For some people, the thought of working with family is a no-go – but this isn’t the case for Haydn’s Woodfired Pizza.
Owned by Robert Fenton and assisted by his wife Deborah, as well as various other friends and family, at a range of catering events, family is the recipe for success behind this north-east pizza business.
It’s been running since 2017 and Robert has more than 15 years of catering experience working with pizzas – a food that he still hasn’t gotten sick of yet!
Favourites like margherita and pepperoni always work a treat. But the business also thrives upon customising its toppings for a wide range of events.
But above all, for self-confessed chatty man Robert, it is undoubtedly the social aspect of running the pizza business that he enjoys the most.
We talked to Robert to find out more about Haydn’s Woodfired Pizza:
Tell us about yourself
My wife Deborah and I had our son Hayden when we were relatively young. He has been our core focus for a number of years.
I didn’t study at college or university; I just went straight to work to support the family and landed a job at an old food shop in Aberdeen called P H D. It was well known here before a lot of the big-name pizza chains came into the city.
I worked there for a few years, learned how to make pizzas and that all started when I was 17.
Then I ended up moving on to Domino’s, who had just started in Aberdeen at the time, and worked there for around 14 or 15 years.
I went from trainee all the way to regional manager running five stores by the end of my time there. That’s when I started my own pizza business.
What made you want to start your own business?
Towards the end of my time working as an area manager with Domino’s, I was kind of fed up. It was a big company and didn’t like the corporate vibe of it all, really.
So, I was looking for something a bit smaller that I could do myself.
I liked the idea of street food and spent a bit of time researching it. I ended up meeting a guy down in Rotherham who was doing a lot of private catering with his pizza business, which I liked the look of.
For somebody who already knows how to make pizzas, I was blown away by how straightforward it was. I felt like this was something that was right for me. It made me feel confident that this is what I’d be happy doing.
When did it all begin?
It was just over five years ago. There actually weren’t that many places doing pizza street food in the north-east when we first started out, so that made us stand out at the time.
Trying to come up with a name was one of the biggest challenges for me and my wife! I wanted something more personal to us, so it’s actually our son’s name we’ve used – just spelt a little differently.
What’s been some of the challenges you’ve faced?
Working from a really busy pizza chain to running my own business, I think I overestimated a few things initially.
One of them was how much we could do by ourselves, and another was the demand for our food as well.
I had to change tactic from solely aiming for the big public events, which we sometimes still do, to smaller scale local events catering to small towns and villages, as well as weddings and parties.
Now, my wife volunteers her time quite regularly and I also have friends who are eager to chip in, as well as other family members like my brother and sister. I’m lucky to have a pool of folk who are all quite happy to help out.
Tell us all about your pizzas.
Handmade dough, freshly prepared toppings, cooked to order – that’s pretty much it! The most popular pizzas are our margherita and pepperoni, which I guess is what the majority of pizza businesses would say.
But we also do things like chipotle BBQ chicken pizzas which do really well.
We also do a halloumi and veg pizza with a bit of sweet chilli which is really nice. They’re the four most popular pizzas we sell at events.
Each event we do can be customised. If it’s a private event, I’d usually give clients a list of 20 different pizzas, then they choose four that they would like on the day.
It’s really just what suits the occasion.
Veggie and vegan pizzas are really easy to make up as the dough is already vegan anyway, but gluten-free can be a little bit tricky sometimes with cross contamination of flours. We also offer sides like gourmet garlic breads which work really well.
What is it about a woodfired oven that works so well for pizzas?
The temperature of the oven is a lot hotter than a domestic oven. The pizzas are cooked at a very high heat. One of the things you have to ensure is that the dough is suitable for cooking at that heat.
It normally has a higher moisture content and the flour is a lot finer – called ’00’ flour – and that means it can survive the process quite comfortably.
You get that slightly smoky texture and char from a woodfired oven that you can’t get elsewhere.
What do you enjoy most about running Haydn’s Woodfired Pizza?
You actually speak to a lot of people running a street food business. I’m a really chatty guy and I love speaking to people, whether it’s customers, event organisers, other food vendors, you name it.
That social aspect is what I really like and enjoy about the business. I don’t know if that’s what I thought it’d be like when I started it, but it’s definitely what I love most about it now.
After spending so many years working with pizzas, are you still not sick of them yet?
Surprisingly no! I still have pizzas quite regularly. It’s still something I’d occasionally order when I’m out for a meal – I’m not totally sick of them yet.
Future plans?
In the short term, I want to aim for a more substantial setup – whether that’s a van or larger food truck that could set me up to do more events.
But maybe in the long term within the next 10 years, I would love to have a permanent shop where I could sell our pizzas from with a restaurant atmosphere, as well as the catering on the side.
To find out more, visit Haydn’s Woodfired Pizza online.
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