Becoming a pizzaiolo at home

Pizza will always be a huge part of my life. I love making it, eating it, and talking about it. I was a pizzaiolo at a local restaurant for a few years and it was a blast. I learned so much about the craft of making pizza and I still love making it at home. I have a way to make wood-fired pizza at home using the Ooni Karu. It’s a great way to make pizza at home and I love it.

I was spoiled for a long time working at Punch Pizza to be able to cook on their amazing ovens. Such an environment is so difficult to recreate at home. Ooni’s pizza ovens, and the Karu’s ability to use coal or hardwood chunks, is a reasonable facsimile of that experience. Having the proper tools is a minimum to creating excellent pizza at home, but all the best ingredients and proper skills are required as well.

The most challenging aspect is the pizza dough. There are so many variables from temperature, humidity, time, and condition of the ingredients that can affect the dough. Practice makes permanent, but focused practice makes perfection. At least as close as you can get to perfection. Once you have poured over your recipe, executed the proofing and forming of the dough balls, procuring excellent ingredients, and planning an excellent pizza recipe, the next step is actually cooking the damn thing.

So many things can go wrong, but when it comes out right it is so satisfying. Using the forementioned oven and other items, you can give it a go. My favorite pizzas come from wood fire, and use high quality ingredients. It takes skill and practice to put together an amazing pizza, but the hard work is more than worth it.