Can a pizza change a person’s perspective? Sometimes, yes.
This is what happened in the Brissogne (AO) prison, where the first “Professional Pizzaiolo di 1° livello” course of Scuola Italiana Pizzaioli was held in July 2025, made possible thanks to the support of Confcommercio Valle d’Aosta, the distributor Ristorfoods and thanks to the foresight of the prison management.
Twelve inmates, no experience but great motivation.
In five intense days of theory and practice, they learned not only the techniques for making a classic pizza to perfection, but also the value of hard work, precision, and collaboration. A training course that, in keeping with the teaching method of Scuola Italiana Pizzaioli, was able to sow real skills.
But not only that.
Because in a place where time seems crystallized, kneading, rolling out and baking has become a gesture of freedom. A moment of shared humanity. The trainees, with commitment and passion, also prepared more than 140 pizzas, providing the entire inmate population with a special meal. For many it was the first pizza tasted in years. And that is where pizza once again proved to be a socially useful food.
Because a pizza, when made with care and shared with respect, can become so much more than a meal:
is a bridge between people, it is memory of home, it is dignity regained, it is redemption for the future. In a difficult context such as a prison, it represented aconcrete opportunity for training, but also a gesture of humanity that leaves its mark.
The teaching that remains is simple and powerful:
“where a well-made pizza arrives, a new possibility can also arrive.”
And from a lit oven can come, indeed, a better future.
By: Enrico Bonardo
Sales and marketing director of Scuola Italiana Pizzaioli
