Where is tom pizzica

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Subscribe to this thread:. He's bullish on the Philadelphia market in part because of its adventurous eaters, but don't expect a grand opening ceremony — he's looking to make a splash through the food truck and catering channels. A brick-and-mortar followed in in the South of Market neighborhood of San Francisco.

Pizzica said he "creates flavors that are worldly. I pick a theme and run with it," but he doesn't "overload" the burger with ingredients. He wants the "pork to come through. Popular burgers include the Classic, made with fried chili pepper aioli, tomatillo relish and Cotija cheese,. The San Francisco restaurant closed in late December after Pizzica decided to move his family back to his hometown of West Chester, Pa. The business will thrive with that alone. Pizzica, in Philadelphia, will focus on a mobile operation and on catering for private and corporate events — his "bread and butter," Pizzica said.

The BCT Belly Burgers concept entered the Philadelphia market through Fooda, a Chicago-based company providing pop-up restaurant programs to multi-tenant buildings, large corporations and health care facilities. Pizzica used the company's services in California, so he was familiar with it; Fooda is live in more than 10 U. Pizzica rose to fame in after an appearance on the sixth season of Food Network's "Food Network Star," eventually becoming a finalist.

Despite losing the reality TV challenge, he was given the show called "Outrageous Food," which first aired in October Pizzica said he got the idea of using pork belly during the Pork Summit in Napa Valley, where he participated in a food demonstration. And what to tell my parents about the tens of thousands of dollars they spent on school!?

As per usual my mother and father were very supportive and I moved back home to the Philadelphia area and began working at a very small fine-dining French joint my dad had invested a little money in. Going from a corporate kitchen to a small independently owned place was a huge change and quickly proved what I feared all along. Never afraid to learn or fail two crucial personality traits of anyone looking to succeed in this business , I jumped right in.

I dropped the right name and scored a gig as a manager in a downtown oyster house in Philadelphia. Spending my days seating people and listening to servers complain about their schedules and sections was not my idea of a good career. I befriended a few cooks and would share smokes with them in the back alley but I was still viewed as a waste of payroll by them and I began to view myself as such.

I was broke and needed money fast. I also wanted to learn the other crucial aspect of the restaurant world; waiting tables. I went back to my local Outback Steakhouse and scored a serving gig with ease because I already knew the menu and could communicate with people effectively.

I met a young hostess there named Rachel who became a great friend and 8 years later became my wife. Working there also made me realize that I needed to do something more with my life. After about a year, I began to dream up ways to get out of my ratty suburban two bedroom apartment, and away from Philly all together.

I began to think about the U. Virgin Islands or something else drastic and far far away, but what happened next really became the turning point in my culinary career. I went to San Francisco for the first time at the request of two of my life long best friends who had moved out there years before.

I fell in love with it and it just so happened that I had a friend who worked at the California Culinary Academy. I began living the dream. I was flat broke, in debt up to my eyeballs and living in a tiny dorm room on Eddy Street in the tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco with some 19 year old kid from Baltimore.

It was amazing because I was finally doing it. I was fully embracing my calling to be a professional cook.

How did I know it was a new place? Because everyday I would see a 30 year old guy standing outside the kitchen door looking like he had been asked to paint the Sistine Chapel in water colors with a toothbrush. You would have thought I told him I was Michelangelo showing up on the scene with a set of oil paints and brushes to take over on the ceiling part of the job.

He became a mentor not only in the kitchen he taught me more about California Asian style cuisine than any schooling could have possibly taught me but also tuned me in to the whole San Francisco restaurant scene. The late late nights, the brutal long hours. He was a rockstar, and I quickly learned that good chefs get treated as such.

I wanted to be a rockstar too! I spent the next 15 months going to school and working prep in the mornings trying to learn as much as I could. I did my externship in Philly and graduated culinary school in I first worked at a small neighborhood Italian place and then sunk my feet into a few of the well known big restaurants of San Francisco.

I worked the grill at Postrio at night and also did breakfast shifts at the famed Campton Place hotel in the mornings. I was learning from some of the best chefs and soon had a merry crew of fellow cooks to party with at night. I was still flat broke but loving my life.