By Robbie Brown

At the start of the pandemic, I, like so many others, was on a quest to find the ultimate comfort food to distract myself from the looming uncertainties of the new reality we were living in. It was at this moment that I discovered a vegan pizza shop in my neighborhood, only 12 minutes from the place that I call home. It wasn’t just the foliage painted on the wall, the slices of pizza wider than my hand, or the welcoming and artistic atmosphere radiating from this place that caught my attention and reeled me in. It was also the illuminating showcase of local and vegan craft beer staring down at me. Fast forward thirty minutes, and I’m in my apartment eating a vegan margherita pizza, with each bite triggering a moment of nostalgia from my days working in front of a pizza oven.  Fast forward two years, and I find myself on a Monday morning in Pizza Flora’s kitchen with Ruth Baker, the owner of this pizza shop located in downtown San Jose. 

RB: How long have you been at Pizza Flora?

Ruth Baker: I have been the owner of Pizza Flora for three months now. Before that, I was in the kitchen for almost two full years. I started working here part time right after their soft opening. 

RB: Did you always have a goal of opening or owning a pizza shop?

Ruth Baker: Not necessarily a pizza shop, but it was always a goal to own a plant-based restaurant. I am super passionate about food and cooking and making really tasty plant-based meals. My family isn’t plant-based but they do love my cooking. I always try to make a delicious meal where you are not feeling like you are missing anything, and where you can get full. 

I [eventually] fell in love with sourdough. It was sourdough that led me on this journey. 

RB: What is Pizza Flora to you?

Ruth Baker: Most of the plant-based food [in San Jose] is Vietnamese. Which is my favorite cuisine! But we didn’t have anything like this: Pizza by the slice, so that you can come and go. Or you can stay and have a beer. Sometimes you just want to try a delicious beer with your delicious pie. 

We are a pizza shop but I’ve been wanting to feature and offer a lot more than just pizza. Hopefully in the near future we will offer a vegan brunch with breakfast beers and mimosas. Something that we don’t have here [in San Jose], it would be awesome. 

RB: You obviously have a passion for food and cooking. How did that come about?

Ruth Baker: My mom was an excellent cook and an awesome baker. She would make homemade bread often, and other stuff like that. She spent most of her day in the kitchen because we had a big family. I loved helping her. I would stand on the stool and help with the mixer, or help flip pancakes. She made everything from scratch. Her marinara sauce would simmer for a very long time… I have a lot of memories of being in the kitchen with my mom. When I became vegetarian at 19, I was like oh man, there just isn’t any good food. I then got reconnected to cooking and having fun while cooking, as well as being obsessed with fresh ingredients.

[Plant-based cooking] is definitely a creative expression. I’ll veganize stuff… like here is a super traditional Sicilian recipe but veganized, you have the idea but you need to figure out what is the best egg replacement, what is the best this or that? I try a few different things, and taste test everything. It is fun, I love that aspect of it. 

RB: I noticed you cater to all different types of audiences. You not only have vegan and vegetarian options on your menu, but gluten free options as well? 

Ruth Baker: We usually keep 4 vegetarian and 4 vegan pizzas on the menu. For the vegan pizzas we have pizzas like our Pesto Porcini and the Caprese, which is like a margherita but with a little extra flavor and more ingredients. The Caprese and Pesto Porcini are the most popular slices right now, with the Pesto Porcini being the number one selling slice these days. For vegetarian pizzas we offer pizzas like our Arrugalove and our Mushroom Forest. What we offer is based on distribution and what ingredients we have access to. All the vegetarian pizzas can be made vegan. When we feel inspired, we will add a new pizza to the menu. We do have a house made gluten free crust from rice, corn, and tapioca and all the flours used [for the non gluten free crust] is organic and sourced from Central Milling. 

If you want something besides pizza, we have vegan spaghetti and meatballs, and appetizers like salads, etc. Most of these can be made gluten free as well.

RB: Let’s talk about beer. Is all the beer at Pizza Flora Vegan? Is it from local breweries?

Ruth Baker: Yes it is now! There used to be some beers that contained lactose but I don’t order them anymore. Most of our beers are from California, such as Santa Rosa, San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose. We would like to carry more San Jose breweries. We occasionally get some from a Portland Brewery that we really like, called Fort George. 

RB: The dough in my opinion, is the foundation of any great pizza. What is the process of making pizza dough like? 

Ruth Baker: We put a lot of love into our dough. We feed our starter twice a day. It is just like a pet, she eats in the morning and evening. Every night we premix the leaven. Our dough is extra fermented, and the leaven is the base of tomorrow’s dough balls. It will ferment for 18 hours and then we add a bunch more water and flour onto it. We will finish the dough and then let it ferment for another 4 hours before we roll it into pizza balls. A lot of working with sourdough revolves around being in control of the fermentation. That happens when you can control the temperature and length of time. The fermentation process [also] eats away a lot of the harsh gluten that we can’t digest. After three days, [any remaining] dough balls cannot be used for pizza, so we find different purposes for it, such as making bread or croutons. That way, the dough doesn’t go to waste. We never throw away our dough. 

RB: I think the vegan cheese from your restaurant is some of the best that I have ever had. Do you make your cheese from scratch?

Ruth Baker: We make all of our vegan cheese here. It’s made with cashew brine, tapioca, xanthan gum, and organic sea moss. It has a lot of fiber, which is why I am so pumped on our cheese! It won’t lock you up digestively, where dairy will always lock you up. We blend everything together, bring it to a certain heat, and then we let it cool. Once it has cooled, then we cut it. 

RB: What kind of sauce do you use for your pizzas?

Ruth Baker: We have a fresh tomato sauce that uses Stanislaus tomatoes, a local family owned company. The tomatoes go from the vine to a can in 6 hours. We have a white sauce that has sweet onion and wine, and  a garlic white sauce which is like the white sauce with a bunch of roasted garlic. There is a basil sauce which we have when basil is in season, and an overnight roasted sauce that gets slow cooked all night in our pizza oven. This sauce has garlic, oregano, and fresh red pepper. It has a lot of flavor. The only pizza this sauce is on is the Vegan Veggie combo.

RB: Favorite ingredient to put on a pizza?

Ruth Baker: Basil and crushed red pepper. Keep it simple. Or load it up with all the veg. 

 RB: How is the plant-based scene in San Jose?

Ruth Baker: The plant-based scene is growing, quite a bit. We get new faces all the time. The app we use shows which customers are returning or new, and 46% of our customers are new. My heart is in vegan food, but we do offer something for everyone. When we took this place over a lot of the vegetarian options were the number one selling items. The vegan slices are now a lot more popular than the vegetarian slices.  For the first time in Pizza Flora history, the food is outselling the alcohol, which is what I wanted!

RB: What is the best way for locals and non-locals to support your work?

Ruth Baker: Follow us on Instagram @pizzaflorsj or Facebook @pizzaflorsj to stay up to date, we hope to offer vegan brunch soon. You can also come visit us, we are open Tuesday through Thursday from 11 AM – 9 PM, Friday from 11 AM – 9:30 PM, Saturday from 11 AM – 10: PM and Sunday from 12 – 8 PM. 

Robbie Brown is Acterra’s Healthy Plate, Healthy Planet Program Manager responsible for programming on food sustainability and ensuring access to healthy food. When he isn’t working on sustainable food-related initiatives, or playing in his band, he is often busy in the kitchen, developing and trying new recipes.