This article originally appeared on VICE Netherlands.When I first laid eyes on the pizza skateboard, I felt like I’d seen it before. Of course, it could have simply been something that lodged itself in my reptilian brain after briefly catching my eye on social media. But this sense of déjà vu hit me at a much more fundamental level.
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The combination of disgust and desire the image conjured up latched onto something deep inside my soul, as if I had previously dreamt about the pizza skateboard, or repressed a childhood memory about it. I wondered if this idea – so much more obscene than the ham wrapped bananas of cookbooks from the 1970s – had roamed around the subconscious of an entire generation for decades, waiting patiently for someone to finally bring it to life. That someone turned out to be artist, chef and skater Saman Khoshgbari, AKA Flourb0y. Given how much the internet loves both skateboarding and pizza, it isn’t surprising that Saman’s work has caught on in the Netherlands and beyond. His punk-inspired practice sees him transforming all manner of pizza-related items into objects which are simultaneously ready for the gallery and the skatepark.Flourb0y’s artistic process is simple, but genius – just like pizza. First, the maestro baked a long, skateboard-shaped pizza. Then, he dipped the whole thing in epoxy, an industrial resin that encased the bake in a thick, waterproof, see-through layer of the plastic-like material. A couple of screws and bam, the wheels are attached and ready to glide.
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Ahead of the opening of a pizza-heavy exhibition at Amsterdam’s Outsiderland gallery, we spoke to Flourb0y about what inspired him to combine slices and skating.VICE: Hi Saman, what’s the deal with you and pizza?
Saman Khoshgbari: My brother, my parents and I have owned a pizza restaurant in [the Dutch city of] Maastricht for almost ten years now. I was 15 when I took a side job in the hospitality industry. That’s when my brother said, “We need to make some money. I know of a business we can take over for next to nothing.” And this is how we started, without a clue of what we were doing.Did you at least know how to make pizza?
The restaurant was set to open on Monday and up until the Thursday before the opening, we didn’t know how to make dough. So we started Googling it. I’ve been skateboarding for years, and everything is trial and error. You fall, you get up. Fall, get up. We didn’t even get a dough machine until a few weeks in. And it took us two years to get the dough right.And what did your customers think?
Friends and family loved it, they thought we were crazy. We weren’t located in the best part of town, and some friends bet money on us not making it. Even though we did delivery, we didn’t have any mopeds, so we were going around on bicycles, skateboards, in my dad’s car. It wasn’t always ideal for the customer, because their pizza would arrive burned or late. We didn’t hire staff or buy mopeds until we started making a profit.
Saman Khoshgbari: My brother, my parents and I have owned a pizza restaurant in [the Dutch city of] Maastricht for almost ten years now. I was 15 when I took a side job in the hospitality industry. That’s when my brother said, “We need to make some money. I know of a business we can take over for next to nothing.” And this is how we started, without a clue of what we were doing.Did you at least know how to make pizza?
The restaurant was set to open on Monday and up until the Thursday before the opening, we didn’t know how to make dough. So we started Googling it. I’ve been skateboarding for years, and everything is trial and error. You fall, you get up. Fall, get up. We didn’t even get a dough machine until a few weeks in. And it took us two years to get the dough right.And what did your customers think?
Friends and family loved it, they thought we were crazy. We weren’t located in the best part of town, and some friends bet money on us not making it. Even though we did delivery, we didn’t have any mopeds, so we were going around on bicycles, skateboards, in my dad’s car. It wasn’t always ideal for the customer, because their pizza would arrive burned or late. We didn’t hire staff or buy mopeds until we started making a profit.
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Left: ‘Pizzaman’ by Jan Hoek. Right: Pizza vase by Maikel Baas from the Wijde Doelen collective. Photos: courtesy of the artists.
When did pizza begin to inspire you artistically?
It started during the pandemic. I’m at my pizza restaurant all day, pretty much seven days a week. When you’re doing repetitive work, like cutting up mozzarella, you’re on autopilot. My mind wandered off and landed on a pizza skateboard. I looked it up on Google and there was no other idiot in the world who had thought to make one. So I went to Salar, my older brother. He’s, let’s say, quite old school. I said, “Salar, I’m going to make a pizza skateboard.” He replied, “You’re out of your mind dude, we need to save for the business because we don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow.” I went, “No, I’m going to do it.”Our [epoxy] suppliers thought I was nuts because epoxy doesn’t stick to grease and moisture, and what’s the consistency of a pizza? Fatty and moist. After spending many hours in the small attic room above the pizza restaurant, trying a whole bunch of things, I figured it out. And when I took the skateboard for a spin around the restaurant for the first time, Salar really dug it.He wasn’t the only one, right? Your skateboard blew up on social media.
Yes, many people were into it. So I thought, “I’m going to make a website and share my process on Instagram.” Before I knew it, I started getting DM’s from the United States, India, Indonesia. I launched a webshop and I started getting orders for all kinds of things made out of pizza. But making the epoxy is a lot of work and it gives off these toxic fumes. It started to feel like factory work, just like cutting up mozzarella. So I stopped. I wanted to make much bigger things and only make each object once. Maybe a cabin, something like that. Or wrapping my brother’s car in pepperoni pizza.
It started during the pandemic. I’m at my pizza restaurant all day, pretty much seven days a week. When you’re doing repetitive work, like cutting up mozzarella, you’re on autopilot. My mind wandered off and landed on a pizza skateboard. I looked it up on Google and there was no other idiot in the world who had thought to make one. So I went to Salar, my older brother. He’s, let’s say, quite old school. I said, “Salar, I’m going to make a pizza skateboard.” He replied, “You’re out of your mind dude, we need to save for the business because we don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow.” I went, “No, I’m going to do it.”Our [epoxy] suppliers thought I was nuts because epoxy doesn’t stick to grease and moisture, and what’s the consistency of a pizza? Fatty and moist. After spending many hours in the small attic room above the pizza restaurant, trying a whole bunch of things, I figured it out. And when I took the skateboard for a spin around the restaurant for the first time, Salar really dug it.He wasn’t the only one, right? Your skateboard blew up on social media.
Yes, many people were into it. So I thought, “I’m going to make a website and share my process on Instagram.” Before I knew it, I started getting DM’s from the United States, India, Indonesia. I launched a webshop and I started getting orders for all kinds of things made out of pizza. But making the epoxy is a lot of work and it gives off these toxic fumes. It started to feel like factory work, just like cutting up mozzarella. So I stopped. I wanted to make much bigger things and only make each object once. Maybe a cabin, something like that. Or wrapping my brother’s car in pepperoni pizza.
Left: Pizza skateboard by flourb0y for Fucking Young via Jan Hoek en Duran Lantink. Right: Hot Flaming Pizza by Alain Balleur from atelier de Kaai uit Goes. Photos courtesy of the artists.
What makes pizza so special to you?
Pizza is my life. I ate it every single day for the first six years we had the shop, no lie. It’s like we’re from Italy – pizza every day. I love movies like Donnie Brasco, and really any of Martin Scorcese’s films. They have such a cool vibe. Family, closeness, warmth. That’s pizza. It makes me laugh when I look at it. If people are fighting, give them pizza and they will stop. It brings joy.And what’s your favourite pizza?
Pepperoni, it’s a classic. An American classic, not even an Italian one. I dig that. The Italians poured tomato sauce on flatbread in 18-something and called it pizza. The Greeks did the same thing [baking a flatbread with toppings], but hundreds of years prior, without tomato sauce. Same with the Turks. But pepperoni transcends borders. When you see it, you think: pizza.
Pizza is my life. I ate it every single day for the first six years we had the shop, no lie. It’s like we’re from Italy – pizza every day. I love movies like Donnie Brasco, and really any of Martin Scorcese’s films. They have such a cool vibe. Family, closeness, warmth. That’s pizza. It makes me laugh when I look at it. If people are fighting, give them pizza and they will stop. It brings joy.And what’s your favourite pizza?
Pepperoni, it’s a classic. An American classic, not even an Italian one. I dig that. The Italians poured tomato sauce on flatbread in 18-something and called it pizza. The Greeks did the same thing [baking a flatbread with toppings], but hundreds of years prior, without tomato sauce. Same with the Turks. But pepperoni transcends borders. When you see it, you think: pizza.