156. From Chef to Food Truck top Brick and Mortar Pizzeria

<div>This week, we hear the pizza journey of Evan Eriksen, who owns Pie 95 Pizza in Jacksonville, Florida, an artisan style, neighborhood pizzeria. His path to owning a pizza shop wasn’t a direct route and took him to some far-off places. After culinary school Evan worked with leading chefs in New York City, San Francisco and Sydney, Australia. But it was a pizza trailer that sparked his passion for pizza. Listen to Evan’s episode now.<br/><br/></div><div>Evan reached out to us on social wanting to share his journey to pizza. He sent us such a great story that we asked if we could share that with our followers. Here’s his story in his own words:<br/><br/></div><div>“As a young child I always was interested in food. Family gatherings and the group gatherings where everyone would partake in the dinner. So, this caused me to start cooking at a young age.<br/><br/></div><div>After graduating high school, I had no idea what to do even though I worked in restaurants dish washing, bussing tables, and prepping. I thought of what was my childhood dream to be. I then recalled watching a series “Great Chefs” as a young boy and praised these chefs.<br/><br/></div><div>I decided to move to south Florida and go to culinary school. “Florida Culinary Institute” was the name at the time. All through college I paid rent, bills and tuition cooking around West Palm Beach. After graduating I realized to be great, I had to train with the best. Then moved to NYC. Sent my resume out to over 25 places and only heard back from 1. Gotham Bar and Grill. I set up an Interview and bought my plane ticket. Within 2 weeks I was working as veggie cook for an amazing 3-star New York time restaurant.<br/><br/></div><div>It was incredible for a 21 yr old. After many years of working in NYC for great chefs like Alfred Portale, Eric Ripert, Gabriel Kruenther and Ben Pollinger I had to go overseas. On a whim got my visa and was headed down under to Sydney, Australia. There I staged at Quay and briefly worked at Tetsuyas. While sitting in Manly work I h