How to Make Pizza: What I Learned From Working in a Pizzeria

Did anyone expect for me, a recent graduate of Yale College, to be working in a pizzeria a month later? Maybe not, but I can say with complete sincerity that it was a great experience and I wouldn't have had it any other way.

Sure, food service is not glamorous (or high-paying), but I love food and wanted the experience of working in a kitchen. I also believe it would be great if everyone worked a food service job at least once - you will emerge with much more empathy, understanding, and patience for the people who make and serve your food. I will never again complain about slow service (I promise you, everyone is back there busting their butt for you so please just sit tight) and I will always tip 20% (seriously - tips are everything!)

Hot Lips is a great local pizzeria that I frequently went to growing up. I always thought highly of the pizza and was thus especially happy to be hired there. I was both a cook and a driver. Both roles have their upsides and downsides (cook is more fun, driver is less stress/work), and I had a lot of fun getting to know my coworkers and learning some new skills. Here I'll try and share some of the knowledge I've gained from my time as a pizza chef.

(I did a TikTok of how to make pizza if you want the video version 😉)

So without further ado, here is how to make pizza (the Hot Lips way!)

How to Make Pizza

Step 1: Prep the dough

Ideally, you want to start with dough that's been sitting out just a bit to soften it. If the dough is straight out of the fridge, it's quite cold and more difficult to stretch out. However, you also don't want the dough to be too warm because then it will tear when you try to stretch it out.

Start by covering both sides of your dough with flour. Try as best you can to retain the circle shape - if it's a circle on the table, it'll be a circle when you toss it out.

Next press out the air bubbles with your fingers, still retaining the circle shape. I give it a good few pounds/presses until it's semi-flattened.

Step 2: Toss the dough

Tossing took me a long time to learn. The first few days that I tried, I couldn't even really do it. But like with everything, after just doing it for weeks and weeks, I eventually got the hang of it. Everyone does it a little differently and finds their own tossing "style", but the principles are the same.

You basically transfer the dough from one hand to the other, using the edge of your hand/fingers to stretch it out as you go. I try to keep my fingers together so I don't rip any holes in the edge. I kind of move by body as I toss back and forth to help with the swinging motion. Gravity does most of the work!

Once the dough gets pretty big, I switch and continue stretching it over my forearms, going over/under with my arms. This just helps finish it off without the danger of ripping a hole (though if you do - which happens all the time - it's an easy fix when you set it down).

A video demonstration with some slo-mo action:

Step 3: Sauce it

Before even beginning to toss, you want to have spread some semolina on the pizza board. This prevents the dough from sticking to the board. Lay it down and fix any holes/imperfections/air bubbles. Then take a heaping ladleful of sauce (for an 18" pizza) and plop it down.

Spread the marinara out with a spatula. This also took me a while to master, but once you get it, it's really satisfying.

Step 4: Top it

Top it with whatever you want! Or whatever the customer asks for haha. This one was just a pepperoni slice pie for the line. But we have all sorts of toppings from the usual (mushrooms, onions, olives, fresh mozzarella, sausage, ham) to the more specialty (ricotta, vegan balls, vegan pepperoni, jalapeno), to the controversial (pineapple, anchovies).

Step 5: Cook it

The pizza cooks in our ovens (which I think are ~500-600 degrees Fahrenheit) for ~5-7 minutes. The cook time depends on how hot the ovens are and whether you are using the top or bottom oven (the bottom one cooks slower). Cook time can also vary based on how many toppings there are, the size of the pizza, and the crust (the gluten free crust takes longer).

When starting out, I would always set a timer, mainly so I wouldn't forget the pizza was in there. I check it at ~4 minutes, pop out any air bubbles, and rotate the pizza so that it cooks evenly. When the bottom of the pizza is a caramel brown with some leopard-like spots, it's ready to be taken out.

Step 6: Enjoy! (Or let the customers enjoy)

For line pies, we slice up an 18" (large) into 8 big slices. For a normal 18" for pickup or delivery, we slice it into 12. A medium 14" gets 8 slices, and a small 10" gets 4.

There were often extra slices on the line that didn't get bought up, and it was a nice little perk to grab a slice as a snack/lunch. As a cook, we could also get a little creative with the line pies, using up food that was close to the use-by date and making tasty combinations. Working there for a while, you think you've seen pretty much every pizza there could be, but there were still times when I would look at an order and say, "Huh! Never seen that before!"

So that brings my time as a pizza cook to the close! I had a great time working at Hot Lips, learned some new things, and met some awesome people. I'll miss making pizza (and the free food perks), but I am excited to eat some NYC pizza when I move there this summer (I really haven't eaten any non- Hot Lips pizza since working there).

And hey, I'm headed off to become a starving actor so I'm sure food service will see me again in the future 😜 🍕

- Evan

Bonus: How to Make Breadsticks

Along with pizza, Hot Lips also sells delicious breadsticks (garlic parmesan and basil pesto). It was the cook's job to prepare the breadsticks in the morning. For these, you take three 18" dough balls and flatten them into rectangles. You cut them into six strips each, as evenly as possible. You dip the strips in semolina (to prevent sticking), and stretch them out. Let them rest for a minute so they retain their stretch, then give them a quick twist and lay them out on a big sheet tray.

These bake in the oven for ~12 minutes. Then you take them out, spread garlic or basil sauce on them, sprinkle with parmesan, and stick them back in for another ~6 minutes.

These are truly one of the tastiest menu items you can order at Hot Lips so don't miss out on them if you're there!