Cookery class review: BungaTINI’s Pizza Making Class

May 2017

By Izzy Brimeau

The course: Pizza Making Class (£30 per person)
Where: BungaTINI, London

What it’s like:
BungaTINI have started running evening pizza-making classes on the bottom floor of their restaurant in Covent Garden. After a brief meet-and-greet, some antipasti and a breakdown of the class, the fun begins.

The tables are covered with plastic tablecloths and ingredients are measured out in small bowls and removed once empty, by one of the friendly staff. You learn how to create one of Italy’s most loved dishes and, after they’ve been cooked, you get to finish the evening eating your creation.

What I learned
We started where all good pizzas begin – at the bottom, or more specifically, the base. There was no messing about, we got straight into it using our hands to mix together water, oil, flour and yeast. That was the easy part. Then there was the kneading, that took much longer. Stretch the dough out, fold the dough, turn the dough over and repeat. Once the elasticity of the dough was deemed acceptable it was packaged away to prove. We could take this dough away with us so we could make another pizza and put what we learnt into practice.

After a ‘here’s one I made earlier’ moment we were presented with proved balls of dough to practice our base-making skills. We were also told that there would be a prize for the person with the biggest pizza base. Once the idea of winning was mentioned my competitive side took over. After some competitive stretching and being crowned the winner (why thank you) the real fun began – the making of our dinner. Despite my efforts, I struggled with forming a circular base and ended up with a weirdly stretched, almost square pizza. Perhaps my previous win got the better of me.

The end result was great nevertheless – a thin, crisp pizza topped with cheese, mushrooms, red onions, gorgonzola and n’duja. I was pretty happy with my creation and so was my boyfriend who helped me eat mine, after finishing his own.

The verdict
I would highly recommend this class to anyone that wants to learn how to make pizza the Italian way. At £30 per person, it’s well-priced (everyone receives a welcome drink, antipasti and pizza, with pizza dough to take home) and it’s a great evening out. Be prepared to get messy – you’ll find flour on your clothes, shoes and stuck to your fingers… Or maybe that was just me.