Pizza Pilgrims

By Thom Elliot

In many ways - bringing our little three-wheeled pizza van to The Big Feastival does feel a little bit like a homecoming for us and our little pizza business. Let us explain...

It was always fairly inevitable that we would end up running our own business, and that food would be the focus of the business. Both of our parents, both together and separately - with one sub- standard O-level in art between them, had always run their own businesses - and their parents before them had done the same. After many years running a wine bar and a wine import business - they accidental stumbled across a run down country pub in the little village of Lower Oddington.

“The Fox” became a bit of an institution in the area in the mid nineties (if we say so ourselves) and we spent a worryingly large chunk of our formative years on both sides of a pub bar serving the occasional pint and drinking a lot of Britvic orange juices out of little bottles...

Obviously this experience was hard to eradicate from our minds (or our blood) and despite our parents best efforts to educate us well so that we could get “proper jobs” - it was pretty clear after a few years trying this route that it was not going to work. After a particularly long day, we met in the pub in London to discuss how to get away from our desks. Somewhere between the 4th and 5th pint, the idea of pizzas popped into our heads.

The rest is, to be honest, a little bit of a blur. We had the idea to put a pizza oven in a three-wheeled Piaggio Ape van. It has snowballed from there. The “pilgrimage” materialised from a cost saving initiative to save import costs for our van. The TV show came about via a chance meeting with a food critic who loved the idea of our pizza research trip to Italy - and off the back of the trip we also signed a book deal with Harper Collins. All very surreal.

To be honest though - it was always the actual pizza, and the pizza business, that really interested us. Once back from Italy, we busied ourselves trying to find a outlet to get our pizzas to the public. After many (many) calls to councils and market owners - we managed to blag a cherished space on the historic Berwick St Market in Soho.

And it has been a steep learning curve ever since! From perfecting the actual pizzas (and making them in the rain!) to attending our first festival (yet more rain) to opening our first pizzeria site in Soho (getting drier) - it has been an amazing rollercoaster ride and one we would not change for the world. Everyday is a school day and you can’t ask for more than that. We continue to work hard and making sure we are turning out the best pizzas this side of Naples - with the odd twist!

The little van continues to travel the country - attending events that mean a lot to us. And Jamie & Alex’s Feastival is right up the top of that list. It is always a fantastic weekend - and you can tell that the audiences are really into their food. Combined with fantastic countryside and a music great line up - what’s not to like! We can’t wait for a bit of Toots & The Maytals in the sunshine!

We first attended The Big Feastival when it had moved to Alex James’ farm in 2012, and last attended in 2013. We are excited to be working with some local producers on our pizzas this year - so you will have to wait for the full and final menu, but we will of course be bringing some classics along to the party.

Hopefully see you at The Big Feastival for a pizza or two...

PIZZA PILGRIMS will be at The Big Feastival 26-28 August, Kingham, The Cotswolds – www.thebigfeastival.co.uk