SCABs

Happy National Pizza Day and tips for part-time working

It just so happens that my SCAB this week is due on National Pizza Day, and I am having to write it whilst at work…where I make pizza. Whaaaat yeah the universe be crazy. So please on behalf of the universe get yourself down to Bad Boy Pizza Society (at one of three locations across London) for your national pizza fix. Maybe head to our site at the National Theatre where you can order the freakin’ National Pizza of the Year (officially). I don’t even get paid for this advertising!

Anyway, Marc regularly reminds us to “make things” as it’s good practice for our trade. Well Marc, tonight I’m making pizza. So, to fill my 500 word count, I’ll be teaching you how we make our Sicilian style pizzas here at BBPS.

But before that, let’s give some real value to this SCAB by providing any prospective students some wise words on working part-time whilst studying/working/stressing at SCA.

Working part-time whilst balancing a demanding full time job is nothing new to me. Whilst working as a lawyer, I set up a food business making and selling fresh pasta (@fastapastaco, check us out, we were great). Basically my number one bit of advice to prepare yourself for the full-time-part-time life is to be smarter, more efficient and better than everyone else that exists. That’s the only way you’ll cope. Luckily that’s no issue for me. Also put a lot of time into practicing your fake sympathetic look when people tell you they have no time. Oh really Sebastian? Because your Instagram stories of your little weekend trip to the Quantocks looked PRETTY BLOODY NICE. Two day weekends…I remember them. (Sebastian not a real person, but the embodiment of this scenario).

Seriously though, it is possible to work part-time whilst at SCA. I work 15-20 hours a week depending on shifts and it’s so far manageable. People fill the time they have. If you have less of it, you adapt. You’ll be fine.

Now for the exciting part. Here’s how to make a Sicilian style pizza:

It’s been over an hour since I wrote the last sentence because I had a rush of orders, and during said rush I picked up a pan that had just come out of a 250C oven. So, if there’s any typos in what follows, blame it on the fact that I can’t feel the ends of my fingers. Here’s the current set-up:

The first thing you need to do is make the dough. We do that on the day before to give it time to proof, so I haven’t got a picture of that. But once it’s proofed and you’ve portioned it out, it goes into a well-oiled deep pan for dimpling. This is quite therapeutic to do. You essentially poke dimples into it and stretch it to the edges of the pan. It then proofs overnight and you bake it in the morning. Here is a picture of tonight’s dimpling:

Once you have your baked bases, they are ready to be made into pizza. First step for that process is adding cheese (cheese first?! I know, it’s different). You then oil the cheese and whack that in the oven to melt, until it looks like this:

As you can see this base had some bubbly spots, but that’s okay. It doesn’t impact the flavour. You then add the sauce and toppings. In the next picture I was making a margherita, so it was our signature tomato sauce. Back in the oven it goes to finish cooking and to get that bottom nice and crispy.

Yummy yummy. It’s almost ready now, it just needs topping with basil, parmesan and extra virgin olive oil. Let’s see how it looks after that:

Oh yeah baby, looking good. That’s now ready to serve to a happy customer! The perfect slice should be crispy on the bottom, fluffy in the middle, and topped with oozy melted cheese. Later on in the shift I made our Tri-Pie – tomato sauce, vodka sauce and pesto. Feast your eyes on this!

My oh my what a beautiful pie.

In advertising, we’re taught to put a bit of ourselves into our work. In the food industry, it’s best to put a bit of your work into you!

Buon appetito!

Roberto x

@rdwest21

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