There are several versions of Roman Pizza.......Pizza al Taglio, Pizza alla Pala, and Pinsa are the more popular of the bunch.
Different from the common popular styles of Sicilian and Focaccia, when looking at a slice from the side, Roman Style crust should be light, airy, and full of caverns. The texture should be very light to the bite, with a slight crunch and chewy texture.
The Academy of Roman Pizza was established as a single source for those looking to learn more about Roman-Style Pizza (Pizza al Taglio, Pizza alla Pala, and Pinsa). We offer everything one may need to open his or her own pizzeria or business including, training, certification, ingredients, equipment, and pizza tools. We can also help the casual students wanting to learn the style for home use.
We are passionate about authenticity and our mission is to preserve tradition by offering only the best quality training in the business. Our instructors are all certified to teach, our equipment and tools are brought in directly from Italy and have been approved and certified as well.
The Academy of Roman Pizza offers several options for training. Below is information about each individual training program and what you will take away from each courses. Courses are reserved based on availability, and are taught on a one on one basis. The courses are held in Miami FL. Our facility is a fully operational pizzeria. We feel you will get the most out of our courses if you are fully immersed.
1 day
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Designed for the casual pizza enthusiast, hobbyist, or professional wanting to add another skill to their portfolio.
Courses are offered as group courses but private courses are available upon request.
Please see our "Enroll Now" calendar for availability.
2 Day
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Recommended for students who desire to become a professional and use those skills in an existing concept.
Courses are offered as group courses but private courses are available upon request.
Please see our "Enroll Now" calendar for availability.
4 days
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Recommended to those who want to learn everything there is to know about Roman Style Pizza. This multi day course is perfect for clients looking to apply this skill on a restaurant, commercial, or industrial level.
Courses are offered as group courses but private courses are available upon request.
Please see our "Enroll Now" calendar for availability.
Please fill out the contact form below and we will get back to you within 24 hours.
Massimiliano Saieva was born on August 13, 1973, in Italy. At the age of 7 his family moved to the suburbs of Rome, where he gave his first steps towards developing his passion for cooking. Learning the art of cooking from his mother, grandmother and as a teen Chef in traditional Italian cuisine. He found himself in love with the world of pizza and in particular "Teglia Gourmet". After discovering his new found passion Massimiliano decided to learn from the best Italian pizza makers in Italy. He learned and perfected the long chilled maturation process which is used by the best Italian restaurants, this innovative process aims to be the most digestible and healthy approach in the creation of dough. In 2004 without speaking a word of Spanish Massimiliano moved to Caracas — Venezuela with his wife Ana, where they opened their own first Italian restaurant. An array of authentic Italian food "Sabor a Vino" gave them 7 years of incredible satisfaction, unfortunately due to the fast changing social and political climate they decided to migrate to the USA. Based in Miami and with another language challenge they embarked on a new adventure. He decided to follow his instinct and passion opening one of the first, if not the first Roman Style pizzeria's in the USA. In 2012 Pizzarium a Slice of Rome established, he had a place where every day is an opportunity to create, experiment new dough formulas and bring innovation into the world of pizza. In 2014 after opening Pizzarium he and his friend Alex Manzo of Manzo Food Sales had a vision that Roman Pizza would be the next big trend in pizza. So they spent the next few years showcasing Roman Style Pizza on business trips, at trade shows, and seminars around the world. So in 2016 the Roman Pizza Academy was created due to the new and overwhelming demand to learn everything there is to know about the new style. Since opening Massimiliano has taught students from over 20 countries on 5 continents establishing himself as one of the worlds authorities on Roman Pizza.
Kevin Konn was born on March 15, 1981 in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. At the age of 18 he started making New York style pizza as a summer job while playing Junior hockey in Columbus Ohio. In 2001, Kevin attended University of Pittsburgh. While attending college, Kevin worked as a pizza maker at Italian Village Pizza where he first met Richard Sphatt, a chef from New York who became his mentor. Under the guidance of chef Richie, Kevin left college to attend the Pennsylvania Culinary Institute Le Cordon Bleu school of culinary arts. During culinary school, Kevin worked at Il Pizzaiolo in Mt. Lebanon Pennsylvania where he learned Neapolitan pizza from Ron Molinaro. In 2012 Kevin opened Pizzaiolo Primo in downtown Pittsburgh and headed the Neapolitan pizza program. In 2015 Kevin joined Team Polselli in affiliation with Manzo Foods to attend the International Pizza Expo in Las Vegas where he first met Massimiliano Saieva, lead instructor of the Roman Pizza Academy. It was there that Kevin turned his attention to the craft of Roman Pizza. During the past 3 years Kevin received training and support from Massimo. In November 2018, Kevin opened Romulus Pizza al Taglio in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania.
Latest news from Roman Pizza Academy
Pizza is a $30 billion per year industry. Such is America’s love for pizza, there are now over 61,269 pizzerias in the United States and as a nation, we dedicated the whole month of October to be recognized as National Pizza Month.
If you live in America, it’s statistically likely you’ll eat around 6000 slices of pizza over the course of your life. Mamma Mia, that’s a lot of pizza!
Did you know that Italian continuously ranks as the most popular food choice of all time in America? (Courtesy of the National Restaurant Association).
According to NAPO, 350 slices of pizza are sold every second. That dishes out huge potential to take a generous slice of the (pizza) pie if you’re planning on opening your own pizza restaurant.
To meet the continuous demand for high culinary standards from the modern foodie consumer, Roman-style pizza is the hottest trend in the food business, with no signs of slowing down any time this century.
Where did it all start?
Way back in 1835, Alexandre Dumas, the author of The Three Musketeers, traveled to Naples, where he observed that the Italian locals ate nothing but pizza, and found himself intrigued by the delicious aromatic aromas that were filling the air all around him.
In the early 20th Century, pizza was predominantly consumed and sold by working-class Italian immigrants, but after World War II, American soldiers returned to America from Italy with an appetite for pizza. And thus, the rise of America’s phenomenal commercial demand for pizza was born.
The Roman Pizza Academy was established for one sole reason. To share our passion for Roman-Style Pizza (Pizza al Taglio) with all food enthusiasts from restaurant owners dreaming of opening their own Italian pizzeria to cooking hobbyists inspired to master the sacred art of Roman-style Italian pizza perfection.
We teach the most authentic Italian culinarian experience via our cooking lessons in Miami with our Rome-trained chefs and Italian imported cooking equipment and tools.
Who are Roman pizza cooking classes for?
We offer expert one-to-one training for everyone from the casual pizza lover and food professional eager to add pizza skills to their qualifications to the aspiring chef and Roman style pizzeria owner. Discover more about our classes here.
Interested in learning how to make the newest pizza craze? Calling all pizza enthusiasts, hobbyists, and professionals! We’ve got the perfect opportunity for you! At Roman Pizza Academy we pride ourselves on our knowledge of Roman style pizza, Pizza al Taglio, and we want to share it with you.
What is pizza al taglio? “Al taglio” translates to “by the cut,” which is where we get the phrase “pizza by the slice.” This style pizza is baked on rectangular trays and sold in slices of the same shape. Hailing from Rome, pizza al taglio is common throughout all of Italy and different variations can even be found around the world.
In order to allow for hands on help and maximum attention from instructors, we keep our classes small and offer private options as well. We want our students to take away the most from this experience and we feel that this offers the best environment for that.
Massimiliano Saieva, our lead instructor, was born in Italy and it was there that he developed his passion for cooking, learning from his mother and grandmother. He went on to study under Angelo Iezzi, one of the best pizza makers and president of the National University of Pizza. Fast forward to 2004 when Massimiliano moved to Venezuela with his wife to open their first restaurant. After seven years, they packed up and relocated to Miami to embark on their new adventure, Pizzarium – A Slice of Rome, where everyday is spent creating and experimenting with new formulas for dough, bringing innovation to the world of pizza! Just like Massimiliano, all of our instructors are certified to teach by the top schools in Rome and our equipment and tools are brought in directly from Italy, already approved and certified as well.
Be one of the firsts to offer this new pizza trend at your restaurant! Roman Pizza Academy welcomes restaurant owners and employees to attend our classes. Gain the knowledge needed to open a Roman style pizzeria or if you already have a restaurant, learn the techniques for making pizza al taglio so you can add it to your existing menu. We encourage you to jump on this opportunity!
What are you waiting for? Come get saucy with us! Explore our courses here.
“Pizza” everyone knows it, everyone loves it! It’s hard to disagree that pizza is one of our favorite foods. New York Style, Chicago Style, Detroit Style, Sicilian Style, Neapolitan Style, it does not matter we like them all. However there is one particular style many have never heard of and its set to be the next big trend in the U.S. pizza industry. The style we speak of it is Roman Style or more commonly known as Pizza al Taglio in Italy (pizza by the cut translated literally). One may ask…Why is this? How do we know Pizza al Taglio is set to be next in line? Well….. its quite simple, the “gourmet”/”artisan” trend we are seeing these days is here to stay. Our food culture in the US is growing, the customers are loving the better quality ingredients, the romantic story and quite frankly the pizzeria’s are quite happy with the profitability of better quality pizza. Pizza al Taglio fits these molds but it also has some additional perks going for it . Its considerably healthier than most pizza, its much more appealing to the eye than all other pizza, and it follows the fast casual model of “you pick” what you want we are seeing more often these days. Another great aspect of Pizza al Taglio much different than that of the popular Neapolitan Pizza is the fact that everything is done in advance before the customer walks in the door. In today’s world these are all recipes for success.
Those in the know have seen the Pizza al Taglio movement coming for just about 1-2 years now. When you see big names like Starbucks (operating under the Princi brand), Gabriele Bonci, and a few names we will keep confidential for the time being get involved in the USA market you start to believe a little more. More proof is our course attendance is skyrocketing as of late and we are seeing more and more pizza professionals sign up for training. Many of whom want to be the first in their city and many of whom want to remain anonymous as they prefer to fly in under the radar.
Roman Pizza Academy is proud to be a pioneer in the Pizza al Taglio movement. If you are looking for training, ovens, equipment, ingredients and/or consultation please reach out to us. We look forward to teaching to all the wonderful aspects of Pizza al Taglio
Testimonials from our students, colleagues, and friends…..
Read moreSharing the same passion for pizza in teglia alla Romana, Massimiliano Saieva and I collaborated at the Pizza Expo in Vegas and he has since become a mentor of mine. He continues to provide guidance and support not only on the craft of making pizza in teglia, but also on the operations side of running a successful restaurant. He is a wonderful and talented teacher who has a deep passion for the product.
The Roman Pizza Academy provides a first class experience for those looking to learn about Pizza al Taglio. Massimiliano Saieva has mentored me and has inspired an industry with his creations and drive for the perfect pizza crust.
8434 South Dixie Highway
Miami, Florida 33143
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