At the Bakewell Farmer’s Market I found myself at Maxine’s Mobile Pizza having been stopped in my tracks by a Chalkboard advertising some sort of delightful food to be sampled, in this case Hand Made Wood Fired Pizza, and a mobile pizza oven from which the smell of freshly cooking pizza was drawing a small crowd.  Maxine’s Mobile Pizza can often be found at farmer’s markets, fairs, fetes and festivals across Derbyshire and beyond.

I was peckish and it was approaching lunchtime. I knew that I had to get my hands on some of this pizza quickly before the gathering hoards gobbled it all up. For a brief moment I considered doing my food hunting / shopping before eating, but then I saw the flyer saying it would be ‘ready to eat in just 3 minutes’ so I figured that I may as well pause and wait a moment to satiate my hunger (and now copious drool).

It was just a brief moment in time (or was it 3 minutes?) before my pizza was ready and passed to me. It was a lovely looking thing, rustic and simply made, piled with salty discs of pepperoni, slices of thin red onion, and bubbling cheese. I am not sure that it was quite such good form to take that photo as the plate was handed to me before reaching out to accept the plate. I only had one pair of hands though so was just a bit cheeky in my hunt.

It was a really good thin crust style of pizza, the menu board had described it as a ‘Margherita with spicy pepperoni and pesto oil’. I liked the crust it was thin and crispy and foldable almost a hybrid between the ones you get in New York which you fold and Italian pizza with that firm base. It was almost wafer like. As a snack it was a good size and had plenty of good flavour. According to the flyer the pizza flour is supplied by Caudwell’s Mill near Bakewell and the toppings are (to quote their website) ‘fresh toppings from Tomsons in Buxton or other stalls at various Farmer’s Markets I attend‘ . The wood used in the oven apparently is taken from local sustainable forests. The difference between this and an equivalent pizza from a restaurant is down to that wood oven, you really did get a smokiness in the taste and the heat of the oven gives the base a nice taste with the charring of the base.

There were some other tasty sounding options on the chalk board, all of which sold out rapidly as I stood eating and watching. On another occasion if I had a nice cold drink to hand I might have had the ‘Hot and Spicy’ pizza which was the basic Margherita spiced up with jalapenos, a “hot” piri piri sauce, and if you chose the pepperoni topping would be even more spicy. It was the black olives that stopped me going for this one this time out. I know they work with the pizza but I don’t know I have the same love for olives that I have for brussel sprouts.

The menu on Maxine’s Mobile Pizza website indicated that they offer 6 basic pizza toppings on a 12 inch pizza for £7 or a 10 inch pizza for £4. I ate the 10″ pizza and it was plenty. I like  the sound of the Fresh Beetroot and Red Onion pizza, on the day I met them they didn’t seem to have that one left so I will look at for it at next months market.

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I did like this pizza and if I see them again on my travels into Derbyshire to visit Bakewell market I will seek them out for another munch.