TV stardom for Smokey Pete and the boys
TWO men quit their day job to begin a pizza business which is now being showcased in a TV series.
Ieuan Harry and Jez Phillips, originally from Furnace in Llanelli, took inspiration from their village to create Ffwrnes Pizza, a wood-fired pizza-maker which is taken on the road in their threewheel van.
“Smokey Pete”, as the van has been named, features a kiln so the boys can set up shop wherever they like so long as they have the ingredients to hand.
Now a four-part “Bois y Pizza” TV series tells of the boys’ adventure, from Carmarthenshire to the pizza-making Campionato Mondiale della Pizza – the Pizza World Championships.
They have an adventure through western Europe with the ultimate goal of reaching Parma in Italy to compete against other master pizza-makers from across the globe.
Starting from Llanelli, the pair head to the north coast of Spain on a ferry from Plymouth, trying tapas in the Basque region before meeting a fellow Welsh-speaker from Aberystwyth at a San Sebastian restaurant named Txikipolit.
From there they head off to make cider, and continue to take in the food culture of the areas they visit.
Picking up fresh ingredients along the way (and sampling a lot of the local cuisine), the boys get the opportunity to show off their culinary talents to the locals, handing out samples to crowds, including the women’s rugby team of Llanelli’s twin town Agen in South West France.
The change of a career was a big risk for the two, of course.
Harry said: “We bought the van – after perhaps a couple of bottles of red wine – on eBay, and we haven’t looked back.”
“I worked in a mining consultancy on digital mapping, while Jez was a personal trainer.
“We did have to pinch the pennies at first – neither of us had any experience of starting and running a business – and we weren’t sure at the time how every week was going to go. It was a shot in the dark for us as we had no catering experience either.”
■ The TV series is to be shown on S4C with English subtitles, starting on Friday at 8.25pm. It will then be available on demand on the BBC iPlayer.