Pizza Making Party at Pizza Express

Last night, I was invited to the Gloucester Road branch of Pizza Express in London for a pizza making party. Pizza Express is one of our favourite places for a meal out, because it is one of the few places where Jumpy can safely eat a starter, a main and a desert despite her allergies.

I love a nice, thin pizza covered in tomato sauce, onion and cheese with a generous side salad. It not something we tend to have at home, because The only pizza we make is on wraps or pitta, so it just does not compare to the real thing!

Last night was all about me though. I was going to a pizza making party with a group of like-minded ladies, and let me tell you something: I had a brilliant evening!

As soon as I arrived at the restaurant,  a minute’s walk away from Gloucester Road station, I spotted the friendly group of bloggers chatting away. I had a Sicilian lemonade, my favourite drink whenever I go to Pizza Express.

Our hosts, Alex and Gianmaria, took us to our pizza making station where they explained how to stretch and toss the dough. We washed our hands and had a go ourselves. Our attempts provided a lot of entertainment and hilarity.

We could either go for a classic pizza, soft and thick, or stretch the dough further to make a thin and crispy Romana pizza. I went for the latter. More surface means more toppings, right? Our party hosts kept us on our toes, encouraging us, tossing pizza dough at us (true story) and helping us when we were really struggling.

After the tomato sauce was delicately applied on our pizza bases, we could each make our own creation, taking our  pick from a selection of fresh ingredients.

I went for artichoke, goat’s cheese, mozzarella and pepperoni, with a pinch of black pepper. My pizza would be called The Cheesy Frenchie.

We left the baking bit to the pros and went back to our table, where Prosecco was flowing and dough balls were served. The girls I was sat with were lovely and we got chatting about our families, our travels and our careers.

When our lovingly made pizzas were served, we had a bit of an awards ceremony. The youngest cook among us won the prize for Best Pizza, Afra won the ‘Best Tosser’ award and Lilinha was given a ‘Don’t give up your day job’ certificate.

Before we parted company and I walked towards the tube station with Elfa and Lilinha, we had coffee and dessert: best way to finish a perfect evening.

Would I ever book an adult pizza making party? Yep!

Disclosure: I was invited to the event and compensated for this blog post, but all opinions and photos are my own.