Nearly three months after launching regular Espresso 101 classes, Liberty Market has unveiled its latest class, Pizza 101. The first session was held from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. today at the downtown Gilbert market.

David Traina, executive chef and co-owner of Liberty Market, addresses the half-dozen inaugural participants at the pizza counter. Each paid $10 for the two-hour class, which included their own pizza and beverages.

Liberty Market makes its wood-fired pizzas in a Renato oven that ranges from 600 degrees to nearly 1,000 degrees. The oven never goes cold. At night, the doors are closed and the embers glow until morning.

Traina regales the class with personal tales of oven maker Renato Riccio, an Italian immigrant who makes his famous ovens in Texas.

Pecan from right here in Arizona is the only wood used in the oven. One of its characteristics is it burns very evenly.

Off to the kitchen, where the class helps make a batch of pizza dough in Liberty’s refurbished 1934 Hobart 80-quart mixer. Some trivia: Liberty Market co-owner Joe Johnston’s grandfather invented this mixer.

Thirty pounds of freshly mixed pizza dough — made with just flour, water, salt and yeast — are placed into a clear container that will be placed in the walk-in cooler to rise overnight. Pizza cook Mike Mickelson pulls out a white plastic container of dough mixed the previous day for the class to use.

Traina demonstrates how to toss dough in the air. Fortunately, such moves are not necessary to make pizza, he says.

A class member gets instruction from Mickelson on how to stretch the dough into the proper shape and thickness.

Mickelson shows a class member how to check the dough for “window panes,” areas where the dough is thin enough to see light through. “The more sections you can see through the better,” Traina says.

A class member and Traina share a laugh.

Traina watches a class member ladle sauce onto her dough. Liberty Market’s sauce is made with San Marzano tomatoes (considered the world’s best for sauces), garlic, salt, pepper and basil.

Liberty Market does not cook its pizza sauce while making it because cooking it a second time in the oven would destroy its flavor.

Traina helps a class member put her pizza into the oven using a metal pizza peel. Pizzas are moved to various positions around the oven during the four or so minutes they take to cook.

Class members get straight A’s on their “final exams.” Then they eat them. Plus, each class member receives a pound of starter dough to take home.

Afterward, the inaugural Pizza 101 class and their instructors pose for a graduation photo.

For information on the future Pizza 101 classes, which will be held monthly, call (480) 892-1900 and leave your name and e-mail address. Or send the info in a direct message via Twitter to @libertymarket.

Posted in: Gilbert • Liberty Market |

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