I got remarried in 2021 and we have two kids together so far; so in 2024 I closed the doors to my mom and pop shop to focus on raising these children with my wife.
As I said, I have always loved the business, I felt like I lost my best friend when I closed those doors and locked them for the last time.
I miss the customers, the employees and generally just teaching the pizza lifestyle.
So now I am embarking on my newest adventure of teaching everyone and anyone who wants to learn anything about pizza exactly how to do it. Just want to know how to make that perfect dough? Want to know how to get that acidic taste out of your sauce? Do you want to know how to open your own mom and pop? I can help.
I have done it all. I’m pretty sure this time that I have actually seen it all (no you don’t have to try to prove me wrong, sometimes ignorance is bliss).
So, how about it? Wanna join us on this adventure?
You’re welcome here.
Fatboy
P.S. I am an old pro at pizza but knew nothing about how to get started online teaching pizza. It is my final frontier in pizza. If I can learn this, trust me, so can you. Learn how I am doing it here!