When ’at-home pizza’ doesn’t cut it, winery finds the answer in an accomplished consultant

Rob Sinton already had his fingers in much of the day-to-day operations at Starfield Vineyards in California’s El Dorado County, east of Placerville, before he and his father Tom began chewing on the idea of a pizza program. As Tom began the story during a recent phone interview, “Rob started the whole deal. He had sourdough starter and he started making pizza, and so I was encouraging him, and apparently too much because he got nervous that he was going to have to develop the whole pizza program, so he found [a] consultant, Pizza Buddha, to develop this particular pizza.” Rob, who joined his dad in the early days of Starfield Vineyards, after majoring in enology and viticulture at UC Davis, picked up the story from there. “Everyone told me, yeah, you can do the labels and the graphics and the winemaking and the whatever, and then also do the pizza program, and then it’ll be fine. Everything’s going to be fine,” he said, only a bit tongue-in-cheek. “And everyone loved the pizza, and then like, I don’t think you guys understand. This is just like at-home pizza. It’s not going to cut it for our customers. A good pizza is going to take me two years. And everyone’s like, no, it won’t take you two years. When we brought the consultant in, it was like, not only would it have taken me two years to get the right pizza, I would have bought all of the wrong equipment and set the entire thing up incorrectly.” Enter Alastair Hannmann, a.k.a. the Pizza Buddha, who per his bio has “spent years studying, refining and evangelizing Roman-style pizza across the world as a World Pizza Champion competitor. His approach is methodical and ingredient-driven: the right flours, the right fermentation, the right restraint.” Among his accomplishments was having a hand — well, two hands — in helping to create the Guinness World’s Longest Pizza. Rob said that Hannmann “was able to come in really quickly and basically say, ‘This is the oven. This is the thing. This is what we’re doing, and this will get you better.’” The Roman-style pizza, or Pizza alla Pala — is baked in long rectangular sheets, cut to order, and served on wooden boards. The style is defined by its crust: crackling and golden on the bottom, light and open-crumbed inside, built to support bold toppings without getting soggy or heavy. They complemented that wisdom by hiring Scott Tomblin, a former head chef at a beloved Placerville restaurant before it closed, to oversee the operation. Starfield Vineyards’ pizzas are served on wooden boards and cost from $21 to $30. The mix of pizzas include Margherita Classico, Tuscan Roasted Garlic, Bianca Romana and their signature Gold Country Pizza — per the menu, “a nod to the Gold Rush history of Placerville and El Dorado County, finished with real 24-karat gold. It’s not just a pizza. It’s a story on a board.” Starters and salads and dessert fill out the menu of the pizza kitchen, open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Wednesdays through Sundays with extended hours during Friday night summer concerts. Here’s a link to the menu. It’s one example of what so many wineries are doing across the country, building on their wine selection with other reasons to come by and stay awhile. At Starfield, that includes the 3 miles of nature trails accessible to visitors that meander through the 67-acre property. “The idea that I was very going to make anything — I mean, he spent a lifetime perfecting his pizza, and I had spent a few months. When I found him, I was quite pleased,” Rob said. “I’ve really enjoyed getting the whole process going. We did have a food program before that we weren’t able to make work, and so I think we were both always looking for something that would bring food back into the Starfield sphere, and basically this is what we settled on for it. I think it’s going to do real well.” ALSO READ Md. event gives wineries a taste of grape options available to grow GM, president of Pa. winery has seen plenty over his first decade in charge New Md. winery a ‘lifelong dream’ for California native already immersed in the business