Chow

Chico teacher turns sourdough crust recipe into new career Indulge your dreams and good quality cheeses. Chico’s pretty good because we’re a college town, and so we have a lot of little pizza places to meet everyone’s tastes, but when you go into a lot of the larger city markets, there’s a lot of Indulgence Pizza truck. PHOTO COURTESY OF INDULGENCE PIZZA by Trevor Whitney the same pizza all over the place and it becomes who can do it for cheaper. trevorw@ What’s your favorite pizza you make? newsreview.com Our Pure Indulgence. It’s something I came up with during this process. It’s got applewood bacon, Point Reyes blue cheese and sauteed onions. The combination of that sweet

Ten years ago, after Jack Campbell and his onion, that Point Reyes that puddles wife, Ana Bonnin, returned to the around the pizza and then that salty states from a year spent in Buenos Aires, little hint of bacon, it’s like that umami Argentina, they faced a serious dilemma. mix—perfect. They couldn’t find a pizza that matched the old-school American-pizzeria-inspired pies What’s next? Bonnin grew to love during their year in We’d like to grow our brand. We’ve her home country. Once all research efforts got ideas for pastas and ice cream failed, Campbell, a science teacher, took and several [other] menu items. Who it upon himself to create a perfect pie at knows what [that] will mean in the home. The winning experiment involved a long run, but there are a lot of options. sourdough crust We’re starting to do some catering. that was a hit Which direction and how many direc-

Indulgence Pizza with his wife and tions we’re trying to go, we’re not indulgencepizza.com facebook.com/indulgencepizza their family and friends. In fact, you can find the truck posted up at Coffee Ranch and Secret Trail Brewing Co. in Chico taking on different types of work, and this is definitely appealing. It’s like a game, right? entirely sure, but it’s a fun process. I finally found something I really like doing, and at this many of them and Farmers Brewery in Princeton. Visit its You don’t want to run out of stuff, you don’t point in life, it’s nice to have something where said, “If you ever quit teaching, you should Facebook page for current schedule. want to plan for too much, and you want to people appreciate your work. Everyone should start doing this.” So he did. Campbell quit serve as many people as possible within a know it can be done. If you’ve got a spark, if his job as a middle school biology teacher What made you decide to make a career change? window of time. It’s kind of addictive. My you keep trying and going for it, it’s out there. and opened up a pizza truck with Bonnin. There are those sleepless nights where wife thinks I put too much time in. I did a lot of things that didn’t work. And I

Indulgence Pizza debuted in the first week you’re saying, “OK, we just made a decision kept the philosophy: If you’re not happy with in January—using that same fermented sour- to do this, are we nuts? Is this crazy? Are my What’s your approach to creating recipes what you’re doing, you’ve gotta change. Ω dough crust for his pizzas and calzones—and friends saying it’s great pizza just because for Indulgence? I’m bringing pizza over?” I think It’s nostalgic. I’m a little bit older, so when anybody who goes into some- I was a kid there weren’t so many of these thing like this, there are probably pizza chains. It was very much [like] you go those moments of doubt. Most into a town and often they had a pizza joint, entrepreneurs have had to take maybe a couple. But people were very loyal that leap of faith at some point. to those places, and the style had very robust You have to put your foot out sauce. The crust played a part of the pizza— there at some point; hopefully it wasn’t just like a paper plate, it was well you find good footing? integrated into the pizza, so there were all of these full flavors. That’s my memory. So Does if feel like you have? when I went to Argentina, it was like that Yeah. I still am surprised. was revived. It was really similar in style Planning is very difficult, you because they cook an Americana style pie know. It’s a lot of learning, since down there as well. It was nice to see that, all my background since I was and that’s kind of what I strive for. Even like a teenager has been in fields some of the big chains started out like that. I other than the food industry. It’s worked at a Round Table as a teenager. They good, though—I do like to learn. were a different place than what they are I want to be a lifelong learner, now. It was that pizzeria style, heavy sauces

Indulgence Pizza co-owner Jack Campbell in front of his truck. The Pure Indulgence pizza, with applewood bacon, Point Reyes blue cheese and sauteed onions.