Pizza Making

What it is

This brings together people from all over the world to make real Neapolitan pizza. After a short briefing everyone is hands-on under the guidance of a master pizzaiolo, learning the traditional techniques of the dough and the signature movements that make Neapolitan pizza what it is. Each group goes into the kitchen in turn. At the end you sit down at a table and everyone eats their own.

When it makes sense to choose it

It works well when differences in role weigh on a group. In front of a ball of dough the area manager and the person who arrived three weeks ago are in exactly the same position, and nobody needs to say so: the situation does it on its own.

It works well with international teams, and in both directions. Pizza is one of the most loved Italian dishes anywhere in the world; a group that knows the cuisine brings out something of its own and teaches it, and a group from elsewhere learns a piece of it by doing it rather than being told about it.

It works less well above thirty people, for a physical reason before an organisational one: there’s one oven.

How it actually works

Phase one is learn and observe. The master pizzaiolo demonstrates the art of kneading and preparing the dough, Neapolitan spinning included, which is the part where everyone reaches for their phone. Then the teams practise the techniques themselves, and it turns into an interactive, rather funny environment even for the people who normally have no interest in cooking at all.

Phase two is create and bake. Each team goes into the kitchen to stretch and top its own pizzas. The base is hand-stretched and topped with the classic ingredients of a Margherita (mozzarella, tomato, olive oil and fresh basil) and then whatever each team has chosen. The braver ones try sliding it into the wood-fired oven with the peel.

Then comes the most rewarding part: tasting. The pizzas come out one after another, everyone eats what they made and samples what the other teams made, and the conversation starts on its own. It’s the moment the activity stops being an activity. The day after, what’s left is small but real: by the end of the evening people know how to make a pizza, and this is one of the few formats where they go home and do it again.

If you need to raise the competitive side, you add a jury and a leaderboard: that’s the Cooking Challenge version.

Three questions

Do you need to know how to cook?

No, and that isn’t a polite formula. Someone who has never kneaded anything in their life does as well as someone who does it on a Sunday, because the pizzaiolo teaches the gesture on the spot and the gesture is simple.

Gluten-free dough and vegan toppings are available, but they have to be asked for while the day is being designed, not on the evening itself. Allergies, intolerances and dietary preferences always have to be known in advance.

How long does it take?

From two and a half hours to a whole evening, indoors, all year round. It needs a venue with a wood-fired oven, and we choose it with you once we know the date and the numbers, because availability decides it. If the venue is a restaurant, the activity has to run outside meal service: mornings from 10:00 to 12:30, or afternoons from 15:00 to 19:30.

How many people can it hold?

Up to twenty is the ideal size, up to thirty works well. Above that the oven becomes a bottleneck: there’s one, the pizzas go in by turns and the group waits. Waiting is exactly what kills a team building.

Above thirty people we propose the mixed pizza and pasta: half the group works the pizza dough, half the fresh pasta, then you swap. Pasta doesn’t need the oven, so the two jobs run in parallel with no queue. → Pasta Making