Scorchini’s: Bringing A Taste of Naples to Wales

From getting hammered by testing conditions in a little horsebox trailer to catering on the set of Doctor Who and getting ready to open their own fixed site premises, it’s been quite the journey for family pizza business Scorchini’s. The first Associazione Vera Pizza Napoletana (AVPN) accredited pizza business in Wales, their ethos is rooted in authenticity as they ‘bring the taste of Naples to Wales’. We spoke with owner Gareth to find out more about this journey:

How you got into catering and then came to set up your own independent business as Scorchini’s?

I come from a military and healthcare background. Both my wife and I are ex-Navy. I spent 15 years as a medic in the Navy.

I was unexpectedly medically discharged from the forces about three years ago but was fortunate enough to step straight into a role within the NHS that utilised my medical skills and background.

Within two or three months of taking on the job COVID hit, so things became really tough. As you can imagine it was a really stressful and thankless job and after about two years I’d just had enough, it was too much.
I’ve always been passionate about food, especially pizza. It’s something I’ve tried to perfect for years and the idea to pursue it came about after a stressful day of work.

My wife Miranda and I were watching a TV show about Ffwrness (The Pizza Boys) and how they started up and it just inspired us. We ended up going to a pizzeria for a meal for my birthday, I spoke to the owner and told him “I’d love to do this”, he said “well why don’t you?” and that was that. I walked back in there two weeks later, told him I’d quit my job and I’m going to give it a go and I was very lucky to be able to work for him for about two months. He taught me so much about pizza and specifically about Neapolitan pizza.

From that, we felt ready so invested in a little horse trailer and were off.

You are the first AVPN accredited pizza caterer in Wales, can you talk us that and your experience studying?

When we were starting, obviously I did a lot of research. I was speaking with Thomas from Pizzeria Bufala about a pizza oven when I found out he had been to the AVPN school in Naples. He really encouraged me to do the same and we had a healthy competition to become the first two accredited mobile pizzerias in the UK.

I wanted to know everything there is to know about Neapolitan pizza, where it’s come from, where the tradition and history has come from. It has a UNESCO protected status and is regarded as integral to the culture of Naples. So I thought if I’m going to do this, I’m going to do it properly. I invested in a trip to Naples and completed the professional course at the AVPN school in Capodimonte.

Going to Naples and studying under what is effectively pizza royalty – the main instructor is actually the great grandson of Raffaele Esposito who is the man that created the original Margherita back in 1889 – you can’t get more authentic training than that!

We learned all about the history of pizza but the bit I loved most is the science behind it. A lot of people don’t understand how difficult it is to make and manage dough and the effects different ingredients have together.
It’s understanding how different flours are used, what types of flour you need, why you need it, the absorption and hydration and how your environment can adversely affect the outcome.

The interaction of yeast and salt is so important to creating the perfect prove and maturation, so actually understanding the science behind how these ingredients interact with each other to make a good product, that for me was key to all of this.

It’s also so important to understand the flavours, so for example we struggle to get really good tomatoes in this country with a good flavour. Whereas when you’re in Naples, and you’re tasting the San Marzano tomatoes that have grown in the grounds of Vesuvius, in that volcanic ash, you realise how significant a difference that can make.

People think a Margherita, a ‘plain’ pizza is boring over here – but you go over there and it’s all you want to eat, because the flavours are glorious!
So, for me it was about bringing back everything I learnt, to cook into our pizzas.

How much of a difference do you think that the AVPN accreditation has made or that it will make?

In all honesty, I don’t think without it I would have had the confidence to open up a pizzeria.

Going to Naples and taking my game to the next level has actually given me the knowledge and confidence to say ‘I can actually open up a large pizzeria and do this properly’. I think that’s where the difference is.

The authenticity and tradition means a lot to us, so actually abiding by that protected status and creating that traditional cuisine was important. I always compare this notion to champagne:
You can have award-winning sparkling wines that that are amazing and actually some will be perhaps even better than champagne. But champagne is still champagne because it’s it has to meet that certain criteria and you know that if you have a bottle of champagne, that’s exactly what you’re getting.

That’s what we wanted – if we’re going to give this a go and make and sell pizzas, you are only going to get a pizza exactly how you would get it if you were in Naples. This was supported by one of Italy’s famous pizza chefs, Enzo Coccia of La Notizia who commended us for honouring his culture abroad and wished us all the luck.

It has fed directly into the identity of the business in this sense: Our slogan with Scorchini’s is ‘bringing the taste of Naples to Wales’.

We quite like that idea. You know, you don’t always have to renew your passport and get on a plane to get that authentic taste. We are bringing it here, to the valleys where there’s a lot of people that don’t really leave Wales.

Scorchini’s has been going for about a year and a half now, what have you enjoyed the most about running the business?

I’d like to say it’s the customers, but actually it’s more just making pizza. I am an enthusiast, I could make pizza all day and still enjoy it, so this suits me well. Of course, it is great seeing customers enjoy our food too!
We’ve had some amazing experiences in this business, it has provided things I never would have imagined. We have catered for the Welsh international rugby team just before they set off for the World Cup, which being a rugby fan myself and having two young sons that also love the sport, you can imagine how much we enjoyed that.

Having moments like that, where the players are enjoying the food, jumping in the van, talking to the lads. Being able to provide opportunities for your children to go and meet celebrities, meet their heroes in such an organic setting, is incredible. It’s surprised me too because we’ve catered for some of them a few times now, I’m having semi-regular contact with these guys I’d idolised, it’s something I probably never dreamt this business would bring us!

So we’ve seen on your website that you’ve catered for the cast of Doctor Who on set previously which must have been amazing, can you talk us through that and how it came to be?

We signed up to a couple of websites that connect you with people that are seeking caterers for their events, parties and all sorts, we were on one website that wasn’t working well for us and I’d written to them stating that. They came back with an opportunity to go down to a filming studio in Cardiff.

Straight away they said yes, so you go down there without a clue who or what it is for, just ready to cook for people and when we arrived there, it’s the set of Doctor Who!

So that was an amazing experience, and we must have done something right because we’ve actually been back there again since another two times which is a bit surreal but always great fun for us. It also confirmed to us that we are definitely doing things right food wise, that people want to rebook us, which was great to take away from something like this.

What you think has been the most challenging aspect of running your own business so far?

That’s been the background scenes. The admin, the fear of the unknown. I went from a well-paid job to starting my own business where there is no regular or guaranteed income. You’re investing all your own money, it’s a huge risk really.

We’re so used to needing this security and we just took a plunge. When you’re a husband and father, with a wife and two children that you’re responsible for, that is really scary. And that is what’s been the most challenging is to navigate that sea, to think how am I going to put food on the table?

When you start out, nobody knows you. Nobody is coming to you to book you. You have to put yourself about and we’ve been through some gruelling weather, it’s why we upgraded our van because our little horse trailer was getting hammered by the conditions.

You couldn’t cook the pizza in the oven because the wind is howling through and affecting the temperatures – it was a hard lesson to learn.

There have been experiences like last Christmas where we were working every day for about five or six weeks, just me and my wife constantly working to try and keep things going. I remember we only got Christmas day off, and you think oh I’m exhausted, but you’ve got to make a Christmas dinner for the children, make the day special for them.

That trial by fire at the beginning, that was a huge challenge, getting the work, getting our name out there and being able to get through that first year of business.

Opening up your own pizzeria in Merthyr Tydfil is an exciting prospect – how has this come about?

I was approached originally by a landlord in Abergavenny who owns a pub and he said he needed to get someone into the premises, to do something with the building. My answer was that I haven’t got the money to do that.

He told me that as Merthyr had struggled with COVID and seen a lot of businesses close, the council had some money for a regeneration project to fund businesses, drive tourism and traffic into Wales. So we had a discussion which went well and the regeneration team agreed to provide funding.

The risk was minimal on my end, so I thought why not? What an opportunity, what’s the worst that can happen?

If it doesn’t succeed, I keep my van. I still have the mobile business, which is succeeding. So our plan is that we’re keeping that going. We’re just going to reduce output a little bit. We can be a bit more selective about the jobs that work better for us, focus on the private bookings, weddings events etc instead of trying our luck at festivals.

We know that with a fixed site there can be a lot more headache. But it has its pros too. The fact that actually we could build a bigger brand, build something that’s more consistent because we’ve got a lot of customers that follow us, but we can’t provide them the consistency every time, depending on our bookings. Whereas if we’ve got a restaurant they can come to us whenever they want!

We are hoping to get it open in September, the building has been dormant for about three years and needed a whole revamp, so it’s been a huge amount of work but we are excited to open.

When we started the business, this wasn’t an aspiration for us at all. We thought it would be too big a step. And you hear a lot about fixed site struggles, neither of us come from a hospitality background so weren’t really sure.

But the success we’ve had does make you see it’s actually realistic. If you put your mind to it and you’re passionate about it, you’ve got a chance.

The guy I first went to work for in Cardiff, Tony from Anatoni’s had a similar way of coming into hospitality, as he came from working for BMW to becoming a pizza chef. He had a saying that always stuck with me, and he still tells me it now: “Your passion will rub off on your customers. And when they see your passion, they will become passionate about it and they will keep coming back to you.”

And so far we have found that to be true.

You can keep up to date with Scorchini’s here. For further member spotlights and interviews click here.