TWO WAYS TO DESCRIBE FAT CAT PIZZAS.
FAIR. AND SQUARE.
Sean de Souza calls himself the Head Pizza Guy, at the Fat Cat Pizza Company in Bangalore. I asked him about his start up journey and how he finally ended up making pizzas at Fat Cat. Over the next 30 minutes I almost learnt how to make his “fair and square” pizzas from scratch.
Here’s more from Sean:
I got into the music business when in college as a means to make pocket money — starting off as a Disc Jockey and then venturing into the business, starting my own DJ school.
I also started an events company and an AV integration company, but my heart wasn’t in it. I started experimenting with food a couple of years ago, but the idea of pizza happened during the first pandemic lockdown.
You mentioned that you started Fat Cat from scratch. How did you put the components together, and who helped you along the way?
I had initially discussed the project with Sukesh Ananth, a friend who had studied pizza making the traditional way in Italy. Sukesh gave me the recipe for the base and sauce — which are prime ingredients. From then on during the first Covid lockdown, I made pizza for my wife every single day, and she patiently helped me fine-tune many aspects that come into play. God bless her for this, because a menu was born.
Our fire-starter on the project was Misha Pamnany — an accomplished food consultant and now my partner at Fat Cat. Misha gave me background support and helped me understand the restaurant business. She also helped me get off the blocks to start our Fat Cat Pizza Company.
Initially, it was just trial and error which (laughs) continues even today. For me it’s a never-ending search for the perfect crust, soft but crisp, a sauce to carry the toppings, and then a combination of toppings for that perfect bite and taste. All this has to fall into place, in just the right way.
So, what makes a Fat Cat pizza different? (Right from the square shape.)
There are a number of things that make our pizzas different in comparison to a regular pizza, but it’s mainly due to function and the flavor we want to get out of the pizza. Our idea was to give our customers a tasty meal or tasty cheat meal that held up well after 20–25 minutes of travel time. To make sure the pizzas were cooked with just enough moisture we opted to bake our pizzas in a pan, hence the square shape. We also realized that longer bake times made for a more flavorful pizza. (Lets face it, we love flavor — the more the better.)
So we do a lot of things different but it’s just so we can make the most flavorful pizzas that will be enjoyed once it reaches you at home. Ours is still a base kitchen operation.
How did you work out the desi variants and flavors in your range?
We don’t consider it desi or foreign. Pizza is 3 things — dough or base, sauce and toppings. Traditional toppings have always been local, so what would we put on a pizza? Things like roast chicken that we made at Christmas, seekh kebab made at home for our barbeques, and other familiar ideas that we can remember and relate to. It was just a question of identifying flavors that we grew up with and then adapting them to work on our pizzas.
The pepperoni is our best seller among the non vegetarian and the hello kitty among the vegetarian. I think it just appeals to our taste sensibilities.
What’s different or unique about your base ingredients and toppings?
There is a lot that goes into the dough. To start with, storage temperature is controlled right through the 24-hour fermentation process. We make dough the previous night, refrigerate for 24 hours at a particular temperature and then use it to make pizza. Other than that that everything else is pretty straightforward. I must add here that we use a slow-cooking method instead of the (time-saving) fast because that just brings out the best flavors.
What has the response been to your pizzas? Could you share one interesting, or unusual comment?
The response has been great! I think that is the great thing about food — good or bad feedback just warms the heart or pushes you to do better the next time. The best comment — “Your pizza is the best thing to happen since sliced bread.”
I’ve been told that your unique taste, pizza shape and pricing make your pizzas popular? Was this a carefully planned strategy?
Yes! We wanted to give customers a quality product at an affordable price. At the end of the day we are making food for someone that is meant to nourish them. We take this very seriously, hence only quality ingredients and best practices. It’s an uphill task but with your support we will get there.
Could you (briefly) tell us how a pizza takes shape at Fat Cat, from start to finish?
*Dough 24-hour cold ferment
* Sauce 4-hour slow cook
* Toppings each have their own prep time — from 24 hours
for marination, to 2 hours of cook time
*Then it’s getting all the ingredients ready and assembling the pizza
*16 minutes in the oven
*20 minutes to you and voila!
What are your plans for the near future?New locations, a dine-in place, maybe?
We plan to open our next outlet in Indiranagar — as things stand, 2 more outlets are in the pipeline. We’re doing this more to be able to cater to our clients who live far away from our base kitchen in Cooke Town.
God willing, a dine-in place at some point, but for now just getting new customers and making sure we serve them bl**dy good pizza. I think that’s fair and square.
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As always happy to be of service! You can place your orders by calling us on 9686445712 or logging onto fatcat.dotpe.in / Swiggy / Zomato.
(We are trying to widen reach and access — your location could be added soon.)
Sean de Souza
Head Pizza Guy
Fat Cat Pizza Company
13/1 Tawakkal Chancery,
Dodda Banaswadi Road,
Bangalore 560005
