Suggestions for names for the beast are welcome!
Friday, 10 June 2011
Thursday, 9 June 2011
Becoming a 'Man with a Van'
Taking the plunge and buying a van was not an easy decision. We knew we need a van for the business, but the most cost effective way of running one while keeping all parties happy was a puzzler. In the end the writing was on the wall for the Punto and I traded it in to become the proud owner of a Fiat Scudo 2.0l JTD. Ryan says the JTD was invented by Alfa Romeo, and I for one believe him, so technically I drive an Alfa Romeo. Still get some funny looks though when cruising to work in shirt, tie, glasses and a big red van. I don't care, I've got a van. Already I've noticed the massive respect I get from other highway users, compared to the Punto anyway. And you can cut people up and they just put it down to 'van drivers' generically rather than thinking that me as a person is a bad driver. Not that I am, but was pretty surprised that the insurance is less when I put Ryan 'no points, no crashes' Noble as a named driver. Result.
What wasn't a result was the lack of radio/cd player when faced with the 4 hour trip to Hay. I even contemplated borrowing Millsy's Best of Meatloaf tape for the journey, but it didn't take much contemplation. Listening to the voices in my head would be much better. Actually, after the first ten miles I ran out of Dizzee Rascal lyrics to rap to and did start to listen to my mind wandering. Pretty inane stuff really and not much worth writing about. I did discover why tramps often suddenly shout stuff randomly. It is born out of complete and utter boredom, as cruising at 50mph behind Ryan and the pizza oven led me to shout out occasional random statements. "Oh, we going to eeebizza!" was a favourite. Worryingly.
The other thing about going at 50mph was the time you have to watch stuff going on around you. A kestrel was spotted, swerving between haulage lorries as it eyed up it's lunch. At 50mph we got to see it hover and dive, nailing it's prey right between the barriers of the central reservation. Which got me thinking about why it would choose to hunt on a motorway? Perhaps it used to be nice countryside until we tarmacked it. Then I thought about it chewing on the carbon monoxide poisoned lungs of the mouse it had bagged and that a nice country mouse would be so much tastier.
Luckily we reached Ryan's ancestral home before I went completely insane.
Note to self: Get down Argos and get yourself a car stereo.
What wasn't a result was the lack of radio/cd player when faced with the 4 hour trip to Hay. I even contemplated borrowing Millsy's Best of Meatloaf tape for the journey, but it didn't take much contemplation. Listening to the voices in my head would be much better. Actually, after the first ten miles I ran out of Dizzee Rascal lyrics to rap to and did start to listen to my mind wandering. Pretty inane stuff really and not much worth writing about. I did discover why tramps often suddenly shout stuff randomly. It is born out of complete and utter boredom, as cruising at 50mph behind Ryan and the pizza oven led me to shout out occasional random statements. "Oh, we going to eeebizza!" was a favourite. Worryingly.
The other thing about going at 50mph was the time you have to watch stuff going on around you. A kestrel was spotted, swerving between haulage lorries as it eyed up it's lunch. At 50mph we got to see it hover and dive, nailing it's prey right between the barriers of the central reservation. Which got me thinking about why it would choose to hunt on a motorway? Perhaps it used to be nice countryside until we tarmacked it. Then I thought about it chewing on the carbon monoxide poisoned lungs of the mouse it had bagged and that a nice country mouse would be so much tastier.
Luckily we reached Ryan's ancestral home before I went completely insane.
Note to self: Get down Argos and get yourself a car stereo.
Sunday, 5 June 2011
Food Fair
With our new found confidence from the Hay festival weekend we entered the Petersfield food festival with high expectations and a general feeling that we were invincible- like James Bond. Consequently we hiked up our prices and arrived with lots of dough and sauce of which we sold under half! Compounding problems were my rather soggy batches of dough (trying to copy Jesses proficient effort the week before); our new super woman Nick managed to flour them up with great effort so we could make a few pizzas at least, Ed then decided that a quarter of the volume demanded a half effort; pizza quality was emerging somewhat varied and at times the oven was not being stoked to the required heat by my good self. Front of house Liv was popping pain killers willy nilly for the board em but failed to stave off the outer appearance!
Petersfield food festival turned out to be a strange one with punters perversely not really in the market for food; instead opting for the 'cake shake' or an ice cream once they had tried all the samples along the stalls. The idea of a cake blended with ice cream and milk was to good an opportunity to pass up so everyone in the stall par toke; myself opting for the black forest gateau! This, coupled with the competition selling lack lust-re cheap food, was the general vibe of the festival. It was with little sorrow that we decided to pack up at 7.15 having pulled a 12 hour day of not doing a lot and being on our feet all day; just as the live music picked up and a little atmosphere started to enter the arena!
On reflection we have surmised that like an F1 car we struggle going at half speeds without encountering problems. As a result we are going to make 60 pizzas an hour regardless at any event and sell them on an open market based system. Liv is going to be our floor trader and adjust prices according to market demand. Bartering each pizza out at a min of £2 to shift units and a maximum of £10 when folks can't get enough. She'll get paid on a percentage of the sales she makes. Boom! It's all going 80's style go gettem pizza making at Piu Pizza.
Wise thoughts:
When one has a dish washer instead of putting plates on the side put them straight in to the dishwasher.
Petersfield food festival turned out to be a strange one with punters perversely not really in the market for food; instead opting for the 'cake shake' or an ice cream once they had tried all the samples along the stalls. The idea of a cake blended with ice cream and milk was to good an opportunity to pass up so everyone in the stall par toke; myself opting for the black forest gateau! This, coupled with the competition selling lack lust-re cheap food, was the general vibe of the festival. It was with little sorrow that we decided to pack up at 7.15 having pulled a 12 hour day of not doing a lot and being on our feet all day; just as the live music picked up and a little atmosphere started to enter the arena!
On reflection we have surmised that like an F1 car we struggle going at half speeds without encountering problems. As a result we are going to make 60 pizzas an hour regardless at any event and sell them on an open market based system. Liv is going to be our floor trader and adjust prices according to market demand. Bartering each pizza out at a min of £2 to shift units and a maximum of £10 when folks can't get enough. She'll get paid on a percentage of the sales she makes. Boom! It's all going 80's style go gettem pizza making at Piu Pizza.
Wise thoughts:
When one has a dish washer instead of putting plates on the side put them straight in to the dishwasher.
Thursday, 2 June 2011
The aftermath
A fair wind blew us all the way to the Puckshipton asparagus party early Saturday morning; resulting in significant fuel savings and a feeling of general good times to come. After pilfering some wood fuel from the Noble estate our new lady helper proved we could set up and prepare the dough for the evenings asparagus party in ample time; giving us time to pontificate about the onslaught to come- and lash down the tent against the 60 m.p.h gusts shimmying the tent left right and center.
With everybody suitably fashionably late; the young age units were the first to drip the trendy buffet style pizza provided by us all over our table and their persons- one such item described our oven as 'magic' as the pizza went in uncooked and came out finished; we agree. Adults as well were suitably over awed by the magic, so much so that they liked to stand in front of our oven and feel affronted when they are asked to move- by the end of the night I had managed to not upset or bash anyone along with surviving flighty winds and lashings of rain. To bed at 1:00 a.m. having made 130 od pizzas and packed up ready to leave for Haye at 6:30 a.m.
Picking up a hungover helper unit on the way to the place of books we were soon set up in the shadow of Hay castle and before we knew what was happening had an onslaught of people demanding pizza and asking how we could prove it was wood fired. Pretty soon there was chaos amongst the various clowns, circus types and live music circulating the stall translating in to chaos in the pizza arena; pizzas sticking and burnt, orders muddled and finally dough running low. Fortunately lady Caroline had rode her trusty steed all the way from the Harrods PR department; arrived, exercised her steely feminine strong will to inform punters that we were shutting down the operation to take stock/ re-stock and re organise for an hour. This we did and under a watchful eye we progressed seamlessly from there on- chucking out pizzas till the cows came home. At about 7.00 ish.
With hospitality provided by the Shepard's Ice Cream (super lush and healthy) empire we were to bed and out cold suitably early having sold just under 200 pizzas! The next day we rolled in at 10:00 a.m. to find it lashing with rain and miserable- you're never dry in Hay-on-Wye; feeling pretty gloomy, people coming in dribs and drabs, we thought we would sell nothing; with the Shepards shop opposite doing a roaring trade as usual. People emerged however and by one we had a large cue as per the day before; without our PR guru we had her prodigy Liv who with her crash course training (and refreshed self) oiled the front of house machine that kept the cogs turning beautifully; inspiring comments that we were all far to 'calming and angelic like'. Finishing the day with a similar turnover we packed up exhausted and ready to go home at 8:00 p.m. and decided to head home once Ed has taken his pills of the 'man up' variety.
All in all a very successful weekend with lessons to be learnt and heart to be taken! We thank a heroic effort from Jessica for showing Ed how to do his job, a front of house masterclass from Caroline, Liv for handling the second day effortlessly by herslef and making everyones jobs a breeze, and Juliet and the Shepard's crew for being a rock of support.
On to the Petersfield food festival on Saturday; we're featured in the Petersfield post! Keep the good times coming!
Quote of the weekend
Punter: 'Bonjourno'
Liv: 'Errrr. It's not French actually. It's Italian' (said in a west country teenage don't you know way).
With everybody suitably fashionably late; the young age units were the first to drip the trendy buffet style pizza provided by us all over our table and their persons- one such item described our oven as 'magic' as the pizza went in uncooked and came out finished; we agree. Adults as well were suitably over awed by the magic, so much so that they liked to stand in front of our oven and feel affronted when they are asked to move- by the end of the night I had managed to not upset or bash anyone along with surviving flighty winds and lashings of rain. To bed at 1:00 a.m. having made 130 od pizzas and packed up ready to leave for Haye at 6:30 a.m.
Picking up a hungover helper unit on the way to the place of books we were soon set up in the shadow of Hay castle and before we knew what was happening had an onslaught of people demanding pizza and asking how we could prove it was wood fired. Pretty soon there was chaos amongst the various clowns, circus types and live music circulating the stall translating in to chaos in the pizza arena; pizzas sticking and burnt, orders muddled and finally dough running low. Fortunately lady Caroline had rode her trusty steed all the way from the Harrods PR department; arrived, exercised her steely feminine strong will to inform punters that we were shutting down the operation to take stock/ re-stock and re organise for an hour. This we did and under a watchful eye we progressed seamlessly from there on- chucking out pizzas till the cows came home. At about 7.00 ish.
With hospitality provided by the Shepard's Ice Cream (super lush and healthy) empire we were to bed and out cold suitably early having sold just under 200 pizzas! The next day we rolled in at 10:00 a.m. to find it lashing with rain and miserable- you're never dry in Hay-on-Wye; feeling pretty gloomy, people coming in dribs and drabs, we thought we would sell nothing; with the Shepards shop opposite doing a roaring trade as usual. People emerged however and by one we had a large cue as per the day before; without our PR guru we had her prodigy Liv who with her crash course training (and refreshed self) oiled the front of house machine that kept the cogs turning beautifully; inspiring comments that we were all far to 'calming and angelic like'. Finishing the day with a similar turnover we packed up exhausted and ready to go home at 8:00 p.m. and decided to head home once Ed has taken his pills of the 'man up' variety.
All in all a very successful weekend with lessons to be learnt and heart to be taken! We thank a heroic effort from Jessica for showing Ed how to do his job, a front of house masterclass from Caroline, Liv for handling the second day effortlessly by herslef and making everyones jobs a breeze, and Juliet and the Shepard's crew for being a rock of support.
On to the Petersfield food festival on Saturday; we're featured in the Petersfield post! Keep the good times coming!
Quote of the weekend
Punter: 'Bonjourno'
Liv: 'Errrr. It's not French actually. It's Italian' (said in a west country teenage don't you know way).
Friday, 27 May 2011
The Boys Go Pro!
It's been a long time coming, but tomorrow it all becomes very real. This weekend is our first 'big one'. We are doing three days on the spin and hope to serve well over 500 pizzas. If we do we will be off and running, ready to take down Pizza Express in no time. If we don't, major rethinks could well be in order.
The lead up to this weekend has gathered pace over the last few weeks. A house warming pizza party last weekend confirmed that we have a great product. If we can get the production right this weekend we'll be onto something. Doing the sums on 600 pizzas has brought home some realities, so we have taken the plunge and bought a van! I traded in my trusty Fiat Punto, friend and companion for the last 4 1/2 years and am now officially a van man. Just need to get a copy of The Sun and a Big Mac wrapper and the transformation will be complete. After loading it up this evening with two fridges, 48kgs of mozzarella and 500 pizza boxes, we wondered how we thought we could ever cope without one. Hopefully it will serve us well this summer.
More good news and excitement today when our first catering size delivery of ingredients turned up. After many a long night searching for suppliers we finally found one we were happy with. They make their own mozzarella everyday in London and deliver down to the south coast so we are delighted. However, after simply phoning through an order and promising cash on delivery we really were wondering if all our stock would turn up. But it did, and we are currently the proud owner of over 50kgs finest Italian pizza flour, a full fridge of mozzarella, 10kgs of meat products and litres and litres of tomatoes. All we have to do now is turn it all into hard cash. No worries.
So at 9:30pm I'm writing this with a glass of red to take my mind of things with a trailer, car and van all loaded up and ready to go. We leave at 8am tomorrow morning, for a weekend that really could shape the rest of our lives...
The lead up to this weekend has gathered pace over the last few weeks. A house warming pizza party last weekend confirmed that we have a great product. If we can get the production right this weekend we'll be onto something. Doing the sums on 600 pizzas has brought home some realities, so we have taken the plunge and bought a van! I traded in my trusty Fiat Punto, friend and companion for the last 4 1/2 years and am now officially a van man. Just need to get a copy of The Sun and a Big Mac wrapper and the transformation will be complete. After loading it up this evening with two fridges, 48kgs of mozzarella and 500 pizza boxes, we wondered how we thought we could ever cope without one. Hopefully it will serve us well this summer.
More good news and excitement today when our first catering size delivery of ingredients turned up. After many a long night searching for suppliers we finally found one we were happy with. They make their own mozzarella everyday in London and deliver down to the south coast so we are delighted. However, after simply phoning through an order and promising cash on delivery we really were wondering if all our stock would turn up. But it did, and we are currently the proud owner of over 50kgs finest Italian pizza flour, a full fridge of mozzarella, 10kgs of meat products and litres and litres of tomatoes. All we have to do now is turn it all into hard cash. No worries.
Sunday, 8 May 2011
A Local Fundraiser
Piu Pizza had to move. Our house in the dodgy estate, was too close to the pikey caravan site and we couldn't risk 'losing' any of our gear over the summer. In actual fact in order to get the trailer out of the garden we had to take the fence down, which wasn't ideal, and was boring the second time let alone doing it all season.
The move was scheduled to be from the 5th, over a smooth two days followed by a short trip to Petersfield rugby club to sell some pizzas to the walkers and supporters of the 'Walk for Dreams' event, a twelve hour charity walk. Ryan got us off to a flier announcing that he has got the dates wrong and we actually only had a day to move. Not ones to back down from a challenge, and with a lot of help from friends we nailed the majority of the move in an evening. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as it meant that we could prepare for the event at a leisurely pace on the Saturday morning.
Decisions, decisions. Small events are always going to be tough to judge which has given us more determination to get some big bookings. Bringing too much stock to a small events and throwing it all away is not good for the profit and loss account, and is very difficult to stomach for someone who hates food waste. So after a lot of deliberation we settled on bringing enough dough and sauce for around 40 pizzas, with an even split of toppings. Prepped, packed and ready to go in loads of time, things were going well. We even managed to get the marquee into the car instead of tying it to the trailer. Which begged the question "what the hell did we have in the car for the Petersfield market!?". Not ones to dwell on such trivialities and feeling confident we had packed everything we needed we pressed on.
Rolling into Petersfield Rugby Club we were greeted with the astonishing sight of perhaps a dozen walkers doing laps of the pitch. Cheering them on along the sideline were a few gazebos and twenty or more chairs. And a few people. We approached an elderly gent to explain who we were. After a brief explanation it turned out that he had know idea what we were talking about. Wrong person. After a while we found the right person and sat down to watch the action.
After half an hour or so we managed to tear ourselves away from the enthralling pitch lapping entertainment and decided that we may as well set up and fire the oven. It was good publicity if nothing else, and at least we could cook our dinner. Setting up was a breeze and we were in danger of looking professional. Then disaster as the air pump to get the oven going quickly wouldn't work. Ryan took this badly and decided that perhaps he could make the air pump feel better if he didn't work properly as well.
With smoke bellowing out across the playing field we were certainly attracting some interest. Before long the oven calmed down and we were ready to cook. Our first customer came to be promptly ignored by Ryan and walked off. What was up with him? We pressed on and served some pizza to friends. This bought the crowds in and we had orders to meet. In a dreamy state Ryan was serving them out and getting the paying public to make up their own boxes. Turned out that it was worth setting up after all. We sold out of pepperoni in no time and ended up just about selling out of everything. We even felt good enough to donate some of our profit to the charity. Well actually if we were paying ourselves a wage we wouldn't have made any money, but it feels good to give, and I guess one day it will come with some good tax benefits.The heavens opened as we began to pack up, but we discovered that we can pack up pretty efficiently without getting too wet. Another good learning. And another positive event. Plenty of business cards given out and interest for a wedding and a christening. Positive feedback from nearly everyone bar an "I thought pizzas were supposed to be round?" teenager. Not from Piu Pizza they're not, just round enough! So all in all a good afternoon's work. All we need now is to start shifting some volume, and answer the burning question. "What was up with Ryan?" Hopefully the doctor will be able to tell us this week...
A Local Fundraiser
Piu Pizza had to move. Our house in the dodgy estate, was too close to the pikey caravan site and we couldn't risk 'losing' any of our gear over the summer. In actual fact in order to get the trailer out of the garden we had to take the fence down, which wasn't ideal, and was boring the second time let alone doing it all season.
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