The first rule of pizza club … you talk about pizza club

IT STARTED with one homemade pizza, and grew into a lockdown business.

Nick Fyffe mastered the sweet taste of Neapolitan pizza in the summer of 2019. It was a summer of beers, cheese and perfectly leavened dough.

But the stage was calling, and Nick went back to his day job working as a bass player for the rest of the year.

When lockdown began, his gigs were cancelled and it became the perfect opportunity to make a mad dash to the shops for flour and yeast.

The pizza making began once more.

Armed with his Gozney Roccbox — a high tech pizza oven he found on a Kickstater campaign — and a food hygiene certificate, Nick has been cooking pizzas from his home ever since.

Now he’s a fewweeks away from launching the Wargrave Pizza Club — a pre-bookable takeaway pizza service.

Last weekend, he spent the evening working against the clock, as his daughter timed his pizzamaking skills.

He said: “I don’t want to stretch myself too thin, and for it to become stressful.

“I only just created my Facebook and Instagram page, and it’s all blown up from there.

“The plan is to launch a pre-book system with time slots, so that people come and collect their pizza hot from the oven. Once they’re gone, they’re gone.”

But this isn’t his first time in the heat.

“I’ve got a friend in St Albans who has a very successful pizza business. If he has a big food festival, I’ll go cook for him.

“We’ve done 250 pizzas a day. “I think this will be more like 50. I’m keeping it small and simple.

“People think pizza is an easy thing to do, but if I’m going to do something, I want to do it properly.

“The temperature of the oven makes the biggest difference. Dough is actually very simple, it’s flour, water, fresh yeast and salt. But you have to get the right level of hydration. It’s about knowing how the dough reacts to heat and humidity.

“And I use a longer fermentation — almost like sourdough — which makes it easier to digest.”

Now armed with a second Gozney Roccbox, a gazebo and a workbench, Nick is looking forward to feeding the people of Wargrave and beyond.

To follow the launch of his new business, search for Wargrave Pizza Club on Facebook.