Interviews

When pizzaiolo and influencer Christy Alia created her popular Instagram account, @realcleverfood, most people assumed she was a man based on pizza pics alone. It was a disappointing start to her business — but one that also spurred a movement. Along with Alexandra Mortati, marketing director of Orlando Foods, Women In Pizza/Women’s Pizza Month was founded with the idea that pizza making is for everybody.

Having competed at Pizza Expo, Jimmy Hank knows what to expect. His first Pizza Expo was in 2022, and it was the first one since the pandemic shutdown. Attendance was light due to international restrictions, but nothing can bring a pizza party down! Jimmy Hank shares with LloydPans his take on the growth of Pizza Expo since that year, and he opens up about why LloydPans is his pan of choice for this year’s Pizza Expo competitions.

When Kara first started selling bread on Facebook, it was upon her husband’s encouragement. It was a hobby at first, starting with following other bakers on Instagram to learn more about bread making. She was working full time alongside baking bread, but the “hobby” took off in a way that surprised her. In June of 2019, with her daughter in tow, she and her husband started selling bread at farmers markets — and something struck a chord. 

Richard Payne of Dough and Behold had been making pizzas for a year or two before he heard about LloydPans during the pandemic. He had just started @dough_and_behold, and through conversations with the pizzaiolo community, he found that LloydPans was a brand that received high recommendations. Payne spoke to us about the pizza and dough making process with LloydPans, geeking out on the industry and how he’s built a pop-up and collaboration business from across the pond. 

Before the pandemic, Sanctuary Pizza Owner Ryan Mondragon was working for a pizza catering company, traveling for birthdays, weddings and parties. Once the pandemic happened, the company moved to Nashville, leaving Mondragon without a job like so many others. With the knowledge he had after 7 years at the previous company, he offered local COVID-friendly pizza pop ups out of his backyard and quickly realized that he was going to be in the full-time pizza business once again. He invested in trucks and a portable Ooni oven — all he needed was the perfect pizza pan.

LloydPans partnered with Vic Rose of Cuisine University to support Pizza Master Classes — one in Boca Raton and the other in Naples — with 12x18x1.5 inch Sicilian-Style Pans and 10x14 Detroit-Style Pans. We spoke with Vic and Dom about LloydPans, the love of pizza and challenges that come with teaching pizza making.

In part 2 of our conversation with San Francisco-based Flour + Water Pizzeria’s Co-Founder Ryan Pollnow and Sous Chef Elliott Armstrong, we dive deeper into menu development. Then we tour the kitchen where the pizza making magic happens!

We spoke with Co-Executive Chef and Partner Ryan Pollnow for a two-part blog that took us deeper into daily life at Flour + Water Pizzeria, from culinary inspiration to our curiosity over an 800-degree wood burning oven imported from Italy. 

Innovation reigned at this year’s National Restaurant Association Show, and the LloydPans booth was hopping with the latest foodservice equipment, bakeware and pizza pans. More than 57,000 attendees were treated to interactive displays, the latest solutions for the foodservice industry and even mobile robot servers from the approximate 2,100 suppliers on the show floor.

U.S. Pizza Team Member Vittoria Trupiano has made quite the mark in the pizza industry at a young age. Paving her way with her own life path and a determination to inspire young women is just one of the many aspects we discussed in our LloydPans exclusive interview.