Welwyn Garden City has a new food maestro who is taking the town by storm with his authentic Neapolitan pizza.
Daniel Dyer set up L'Artista Della Pizza at the start of the year, and on Thursdays and Fridays, he has been serving the town's residents the very best in proper Italian pizza from a van outside the entrance to The Howard Centre.
Setting up the business has long been an ambition for Daniel, who decided to make his dream a reality when he left Ocado after almost 15 years with the company.
"It’s been a dream of mine for a long time to have my own pizza business," he told the Welwyn Hatfield Times.
"I’ve always been interested in cooking, but the main reason I started with pizza was because of my wife, who didn’t really like pizza. I told her she was crazy because I am obsessed with pizza, but in Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield, it was hard to find any quality pizza in that Neapolitan style.
"I started working on how to build the bases and doing things the right way, and my pizzas really started to come along.
"My wife now loves pizza and has been inviting family and friends over to have pizza days, and people kept telling me I need to do something and start my own business.
"I was working at Ocado for 14 years as a senior operation manager for two sites. When they closed the Hatfield site they offered me other roles within the business, but I thought it was the perfect time to try and do my own thing and give this pizza idea a go.
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"We started with this trailer in an effort to keep costs low, because we didn’t know how things were going to go. Things seem to be going well and business has picked up in the past few weeks.
"We’re working closely with The Howard Centre who have been amazing. They’ve given us this pitch for two days a week and we’re going to start doing Friday nights, which will be great for us."
As well as using ingredients from Italy, Daniel was so determined to make his pizzas the best around, he decided to take a trip to the birthplace of the dish to learn exactly how its done.
"There is one online business that works through Uber Eats, but other than that there are no Neapolitan pizza places in Welwyn Hatfield," he said.
"We are trying to keep things as authentic as possible. We use fior di latte mozzarella, San Marzano tomatoes, Italian flour, pepperoni and chorizo.
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"We even went out to Naples to learn how to do things the right way, and we’ve brought that back here to make things as authentic as possible."
There were teething problems when the business first launched, but things are now looking up, with Daniel explaining: "Getting set up was challenging.
"We had some delays with the trailer and had to cancel the order, which pushed back the start date, but we luckily found this one online. It wasn’t ideal so I had to fit worktops to install the oven.
"It’s been challenging and a learning experience for me. Luckily I was trained in health and safety and food safety during my time at Ocado, so I was able to adapt some of those skills.
"Things were slow to start with. It was -4° during our first week which provided plenty of challenges. We’re now in our fifth week here and things seem to be going well. A lot of my customers are returning customers and they’re coming back every week."
L'Artista Della Pizza has already become a big part of the community and will be selling pizzas at the Welwyn Garden City's World Food Festival, which takes place in both May and September this year.
Daniel is also supporting a charity, adding: "In addition to working here in the town and doing private events, we will also be supporting a local charity called Therapeutic Hooves.
"This organisation provides support to individuals with disabilities, ranging from severe anxiety to life-altering conditions. We will be catering at their summer festival as a means of supporting their cause."
Despite being in business a little more than a month, Daniel has big plans for L'Artista Della Pizza, with hopes he can be at the forefront of a burgeoning street food scene in Welwyn Garden City, and eventually open his own pizzeria.
"I think a street food scene would be a great thing for Welwyn Hatfield, and we would love to be at the forefront of that. It’s something the town is really missing.
"There is us and Picnic Social, who we’ve built a good relationship with, but we need to build that scene.
"The idea is also to open up my own pizzeria. I’m a Welwyn Garden City resident, living in Hall Grove, so to be here and feeding my own community is really special and something we are really passionate about. To have a pizzeria here would be incredible."
To find out more search L'Artista della Pizza on Instagram and Facebook.
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