How long does pizzaiolo training take?

Here it is measured in days, not years. The three-day class covers the core craft — ingredients, dough, balling, stretching, baking — and the five-day intensive adds volume, staff training and pizzeria operations. The course gives you correct technique and a repeatable process; fluency comes from baking regularly afterwards, which is true of any kitchen skill.

Do I need professional kitchen experience?

Not for the three-day class, which is aimed at people moving towards the profession. The five-day intensive assumes you are opening or already running a kitchen, and includes training your own staff. The one-day class is aimed at home cooks.

Will this get me a job as a pizzaiolo?

No training can promise employment, and no school should claim it can. What the course gives you is the working method a pizzeria needs: consistent dough, controlled fermentation, oven management and speed. Employers judge the pizza you can produce, and this is where you learn to produce it properly.

Is the training certified or officially recognised?

No. Neapolitan Pizza School is an independent school. It holds no accreditation and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (AVPN) or any other body, and it makes no ranking claims. What it offers is direct teaching from a working master baker and pizzaiolo with more than 35 years in the trade.

Can more than one person from my kitchen attend?

Yes. Courses are booked privately at your location, and training your team is part of the five-day intensive. For a full brigade or several sites, the scope and price are quoted individually.

Which course should I choose?

One day if you bake at home and want your technique corrected. Three days if you want to work as a pizzaiolo or are starting to sell pizza. Five days if you are opening a pizzeria or need an existing team brought to one standard.

Become a pizza maker

Pizzaiolo Training

What a pizzaiolo actually has to control — dough, fermentation, fire, speed — and how three or five days of on-site training gets you there on your own equipment.

See the professional courses

Pizzaiolo opening a fermented dough ball by hand before topping it

What a pizzaiolo does

A pizzaiolo is the person responsible for the dough and the bake. Not just the shaping and the topping, but the decisions made hours earlier: how strong the flour is, how much water it takes, how long the dough ferments, and how it is stored before service.

In a working pizzeria those decisions are made under pressure. Room temperature changes, flour deliveries change, orders arrive in bursts, and the oven has to be read constantly. A trained pizzaiolo adjusts the process instead of hoping the recipe still fits.

That is the skill this training builds: understanding the variables, seeing the signs in the dough, and controlling the bake on the oven that is actually in front of you.

The skills you build

Six areas, taught in the order a working kitchen needs them.

Dough and fermentation

Flour strength, hydration, salt, yeast and time. You learn why a dough behaves the way it does, so you can adjust instead of guessing.

Climate and altitude

Your kitchen is not a classroom. Temperature, humidity and elevation change fermentation, and the recipe is corrected for yours.

Balling and stretching

Even balls, an intact rim, no tearing and no rolling pin. The hand work that separates a pizzaiolo from someone making pizza.

Oven and fire

Firing up, reading floor and dome temperature, rotating, and managing a queue of pizzas without losing the bake.

Toppings and mozzarella

Balanced topping weight, quality ingredients and optional mozzarella making, so the pizza is not overloaded or soggy.

Volume and consistency

Reproducing the same result fifty times in a service, and teaching your own staff to do the same.

Professional courses

The two courses built for people who intend to work in, or open, a pizzeria. Both are taught at your own location.

3 Day Florida Class

$1,850

3 days · Monday to Wednesday, 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Three days of Neapolitan pizza training on your own equipment, covering ingredients, dough by hand and by mixer, balling, stretching, classic and specialty pizzas, and handling several pizzas in your oven.

On-site training at your restaurant or agreed-upon location in Florida.

Ingredient selection: flour, tomatoes, olive oil, cheeses
Dough by hand and by your own mixer
Balling, slapping and stretching
Classic Neapolitan and specialty pizzas

5 Day Florida Intensive Class

$2,850

5 days · Monday to Friday, 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

A five-day professional intensive on your own line: high-volume production, advanced hydration and fermentation, specialty pizzas, staff training and the workflow of running a pizzeria.

On-site training at your restaurant or agreed-upon location in Florida.

High-volume pizza production in your setup
Advanced hydration and fermentation
Multiple toppings and specialty pizzas
Staff training on your premises

5 Day Out Of State Class

$3,250

5 days · Monday to Friday, 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

The full five-day intensive delivered outside Florida, exclusively at your own location and on your own equipment, adapting dough and oven work to your climate, altitude and tools.

On-site training at your restaurant or agreed-upon location outside Florida.

Dough behaviour in your climate and altitude
Oven management on your specific setup
Full five-day intensive curriculum
Staff training included

Prices are per person. A $350 down payment holds your date, and travel expenses are quoted by location. Classes run at your own location, on your own equipment.

How the five days run

Monday to Friday, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., in your kitchen. The order below is the standard path; the pace is adjusted to what your oven and your team need.

Day 1
Dough fundamentals
Mixing by hand and by your mixer, hydration, salt and yeast, and the first bake on your oven. Establishing a baseline you can taste.
Day 2
Fermentation and balling
Fermentation time and temperature in your environment, portioning and balling, and how the ball's condition controls the final crust.
Day 3
Stretching, topping, baking
Opening the dough by hand, balanced topping, and baking Marinara, Margherita and specialty pizzas in your oven one after another.
Day 4
Volume and workflow
High-volume production, station setup, and the sequence a working line needs when orders arrive faster than the oven.
Day 5
Team and operations
Training your staff on the same standard, troubleshooting the faults that appear in service, and preparing for the opening.

Who trains you

Thorsten Stein — Chef Thor — is a master baker and master pizzaiolo. He teaches every class personally.

Founded in 2010

Neapolitan Pizza School has trained home cooks, pizzaiolos and restaurant teams since 2010.

35+ years in the craft

Chef Thor began his chef training in 1991 at the five-star Steigenberger Mannheimer Hof in Mannheim, Germany.

Trained in Naples technique

He learned Neapolitan pizza under two master pizzaiolos from Italy, and teaches that method on your equipment.

Your location, your oven

Every class happens in your kitchen, on your oven and mixer, with your flour and your climate.

Read Chef Thor's full background →

What this training is — and what it isn't

It is an independent, hands-on school run by a master baker and master pizzaiolo who has worked in professional kitchens since 1991 and taught since 2010.

It is not an accreditation body. No AVPN affiliation, certification, official ranking or award is claimed here or implied anywhere in this training, and no certificate issued by this school carries industry accreditation.

Nor is it a shortcut. Five days gives you correct method and a process that holds up in service; the speed and judgement that make a great pizzaiolo are built by baking, week after week, in a real kitchen.

Where the training happens

Pizzaiolo training is delivered in person at your own business. There is no campus and no fixed classroom: Chef Thor comes to the kitchen your team actually works in, and trains on your oven, mixer and ingredients.

Florida training

On-site training at your restaurant or agreed-upon location in Florida — in your own kitchen, with your own equipment, alongside your own staff.

Out-of-state training

On-site training at your restaurant or agreed-upon location outside Florida. The 5-day out-of-state class is tuition only; travel expenses are quoted separately.

Restaurants, hotels, resorts and food trucks can book training at their own premises or at a facility they agree with us. Enter the training address when you book, or leave it blank and we will confirm it before the first day.

Frequently asked questions

Straight answers about the professional path.

Start with the craft

Compare the professional courses, or talk to Chef Thor about your kitchen before you choose.