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Explore the science, business, and culture of pizza. Learn to make pizza from scratch, explore its global popularity, and meet restaurant owners to discuss entrepreneurship. Examine the impact of pizza on food culture, taste different styles, and engage in hands-on cooking sessions. The experience combines culinary arts, history, and business insights while celebrating one of the world’s most beloved foods.
Day 1
Day 1
Hello Pizza Families!
We had a busy first day for our pizza winterim. In the morning, the students had a chance to cut out their pizza peels (the fancy 'shovels' that you use to put a pizza in the oven). We will be finishing those early next week.
After that, students got to learn about pizza dough, and helped me make one version of a pizza dough, as well as three different varieties of red sauces! Students then made Neapolitan Style pizzas, and they all had the chance to make their own New York Style pizzas. All of the students had more pizza than they could handle.
On Monday, we will be headed to Rosalee's Pizzeria in Longmont, then headed back to learn how to make pizza dough on their own. Looking forward to a week full of making pizza!
Day 2
Day 2
Hello pizza families!
We had another full day of flour in our faces! To start the day, we headed up to Longmont to check out Rosalee's Pizza and hang out with their owner. He gave us a full tour of his restaurant, in addition to a long Q&A, describing his journey bringing Rosalee's to prominence in Longmont over the last 10 years.
The students walked down the street to the Cheese Emporium, where they loaded up on ingredients for pizzas this week. When we got back to campus, half of the group worked on making New York style pizza dough, and the other half worked on their pizza peels. At the end of the day, we had an opportunity to fire up some pizzas using the ingredients we bought!
Tuesday, we are off to Barchetta in Boulder, where we will have free reign in the restaurant with the owner, Jesse Jensen!
Day 3
Day 3
Hello again pizza families!
Today was quite an incredible experience for our whole group! We had the opportunity to go to a Boulder pizzeria staple - Barchetta! The owner, Jesse Jensen, opened his doors on Barchetta's day off to host our winterim group! Students had the opportunity to cut and weigh a large batch of dough, learn about the inner workings of the establishment, in addition to learning from the master himself! Jesse gave our students a tutorial on how to make a Barchetta pie, and gave the students the reins of his kitchen. We constructed over 10 pizzas of our own crafting, using his restaurant's ingredients. The students had more pizza than they could handle!
As if that wasn't enough, after our wonderful morning with Jesse, we went back to work in the kitchen! Students continued to work on and finish their pizza peels, and we went back to work with making pizza dough and perfecting our recipes for the competition on Friday.
Tomorrow, we will work on mastering our techniques and preparing for the students to showcase their newly developed palates for our grand finale on Friday!
Day 4
Day 4
Today, students used all of the techniques, recipes, and taste tests to create some pizzas from start to finish. Every day, everyone has been making their own dough, getting used to being confident in following the recipe on their own. We also spent time building a new dough for Thursday, and gaining confidence in their pizza making abilities.
After a trip to the grocery store to select their ingredients, students combined their sauces and toppings for their experiments. From strawberry chocolate, to ramen noodle topped, to pineapple+tomato sauce, we even saw a Stuffed Crust Pizza (I've never made one before!), we saw students make leaps and bounds into their pizza journeys! I can confidently say, everyone produced some high quality pizza pies. Our group also finished their final touches on their pizza peels and are ready to have their own piece of equipment to take home with them!
Tomorrow is our final practice day for the competition on Friday. We are excited to see some new pizzas arrive!
Day 6
Day 6
Hello Pizza Families!
We held our end of Winterim Pizza Competition, and we had a strong showing by our students! There were two categories: Individual and Group competition. The Individual competition was split into two groups of 3, and the winner of each group would move on to the Championship! The group competition was a group of 4 versus a group of 3 in a 3 pizza competition.
The semifinals of the individual competition found Owen, Kincaid, and Damien facing off. All three had very different styles to offer. In the end, Kincaid wooed the judges with his Greek inspired Sicilian Style pizza.
The second semifinal had Finn, Daniel, and Alex competing for the final spot. While Finn's Meat Lovers and Alex's stuffed crust impressed the judges, it was Daniel's Bacon and Pepperoni pizza, with his Pineapple infused pizza sauce that took the final spot!
Before the final showdown, we held our group competition. Our group of 4 girls (Olivia, Ada, Maddy, Zia) gave an homage to Italy by making a red sauce pizza, a green sauce pizza, and a white pizza. The group of 3 boys (Adam, Sawyer, Graham) took a different approach by offering garlic knots as an appetizer, a classic cheese pizza for their entree, and a strawberry-chocolate dessert pizza. While the judges were blown away by the structure and taste of the dessert pizza, and the delicious simplicity of the cheese pizza, ultimately, the girl's group Red, White, and Green pizzas took the 'ship!
In our showdown between Kincaid and Daniel, they both put forward their best product. Daniel kept it simple and recreated his round 1 winning pizza. Kincaid decided to get creative and give a nod to Barchetta's Royale with Cheese by making a cheeseburger pizza. His pizza had ground beef, cheddar cheese, burger sauce, and topped with arugula. In a stunning moment, after the judges turned over their score cards, they both had the exact same total of 141 points! We decided to share the championship with both pizza makers, as they put in so much hard work and effort into their pizzas.
Thank you again for an amazing winterim, and keep making pizza!
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