“THERE’S NO BETTER FEELING IN THE WORLD THAN A WARM PIZZA BOX IN YOUR LAP.”
– Kevin James.
Don’t we all love pizza? Well, most of us in today’s world eat a pizza at least once a week. We all have picked up our favorites ranging from thin crust to cheese burst. Just standing at a pizzeria and looking at how they play with the dough before putting into the oven for baking is itself satisfying. Although the majority of pizzas are baked in electric ovens, LOH has a unique concept of baking the pizzas in a wood fire. Let us hear it directly from the founder, shall we?
The Struggles Before Opening A Food Chain
The founder of LOH Pizza, Tej Singh was born and spent most of his childhood in Sirsa, Haryana. He completed his studies till the class tenth from Sirsa itself. After that, he shifted with his parents to Chandigarh. He completed his schooling in this beautiful place. Then, he decided to move to Australia for further education. He spent four years in Australia and did three diplomas in Hospitality, Management, and Advertising. The knowledge that he gained from these courses is now successfully being applied to LOH Pizza. Unfortunately, he was deported from Australia. He spent an entire week behind the bars with a detention list.
“I could have applied for my further stay in Australia, or could have found one way or the other to stay back, but I decided not to. I did not want to let my youth go in the drain by just getting citizenship for a country.“
Tells Tej Singh.
Next, he shifted to Canada but the atmosphere did not suit him well. He aspired to open a place of his own, so he tried to make it possible in Canada but he could not make it through. Therefore, he dropped the plan and decided to move back to India, establish a brand here, and then finally do something constructive in Canada.
Why A Cosy Pizza Place?
“ Honestly, I wasn’t very good academically. Since there are two ways to survive, either by using your brain or your skill, I chose skill. „
Tej tells us.
Back in Australia, he started by doing all kinds of odd jobs like cleaning the dishes and delivering pizza. He landed in an Italian restaurant and toiled hard for two years. Soon, he was promoted from the deliveries to the kitchen.
“Initially I wasn’t a pizza lover,“
Tej says.
Through several years of working in an Italian setup, he rose from being a staff member to the kitchen to a cook. After that, he became a chef and finally, the chef’s head. During this beautiful journey filled with hardships, he fell in love with pizza and cooking. While watching the other cooks making pizza so passionately, his love for pizza sprouted. He then started to play with the dough, flour, and yeast out of fascination and landed up opening an entire chain of pizzas. He looked up the statistics of how well a pizza place can do and he was pretty impressed by the numbers.
Not only in Australia, but also he opted to work at a pizzeria in Canada. Conquering all highs and lows and making it through all the hustles and hazards of starting everything from a scratch; Tej now has three outlets of LOH Pizza and is looking forward to opening one in Canada.
All About LOH Pizza !
“It’s not L-O-H, it is pronounced as lowh,“
the owner informs.
At the very early stage, he began by importing yeast and making money to open his own. He experimented a lot. He finds himself to be very fortunate for making it through. Even after the COVID situation, when everyone felt a dip; he was lucky enough to receive calls from the customers asking about the day when he’ll reopen his place as they were missing his pizza.
Tej Singh opened his first outlet in Mohali which is a takeaway place in the year 2018. Then, he planned to open a place at his birthplace, Sirsa. He accomplished that goal in the year 2019. The Sirsa outlet is a very large and comfortable space. Since he lived in Chandigarh, he had a lot of friends in Patiala who encouraged him to start an outlet there as well. In November 2019, he did that successfully as well.
“After the lockdown, we started making healthier pizzas,“
says Tej Singh.
Since it is the need of the hour that each one of us switches to healthier options, LOH Pizza has done their part while serving us their healthy range pizzas. They have a set up where we grow green leaves which requires an optimum temperature of fewer than thirty degrees. There aren’t any pesticides or insecticides added and it is all organically grown. They naturally harvest their own bezels which are used in the making of pizzas, tea, and whatnot. They regularly monitor and maintain the levels of TDS, pH values to ensure that the bezels are perfect and organic.
Their main specialty which distinguishes them from the rest is a wood fire. They prepare their pizzas in wood fire and not in electric ovens. Also, the yeast they use in making their pizzas is natural. It just needs the basic following of the process of fermentation. Hence, they do it on their own and do not buy it from the market. Everything prepared in the kitchen is fresh. They make fresh dough, vegetables, and sauces daily which neither compromises the taste nor the quality of the food. Furthermore, they have special sauces for each type of pizza. For example, they don’t use the same sauce in a Margarita pizza and a meat pizza, they are entirely different which adds up to the flavor.
“We were the first in Patiala to introduce gluten-free pizza,“
joyfully exclaims Tej Singh.
Their gluten-free pizza has made them earn their name in the business. Due to their preparation of gluten-free pizza, they have a few celebrities like Rohanpreet Singh coming up to their place. Having huge celebrities as regular customers keep boosting their confidence to excel in their field.
Having said enough about the gluten-free pizza, they also serve whole wheat pizzas. The added advantage to their whole-wheat pizza is that they put spinach and beetroot in the mix which enhances the nutrient value of the pizza. Hence, their pizzas have all the protein, iron, zinc, and numerous other nutrients. According to the feedback received, Tej Singh tells us that they have the best thin crust pizza in Patiala.
The next specialty is their thick shakes. Their shakes do not have ice and sugar. They add cream which they manufacture in their own plant. Their in-house cream is consistent and the owner speaks very fondly of it. You know how sometimes our straws fall towards the edge of the container, that’s not the case with the thick shakes prepared by LOH Pizza. Their shakes have a decent amount of consistency which refrains the straw to fall and it thus stays intact. They also have a range of pasta for the ones who are die-hard lovers of Italian cuisine.
Tej Singh says that he is passionate and considerate towards the work that he does. To date, he cooks most of the food that is to be served himself. Adding to that, he looks forward to the challenges that are yet to come and vouches to keep adjusting according to the need of the hour and what the customers demand.
