Last week, I boarded a plane and set off for Pizza School NYC, a one-day class that teaches how to make New York-style pizza from scratch.
On Saturday morning, I arrived at a 450-square-foot storefront on Grand Street in the Lower East Side. Mark and his wife, Jenny, opened the school in 2010 to share their passion for pizza.
We mixed the ingredients: yeast, flour, salt and oil. During the process, he did a roll call of the 16 students—people from New Jersey, Utah, Canada and Malaysia—and two Philadelphia Eagles fans who took the opportunity to gloat about their recent Super Bowl domination of the Kansas City Chiefs.
We made a variety of delicious pizzas—pepperoni, Calabrian chili, hot honey, ricotta, basil and even egg—and launched our pizzas into the 600-degree oven. We got an honorary certificate of graduation, but the true accomplishment was the experience—sharing stories, making pizza and building community with strangers. There was Alex, in attendance on assignment from his father, who recently purchased a large outdoor pizza oven. Edward, a web developer from Utah. Michelangelo, a sales leader passionate about Neapolitan pizza. And Alya, a baker with dreams of opening a bakery in her home country of Malaysia.
I spent an afternoon in the Big Apple, bonding with strangers over pizza and the joy of making it. In a time when our country seems so divided, something as simple as pizza brought us together.
