Pizza 101 at Pizzeria Florian
In early December I was lucky enough to grab a spot at Pizzeria Florian's pizza making class. It was worth every penny.
Since I’ve known Jay Langfelder, I’ve wanted him to teach me everything he knew about making pizza. Prior to having my daughter Charlie, I constantly thought about asking Jay if he’d take me on as a stage on his food truck OG WoodFire. It never happened. The food truck was short lived (Jay would go on to open the new world famous Jay’s Artisan Pizza) and having a daughter meant any free time I had would immediately disappear.
I gave up that pizza bootcamp dream until I noticed a couple months ago that Pizzeria Florian, Jay’s new restaurant in East Aurora with his partner Amanda Jones, were offering pizza making classes specifically aimed at home cooks who are using home pizza ovens (Ooni, Gozney, etc) or their standard kitchen oven. I promptly set up notifications for their Instagram account activity and waited for the next class to be announced and grabbed tickets immediately, they sell out fast.
Florian’s pizza classes take place during the week in the empty East Aurora restaurant during off days. There are stations set up for each participant with pre-portioned ingredients laid out to make the pizza dough that you will eventually take home (they recommend at least 48 hours wait before using the dough). You’ll also receive a very detailed recipe list with instructions while Jay and Amanda provide step by step walkthroughs and demonstrations for the entire class.
Afterwards you are provided dough that is ready to go and are shown how to properly stretch the dough, the recommended amount of toppings (it’s always less then you think) and proper flour techniques to prevent the pizza from sticking when you fire it into the oven.
I can honestly say that after listening to Jay and Amanda, watching them first hand work with dough and talk about the do’s and don’ts … my home pizza making skills have improved greatly. Since the class, I’ve made pizza at home four times and the pizza (specifically the crust) has never been better. Pictured below were my results with the Florian dough but I’ve continued to tweak the process and it’s gotten even better.
I think most people assume that Chefs are notoriously secretive people regarding recipes, cooking tips and any other trade skills. For the most part, I have not found that to be true. The most talented Chefs I know absolutely love to share the knowledge they’ve accumulated over the years and that especially goes for both Jay and Amanda.
During the class they were willing to share every single detail that was asked. We were given specific recipes for their dough, blue cheese, chili crush, pizza sauce and they walked through all best tips for cooking pizza at home with whatever equipment you have handy. They are incredibly generous with the knowledge they will share and taking the time to talk you through any questions you may have.
The class was roughly a couple hours long and on top of the pizza that everyone makes for themselves, Jay and Amanda sent out a couple extra favorites for the class. There are drinks (beer and wine) available to participants to enjoy during the class as well as some N/A options. Tickets when we went were $85 and are worth every penny. Set your notifications for their next class and sign up.