Leeds

From golf to award-winning pizza: meet the Rothwell pizzaiolo who honed his trade on Youtube

12 years ago the Leeds dad of two ditched his golf career for pizza - and he's never looked back

Georgina Pellant - 11th May 2021

It all started with a family trip to Lake Como.

Twelve years ago, acclaimed Leeds pizza chef and dad of two Mark Baber was living a very different sort of life.

A professional jet setter, he was flying all over for his job and working behind the scenes at European Golf Tour, which is the principle golf tour on the continent.

Then he took a trip to Italy with his wife - and everything changed.

From the moment he tried his first wood-fired pizza, Mark was obsessed. Upon their return to the UK, he and his wife quickly bought a wood-fired oven of their own and he got to work trying to recreate the magic he'd so enjoyed whilst away.

Already an avid home cook, once he'd set his sights on recreating that pizza he was transfixed and spent hours researching techniques on Youtube.

Making his dough by hand in tupperware, he got his first break after visiting Malton Food Festival with his wife, Victoria. Here they were asked if they could fill a slot at the next market. With little to no experience, no dough trays and just the one portable oven sitting in their garden, they decided to go for it.

This was the moment that Wood Fire Dine was born.

Fast forward 12 years and that market stall pop-up is now an award-winning pizza restaurant located in Rothwell, South Leeds.

Mark and his wife finally made the leap in 2017, choosing to open in their local town out of a desire to help rejuvenate the area - which had been hit by a number of high street closures and was looking a tad sorry for itself.

The Commercial Street site was soon a hit, drawing in a string of fans who enthused about the restaurant's quality dough and authentic Italian ingredients, all of which are imported directly from Naples.

In just two years, Mark found himself taking home the coveted award of UK Pizza chef of the year at 2019's national PAPA awards - a dream career moment for the chef, which he celebrated by cooking his gluten and vegan pizza the 'Millennium Special' live for the event in his Leeds United shirt.

Whilst the past year has been difficult, like many fellow hospitality businesses in Leeds Wood Fire Dine has adapted to the times - tweaking his dough recipe to hold up better for takeaways and launching a DIY home kit for families to try at home with their children.

The restaurant also launched a new New York-style dough range in February. This sees the dough cold-proved, allowing the yeast to work on the sugars in the flour for a long period of time for a deeper flavour.

Still, he's looking forward to getting back to normal and plans to reopen the restaurant on Monday 17th May when indoor dining restrictions are eased as part of the government's roadmap out of Covid.

Wood Fire Dine's new reservations system is open for bookings from 12th May.