Inclusive Altrincham pizza school offers a slice of Italy for all

“We don’t expect you to simply taste our food. We want you to experience it,” says Giovanni D’Andrea, the proprietor who teaches pizza making at Bianco Pizza in Altrincham.

Bianco Pizza is an authentic new Italian pizza place hidden under an Altrincham viaduct.

He said “We’ll teach anyone who wants to learn – from students wanting to start their careers to professionals who need to progress to the highest levels of pizza-making.” 

Originally from a small town in Italy called Benevento, Giovanni has helped set up a four day pizza making school on how to make pizza in a uniquely Italian way.

Giovanni has partnered with a charity called Pure Innovations who help to get people with special educational needs into employment.

The charity helps young adults normally aged 16-24 with learning difficulties or disabilities who need a bit of extra support and help to fill in the gaps with education with a plan to get them into work. 

And this is where Bianco comes in, who is offering courses to help people with special educational needs learn how to make great pizza.

Jane is an employment officer from the Personal Educational Plan division of Pure Innovations who spoke to I LOVE MCR about the project. 

Jane said: “Everyone wants to be treated the same and stand on their own two feet.

“And the end result of the PEP is independence and employment.

“My role is to find opportunities like this and find employers with a heart of gold who are willing to take the time out and help these students.

“Our students have such a lot to give and a lot of skills to tap into, and Giovanni has been brilliant with this.

“The students are all engaged and understand that they’ve been given an opportunity.”

The pizza school at Bianco has inspired at least one of the students to announce that they want to become a full time chef. 

Giovanni and Bailey

Bailey, aka “The Amazing Bailey” from Wythenshawe, spends most of his time on his Xbox but has quickly come to the conclusion that he wants to become not just a pizza chef but harbours ambitions to work with “different kinds of food” and also possibly bartending too. 

When asked where would he like to work, he declared interest in a job at a local eatery called The Mess Cafe in Sharston.

Jane continued: “This is a stepping stone to realise that they [the students] can move forward.

“So if we’ve engaged a few of the students and helped them make a decision that actually they want to work in hospitality for example and be hands-on as a chef , we can then work with that and progress filling in the gaps and hopefully look towards employment at the end.

“Giovanni’s helping stepping-stoning students into shaping their future. Employers like these are brilliant, and you can see he’s [Giovanni] enjoying it and is getting something back from it as well.”

The Italian Pizza School provide training courses and consultancy services – for both individuals and for business – nationally and internationally with courses tailored to suit everyone from students wanting to start their careers to professionals who need to progress to the highest levels of pizza-making.

Their courses teach various skills including preparation of dough and ingredients, different types of dough and styles of pizza, stretching pizza dough in various styles, and how to spread toppings, and much more…

You can book a lesson, here.