Pizza My World Pizzaface’s Brigi Stamber.

Pizza My World

Brigi Stamber (pictured right), pizza chef and company manager at Pizzaface (named Pizza of the Year at the Casual Dining Magazine Pizza Awards 2019).

MORNING

First thing in the morning I usually head to our Kemptown store. The Kemptown store was the first Pizzaface opened just over a decade ago. We now have three stores spread across Kemptown, in Central Brighton, nearby Hove and Worthing, which is a neighbouring town a few miles along the South Coast. We see ourselves as one big family and take pride in looking after our team.

Kemptown looks so tiny with a small upstairs where this is just about enough room for the oven and the staff. Downstairs, however, is pretty huge. There are two walk-in fridges, two kitchens and a large storage area. We tend to get most things delivered by pallet, and have a fold down slide that goes down the stairs and makes things so much easier to get in.

I go through the walk-in fridge and check all of our ingredients and rotate the stock. Sourcing high quality fresh ingredients is extremely important to us. We get all our Wild Boar and Lamb prosciutto direct from Sardinia, and only have a one to two-week lead time on placing the orders, which means that we have to keep well on top of the stock levels to ensure people have delicious toppings for their pizzas.

There is a large delivery of flour that has arrived from Eurostar Commodities. We’ve worked with Eurostar for many years because they share many of our values. They are a family business based in Yorkshire, but they have been bringing in fine and high quality ingredients for more than 25 years. They exclusively distribute very high quality flour from Grandi Molini Italiani in the UK. We’ve developed our own recipe and mix for our dough (which is secret of course!), but what I can say is that we’ve been very impressed with their Pizza Dorata, Verace and Italiani flours.

We also source high quality Italian tomatoes from Eurostar Commodities Della Terra range, and we find that these are really excellent tomatoes. We use them just on their own, and we also have some additions that we add to give our pizza our signature flavour and taste. They are a really excellent base for sauces and we find Eurostar Commodities totally reliable and consistent.

We make dough every day. The technique can vary because we find Kemptown is very hot, and the other restaurants are not so much so we

make alterations to our process based on temperature, the weather and the seasons. There is much to consider when we make the dough.

LUNCHTIME

By lunchtime I will head to the Worthing store to catch up with the manager and find out how the weekend has gone. We work closely together as a team and we want to work through any issues and we fix them then and there. The Worthing store is the most recent to open and is a bit more separated from the Brighton and Hove stores (which share some of the same delivery areas). We meet a few times a week so that I can get behind the restaurant manager and stay on top of things and give her and the team any support that they need.

Whilst I am there, we also have to make vegan brownies and cocktails for all of the shops.

Cocktails have always been a passion of mine. We started making pre-bottled cocktails for delivery at the start of lockdown and they just took off. People absolutely love them! They are all made with real fruit and come with a little packet of beautiful things for a garnish. We change the flavours each week and make enough so that they almost always completely sell out. This week I am making ‘Face Smash’, which is with gin, pineapple, and chilli. Yum! We also need to make vegan brownies for all of the shops. We make all of these in the Worthing store on a weekly basis. We do everything that we can in store. We really like to cook and create and give people high quality and delicious tasting accompaniments. We’ve developed a reputation for producing these extras.

AFTERNOON

I will come back into Brighton and Hove and visit the Hove restaurant to check how the ‘Pizzafaced’ orders are going. We sell pre-made pizzas to a number of bars and cinemas in the city they can cook to order. They are made and delivered once a week. I drop by Boho Gelato in the Laines - they are an independent ice cream parlour and supply all of our ice-cream. We’ve used Boho Gelato pretty much since we opened and we think they are the best ice-cream. They make everything themselves and are always coming up with new flavours. I have to pick some new specials to get in that we serve alongside our regular flavours. For this month I pick White Choc and Cardamom, and a vegan Fudge Brownie. I also have to come up with next month’s pizza specials. I love creating the monthly specials as it gives me the chance to create and to use fresh, local and seasonal ingredients. This time I meet with Mariya Takeuchi from Mogu Mogu - a Japanese Izakaya that we will be collaborating with. We want to use their pork belly, which is sous vide for 24 hours and basted in soy sauce, garlic, and ginger. The pizza that we come up with together is the 24 sous vide pork, fresh chillies, spring onions, and a dark syrupy sauce made from the pork. It looks and tastes fantastic. However, because I’m a vegan I have to leave it to my boss, Bertie, to make the final decision!

EVENING

Outside of work I am the vice-president for the Brighton Hand Ball club. Sometimes it feels like work all over again as I often end up organising everything, but I love it at the same time. We train once a week and play a match every couple of weeks. Brighton is a great place to live and real foodie and pizza hub. Working in pizza I try to eat other things when I eat out and I’m really spoilt for choice with all the fantastic restaurants that we have down here.

We are also lucky enough to have the sea and I love to go to Brighton beach and have a canoe that I take out onto the sea when the weather permits.