The Art of Pi: Making pizza at Carriage House Cooking School

I’ve always loved making pizza. I remember my first attempt at age 10 to create a pizza without parental assistance. It was no small miracle that my mum managed to consume what I proudly served her without deflating my junior chef’s ego … or throwing up – what’s wrong with kippers, chocolate sprinkles, Velveeta and pepperoni toppings I ask? It was not until I took a “boy’s cooking class” my senior year in high school that I truly appreciated the art of making pizza.
Fast forward 40 odd years or so, and there I was, taking a cooking class at the Carriage House Cooking School on, here we go again, the art of making pizza, specifically, “Art of Pi – Making Artisan Style Pizza At Home.” I was joined in the kitchen by four other travel writers as part of an Adventure Travel Trade Association media tour of the Adirondacks in New York state.
Our guide for this artisan pizza-making journey was none other than Chef Curtiss Hemm, the former dean of the New England Culinary Institute in Vermont and former instructor at Paul Smith’s College of Arts and Science in New York. He is now head of his own kitchen and cooking school, built with his own hands (out of timber he milled and shaped himself) at his family home near the town of Peru, New York. Like many of his compatriots, Chef Hemm commands a room with both his size and jovial manner, plus he is unassuming, delightfully humorous, and always encouraging, always teaching.
Over the course of three hours, under Chef Hemm’s expert tutelage, we each learned to make our own delicious pizza from scratch without trashing his oven (you’ll have to watch the video below to understand that part). And then, of course, we ate a lot of pizza and drank locally brewed beer. All-in-all, a perfectly delicious evening in so many ways.
While the recipe I am sharing below is for Pizza Margherita, in the Art of Pi class at Carriage House Cooking School you learn to make all sorts of artisan pizza too. Check out the current school program to find a cooking class or even a unique dinner experience prepared just for you by Chef Hemm (oh you’ll get your hands into the food preparation too). It will make for a perfect and memorable Adirondack night out, I promise.
Before you download and read the delicious recipe, I encourage you to watch the short companion video below, to watch Chef Hemm work his magic with dough, the making of the sauce, and then explaining how to best make pizza margherita in his Art of Pi class.
Download the Pizza Margherita recipe
Members of our Subscriber Club can download the Carriage House Cooking School Pizza Margherita recipe here.
Our award-winning photos make a perfect gift – to yourself, a friend, or a family member. Prints for a wall, on a desk, as greeting cards, cozy fleece blankets, ornaments, fridge magnets, coffee mugs, luggage tags, coasters, mouse pads and puzzles. Subscriber Club members get 25% off any order!
If you are not yet a member of our Subscriber Club use the form below to subscribe to the HI Travel Tales Subscriber Club newsletter. With the newsletter, you’ll start receiving premium stories, photography and tips that do not appear on our website. And you’ll become part of a fun travel community. Once you are a newsletter subscriber, you will be invited to set up a Subscriber Club account granting you full access to our free travel book and recipe library.
You may also like to read
You may also find the following recipes from our cooking experience interesting:
- Charbroiled Oysters Recipe from the Louisiana Oyster Trail
- Best limoncello recipe: limoncello with Everclear for real Italian flavor
- How to cook the best Moroccan couscous, thanks Riad Laaroussa
- How to make Ukrainian-style ginger tea with lemon, mint and cloves
- What is a shrub? Old English shrub recipe to relive travel memories
Our Most Recent Travel Stories
Stollen 1930: gin tasting inside a 600-year-old Austrian cave
Stollen 1930 in Kufstein, Austria, boasts one of the largest collections of gins in the world, deep inside an historic cave carved into the rocks beneath the fortress walls. It’s a remarkable place to visit, even for those who don’t love or even like gin.
Hartstone Inn’s Electric Daisy restaurant in Camden a delight + bonus recipe
Hartstone Inn’s new Electric Daisy restaurant in Camden, Maine, offers creative, sustainable food that showcases local farms and foods. Plus, many of Chef Dustin Shockley’s dishes include the Szechuan pepper flower called “electric daisy” for an extra tongue-tingling delight. Subscriber Club members get an insider bonus recipe.
Hotel room hacks for those annoying lights and gaping curtains
Bright lights and curtains that don’t close in hotel rooms are irritating. My bag full of tricks to help me sleep includes hangers, pillows, and duct tape to solve the issue annoying light issue to ensure a good night’s sleep.
Stollen 1930: gin tasting inside a 600-year-old Austrian cave
Stollen 1930 in Kufstein, Austria, boasts one of the largest collections of gins in the world, deep inside an historic cave carved into the rocks beneath the fortress walls. It’s a remarkable place to visit, even for those who don’t love or even like gin.
Hartstone Inn’s Electric Daisy restaurant in Camden a delight + bonus recipe
Hartstone Inn’s new Electric Daisy restaurant in Camden, Maine, offers creative, sustainable food that showcases local farms and foods. Plus, many of Chef Dustin Shockley’s dishes include the Szechuan pepper flower called “electric daisy” for an extra tongue-tingling delight. Subscriber Club members get an insider bonus recipe.
Hotel room hacks for those annoying lights and gaping curtains
Bright lights and curtains that don’t close in hotel rooms are irritating. My bag full of tricks to help me sleep includes hangers, pillows, and duct tape to solve the issue annoying light issue to ensure a good night’s sleep.
As an affiliate for Get Your Guide, Amazon.com, iVisa, Global Rescue, Think Tank, 5.11, Kuhl, Adorama, and others, we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you should you choose to purchase through the links in our posts. It is essential to mention that we only endorse products we believe in and personally use. Your support for HI Travel Tales through these purchases allows us to maintain a sustainable platform for creating valuable and relevant content for you.
0 Comments