Learn How to Make Pizza
Cooking Class in St. Louis Teaches how to Bake an Italian Pie
A couples cooking demonstration in St. Louis shows you how to make pizza from scatch, using pesto sauce, flavored oils and even barbecue sauce!
Instead of taking your sweetie out for pizza on Saturday night, why not make it yourself instead! It’s date night with a twist at the Kitchen Conservatory in St. Louis. You will learn how to make a classic Italian pie from scratch. But a simple pepperoni pizza with tomato sauce is not on the menu here. In fact, you won’t make a tomato sauce at all. Instructor Dawn Meyer won’t divulge the ingredients, but she will say students prepare their pizzas using fresh vegetables in season. Meyer emphasizes this class will teach you how to make a pizza you might not normally try at a restaurant. In the past students have learned to make pizzas with a Crème Fraiche base using caramelized onions and bacon. They’ve discovered how to prepare an Italian pie with barbecue sauce and sauces comprised of flavored oil chile. The closest thing to a traditional tomato sauce here is roasted tomato pesto. You can however, put on whatever pizza toppings you like, and then eat it! In keeping with the Italian theme, dessert is a strawberry gelato.
Dawn Meyer and brother-in law Larry Meyer have been teaching this class for years. They show couples how to make the dough from scratch and roll it out. Dawn says the men tend to be more "hands on." She adds the women will usually let their partners roll out the dough and the couples are usually good about working together. She says, "There are no food fights here!" She does add that when people leave this class they usually start making pizza at home regularly. When asked if people stop ordering take out, she replied, "I don’t know if I’d go that far."
Meyer says the biggest mistake people make when they cook pizza at home is that the dough turns out soggy. She offers these tips:
- Use a pizza stone instead of a pan.
- Heat the stone first before you cook the pizza.
- The stone retains heat better making your crust crispier.
Meyer and Meyer are not formally trained chefs. But Dawn's motto is, "If I can do it, you can do it."
The Kitchen Conervatory offers the couples pizza class only once a year. The next class is Saturday, October 27th from 6-8:30 p.m. at 8021 Clayton Road, St. Louis. You can enroll at the Kitchen Conservatory web site.
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