We give floor to Roberto Di Massa, enthusiastic for the next basic class aimed at future professionals in the sector to be held at the AVPN School in Sydney from 24 to 28 April 2023:
1)What are the reasons/signals that prompted you to open/run an AVPN School in Sydney - Australia? What kind of classes do you offer?
In Australia we experience a great shortage of staff in the hospitality industry as never seen before, many improvise with dishonest economic demands at the expense of the professional figure and at a high price for entrepreneurs. The new training reality wants to commit to the figure of the pizzaiolo’s professionalization and consequently a support to entrepreneurs and obviously to the popularity of the product for customers.
In addition, in Australia the Neapolitan pizza does not have a conscious audience, there is a lot of confusion about what is really meant by Neapolitan pizza and what are its characteristics. Let us start with the basic courses of approach to the profession and as soon as possible the offer will be expanded to follow the existing structure in Naples.
2) How many classes will be available in a year? How many students can accommodate each course?
Since it is a new project, we can only make predictions, in a short time we hope to be useful with at least one class per month, the number of participants is determined by the capacity of the classroom available. Currently we believe it is essential to host a maximum of 6 participants per session in order to offer adequate attention to each individual participant also in terms of equipment.
3) Do you think the new equipment that was born in recent years have helped the training?
It is trivial to say that the new technologies aim to fill the lack of experience or skills of users, craft work is simplified in all respects compared to the past, like the new kinds of peels or maybe the temperature detectors for the ovens. Consequently, training also optimizes the supply of new technologies by simplifying the transfer of production concepts. For example, as a child to understand the temperature of the oven you had to know how to control the color of the embers or the stone in the oven, often the temperature was measured by approaching the hand to the mouth of the oven, today just read a display or measure with a laser thermometer.
4) How important is it to make an excellent training to know and understand the 'secrets' of the True Neapolitan pizza?
What I always explain during my lessons and that, if you learn the principles of Neapolitan pizza processing, you are basically ready to immerse yourself in all the other types of bakery products, it is therefore important to start at the very base of the processes and then arrive at the size of the product. Knowing how to transfer hundreds of years of experience and evolution of a craft like ours requires knowledge and devotion and a lot of patience. Explaining how the product was born from the historical, physical, and biological point of view, makes the difference for a true understanding of the Neapolitan Pizza. As in all sectors, good training not only trains us in the correct execution of a process, but also gives us respect for what we do.
