This past weekend, the kids got to make their own pizza at California Pizza Kitchen! As you know, my kids are foodies and Grace wants to be a chef when she grows up, so we like to encourage anything we can in this area for her. And Eden loves pizza! So it was a win/win for both of them.
I looked on CPK’s website so I could link you to their “Inner Pizza Chef” program, but I couldn’t find it online. The way we found out about is because Josh and I subscribe to their emails, and we’ve been getting emails monthly about this activity. So a couple of weeks ago, Josh signed the girls up. It’s only $10 per child, and the kids get a free drink and get to make their own pizza. The parents even get a free plate of some of their flatbread-which is delicious.
The kids start out by putting together their own pizza boxes and decorating them. As you can see, Grace named hers” Grace’s Famous Pizza Restaurant!”
Then they get to decorate their pizzas, putting on as much or as little cheese, sauce, meat, and other toppings as they like. *Forgive the picture quality, Josh was snapping these on his iPhone*
Christian hung out and watched and sampled the leftover toppings.
Glizmo
Monday 25th of April 2016
We had the birthday party for 30 kids at Northbrook, Illinois location over the weekend. They had a poor service. There was no staff no site to help out. We had to clean the table by ourselves, running back and forth to get the stuffs we need. We were told that is the pizza making class. It was surprised that no chef was teaching kid how to make pizza. The kids waited for good 45 minutes for the dough that already rolled out on the piece of foil, came with small cup of cheese and sauce. We were expecting that they will have the toppings offer for kids to decorate or gave the ball of dough that kids can roll out by themselves rather than waiting for 45 minutes to get less than 5 minutes dumping sauce and cheeses. Did not have the spoon to spread the sauce. Kids started to throw tomatoes sauce everywhere and licked their own hands as using the hands to spread the sauce. When we asked for the spoon, they gave about 5 huge spoons when we have 30 kids there. Lots of kids were waiting and fought over spoons. They should have brought small plastic spoons for individual. A first hour went disaster, without my aprons and chef hats, and balloons there was nothing look like a pizza party. In fact, we were told to not bring anything. They said they will provide everything.
When stuffs are ready to bake, the one staff came in with the cart to carry pizzas back to kitchen and all messed up did not know know which pizzas belong to which kids. I had to get the marker written down the name on each. Then waited another 30 minutes for them to get pizzas to eat. Pizzas are delicious which I don't deny on that. However this is not the party pizza making class I had in my ideal. It's a ripped off and they did not know what to do or what to offer you. If I have known I would bring lots of activities for kids to do while they were waiting for good 1.5 hours for the 2 hours party. I would have brought my crew members to help me. It was huge disappointment and I do not recommend to host the party there.
Joshua Rief
Saturday 30th of April 2016
Hi, Glizmo - so sorry to hear about your experience! We've certainly never tried to host a party for 30 people at a CPK, so we cannot speak to their ability to handle such a gathering. Our experiences with CPK have always been great, and our kids had a blast with this program when they did it a couple of years ago. So sorry yours didn't work out! :(
Jocelyn
Saturday 5th of April 2014
Such a fun program! The pizza looks great, and your kids are super adorable! :)
Chels/Catz in the Kitchen
Monday 7th of April 2014
Heehee, Thanks Jocelyn! It was a blast!