By Charlie Pogacar
When Rich Payne bought an Ooni oven in 2017, he never could’ve imagined the rabbit hole he was about to fall into.
Based in London, England, Payne launched his Instagram account, Dough and Behold, prior to the pandemic. The page was really just a way to establish the brand behind a pop-up he was running at a school fundraiser at his daughter’s holiday show. Then, he figured, if he could grow it to a thousand followers, local pubs might take him seriously if he approached them asking to host a pizza night.
So how has a pop-up-artist with modest goals accrued 100,000 followers and counting? According to Payne, he doesn’t worry too much about algorithms or metrics. Instead, he focuses on the things he actually enjoys posting about.
Related: Two Pizzaiolos Share How They Mastered the Pizza Pop-Up
“I think you need to stick to who you are,” Payne said on the latest episode of Peel: A PMQ Pizza Podcast. “If I start changing my style drastically, you’ll know that I’m either chasing some algorithm or I have another goal.”
It helps that Payne, a post-production film editor by trade, has a day job, a wife and children—all of which he loves more than any endorphins produced by a social media app. He has no plans of leaving his professional film work behind and is thus able to maintain pizza making as a fun side hustle.
Ooni was still in its infancy when Payne discovered the company. He bought one of the first ovens the Scotland-based company ever produced as a way to up his baking game around the house. He began churning out pizzas in his backyard in the Chelsea neighborhood of London and was astounded by the results.
When pandemic lockdowns arrived, Payne had built up a modest following—he estimates he had around 2,000 followers in March 2020—and had achieved his dream of hosting pizza nights at a local establishment. But when home baking exploded during the pandemic, his audience grew, and so did his opportunities.
Today, Rich creates content for brands like Ooni and Cotswold Flour, runs social media for Marta, a Roman-style pizzeria in London, and even leads pizza workshops for visiting American food tours.
Still, he treats Instagram more like a personal log than a business plan. “First and foremost, it’s a diary for me,” he said. “I love looking at pizza. I will never get tired of looking at anyone’s pizza—you know, a pizza coming out of the oven, just hot, steaming hot.”
That commitment to passion over algorithms means Rich posts when he feels inspired as opposed to when he feels like he has to. “You put pressure on yourself to make reels and go, ‘I need to post this,’ and it’s like, do you?” he said. “You don’t have to, actually.”
Managing it all—side gigs, creative work, and family life—isn’t easy, especially in a small London flat that’s “got pizza ovens pushed up against the wall.” But Payne finds ways to keep the balance, cycling to work, sharing pizzas with neighbors and focusing on the parts of pizza making that bring him joy.
To hear the full conversation with Payne, check out the relevant podcast links:
