Culinary Club Gets Up-Close, Hands-On Pizza Experience

Typically, people don’t walk into a restaurant and expect to make their own food. However, Rockhurst Culinary Club did just that for the first time since the club was created. On Wednesday, Dec. 14, the group visited 1889 Pizza Napoletana. On this outing, each individual got to make their own pizza and enjoy the finished product as well.

“The Culinary Club outing was a new experience as we were taught how to make a Neapolitan pizza and learn about how a pizza oven works,” said club member and senior, Vincent Tran.

The first step in the process was shaping the dough. The head chef demonstrated multiple methods for shaping the dough, such as pushing it out on the table, picking up the dough and stretching it with their knuckles–even tossing the dough in the air. 

Once the dough was ready, everyone put a layer of sauce and then the cheese. After the sauce and cheese were done, the owner of the restaurant brought everyone into the kitchen to add toppings to their pizzas. Just before the pizzas went into the oven, the owner instructed everyone to drizzle olive oil over their pizzas and then add a pinch of salt. 

Now for the final step in the process: putting the pizza in the oven. At 1889 Pizza Napoletana, they use a wood-burning oven to cook the pizzas. Each pizza cooks in the oven for about 90 seconds. They sometimes need to be moved due to how the wood-burning method heats the oven unevenly. After each member’s pizza was cooked, everyone sat down to enjoy their pizzas.

Overall the outing had only good ratings from members of the Culinary Club.

“Overall, it was a fun event and I would recommend it for future Hawklets to join in the future,” said Tran.

“It definitely exceeded my expectations, as it was really personal and I learned a lot about how to make a pizza, and what it’s like to work at a restaurant. The whole experience was really fun and very informative,” said Culinary Club vice president John Greene. 

Each member interviewed stated that they would love to go to another outing like this one, and they recommend the event to everyone.

“I think maybe in the future, if we ever do this again, we could invite more people,” said Greene. “Lots of people could benefit from learning something like this, and we would always be happy to have some more people join us.”