I grew up in West Haven, CT for 23 years of my life. West Haven had/has a huge amount of amazing Apizza. Mike’s Apizza, Zuppardi’s Apizza, Danny’s Expresso, Vesuvio’s, Luigi’s, Only The Best, Tom & Pat’s, Domenic’s, etc. Most are gone, some are still there. Me and my buddies used to ride our bikes up and down Campbell Ave and then all over West Haven and Milford just being kids and eating at these above pizzerias during our travels. Pizza was close by regardless of where you were in the city. It’s been in my blood since I can remember.I started making pizza when I was 12 years old at my church carnival in West Haven. An off the boat Italian immigrant women showed me and two of my Italian West Haven buddies how to make the dough, sauce, grind the hard cheese off the wheel, ferment the dough and ready it for frying. All from scratch. We made carnival pizza or pizza fritta.I did that until I was 16 and I discovered something I loved a little bit more than pizza ☺ Take a guess. Little did I know that this experience would have planted a seed in my head that in my mid 50’s I would be using that knowledge and experience I learned as a young man.Being a blue collar kid from West Haven,CT, I never ventured out to much from West Haven, until my mid-twenties when I discovered Wooster Street. It was love at first bite. Wooster Street is where Sally’s Apizza and Frank Pepe live, World class pizza on any scale.In 2012 I started Fired Up Pizza Truck and did that for 5 years until something had to give as I had two other businesses and three put me over the edge. I used an FGM, French Bread Oven to make New Haven Style Apizza, dessert pies and we offered professional DJ music. It was a huge success.Prior to starting FUPT I spend literally thousands of hours “studying” New Haven Pizza. Articles, videos, pictures, dough trays, coal ovens, thermos dynamics in any oven, tomatoes, immigrant history, etc.In 2022 I started New Haven Pizza School on a complete whim. It’s turned into my 2.0, pretty much full-time gig. I run brick & mortar classes with people coming from all over the country now to take my class. I’ve had over 4,000 student since 2022 as well. Additionally, I offer Team Building events and that has equally gone really well and all continue to grow.Who knows where this is going, but honestly, if it ended all tomorrow, I am super proud of all I have accomplished in a short amount of time.I also have a lot of people to thank along the way for help and encouragement, they know who they are. I equally have a lot of people who do not and did not believe in me and that want nothing more than for me to fail, those people motivate me the most.So that's my story and I’m sticking to it.
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