Muhammad Abu Bakar, formally known as Alan Goh, is the pizzaiolo behind the newly parked food truck pizzeria in Taman Megah. Every day except for Wednesdays at 4.30pm, Alan handmakes and serves a limited amount of Neapolitan pizzas from his food truck, Uno’s Pizzeria.
Before he started his food truck pizzeria, he initially operated his pizza business from his home during the pandemic.
He mentioned that the home pizza business allowed him to earn enough to get more funds to expand his business and was a good opportunity to practice his craft.
Hailing from Kuching, Sarawak, Alan used to work in sales before he jumped into the pizza industry. During a company trip when he worked with a retail company, he had the opportunity to go to London where he found his love for making pizzas.
He explained that he was inspired by the history of Neapolitan pizza which is first created by baker Raffaele Esposito, who baked and mirrored the first pizza after the colour of the Italian flag for the monarchs in Napoli.
Like the flag, the pizza has its red tomato base, its white mozzarella cheese, and green basil leaves. That is what is now known as the classic Neapolitan pizza today.
Despite the simplicity of ingredients, Alan has never gotten bored of eating Neapolitan pizzas and that sparked his inspiration to start his own pizzeria while preserving the origins and culture of the pizza.
Currently, he has five items on his menu – Marinara, Margherita, Forgmaggi, Beef Salami, and Beef/Chicken Pepperoni. The price ranges from RM26 to RM45 and customers have been loving them.
The Margherita is made from tomato, fior di latte, Grana Padano, basil, and extra virgin olive oil, and is suitable for vegetarians.
You can even enjoy the pizza next to his truck on the wooden table and chair, and Alan recommends the Margherita with freshly-grinded Sarawak black pepper that you can adjust depending on your taste.
The Formaggi, four cheese pizza, is distinctive with fior di latte, Gorgonzola, ricotta, Grana Padano, walnuts, and honey.
It hasn’t always been easy for Alan. As a person who’s never worked in the food industry, he never had the opportunity for any hot kitchen internship due to his “lack of kitchen experience”. Nevertheless, Alan never gave up cooking, which had always been his passion and side hobby.
Food is the linchpin of society and it creates a connection between people, and food has always always been a big part of Alan’s life. Alan goes to cooking classes to learn more about food whenever he can, loves grocery shopping for different and new ingredients, and loves understanding and learning about food.
As an avid watcher of culinary shows, Alan’s favourite chef is Gordon Ramsay himself. “I watch most of his cooking shows. That’s where I get most of my inspiration from. I also learn a lot about how to handle things in the kitchen too. That’s how I learn anything, everything about kitchen management and food management. I know I have much to learn and improve so I’ll never stop learning,” explained Alan.
After seeing how the Italians make their Neapolitan pizzas during his time in London, he took an Italian pizza-making masterclass to learn how to make them when he was 28. Right now, he’s 31 and Alan handles most of the daily preparation while his siblings assist him in marketing and thinking up new ways to expand the business.
Currently, he only makes up to 50 pizzas per day due to a limited amount of resources, and prioritises maintaining the quality of his pizzas.
Every morning, he wakes up at 6am to start his preparation and dough management at home before he starts serving in his food truck at 4.30pm.
Dough management is an all-inclusive term used to encompass every type of work done on the pizza dough from mixing the ingredients until it is prepped to be opened into pizza skins. Alan even stressed that he has one room in his house just for the prep, and calls it his “fermentation lab”.
According to Alan, the fermentation time and process are crucial for the yeast to break down the enzymes in the flour so that the pizza is easier on and are healthier for the stomach. His pizzas are fermented for up to 48 hours and compared to normal dough, the crust on his pizzas are crispier on the outside but light and airy on the inside. It’s the contrast between the crispy outside and the soft interior which helps to create an amazing texture experience.
Alan uses Italian 00 flour and Italian dry yeast to make his gut-friendly pizzas to break down the protein and gluten in the pizza dough. Proper fermentation also gives the pizza more depth of flavour and the special flour that they use has extra fibre in it.
Alan explains that many Malaysians might not be aware of the benefits and how nutritious pizzas can be. “Most Malaysians still consider pizza to be fast food or unhealthy, but pizza can actually be a healthy choice when prepared correctly.”
For Uno’s pizzeria, they also use good quality cheese, hand-milled tomato sauce with no sugar added, and good quality extra virgin olive oil – all of which are healthy and a good source of nutrition. Alan believes that the toppings for the pizzas should also provide equally well-balanced nutrients, just like a normal meal.
By using the correct type of flour that has been designed for Neapolitan style pizza cooking, it also gives the pizza properties like optimal water absorption and browning. In order to turn the food truck into the perfect pizzeria, Alan had to work with an engineer to customise the truck and imported some of the equipment from Italy & UK.
Currently, Uno’s Pizzeria uses two Gozney Roccbox portable pizza ovens that reach 500°C, giving them the ability to cook a Neapolitan pizza in just a minute.
According to Alan, his pizza dough must be held at a constant temperature between 21°C - 26°C for 16 to 24 hours as temperature control is the most important component of making the perfect pizza.
For Alan, a good pizza is all about preparation. “Preparation is the 90% hard work of making the pizza. We never skip steps or try to take shortcuts to fasten the process because that would reduce the quality of the ingredients. We actually spend more than 10 hours just on the preparation every day.”
As a Malaysian, food on wheels isn’t anything new to him. “We always see trucks and carts selling tau fu fah or cendol on the side of the road ever since we could remember.” Alan had always wanted to serve great-tasting and authentic Neapolitan pizza at a reasonable price so getting a food truck was a no-brainer.
Of course, in the future, Alan hopes to transition his pizzeria into a sit-down restaurant.
“Right now, anyone craving for Uno’s Pizzeria’s pizzas can only pick up or have their pizzas delivered to their homes, but I hope to expand this food truck into a mobile restaurant in the near future.”
On his Instagram page, he jokingly calls the CEO of Uno’s Pizzeria Uno, his family cat and the pizzeria was named after his beloved bossy cat.
Find Uno’s Pizzeria parked at SS24/13, Taman Megah, 47301 Petaling Jaya, Selangor and his Instagram @my_unos_pizzeria for updates.
